Bicycle Ownership in the United States: Empirical Analysis of Regional Differences

Bicycle ownership is an important metric in non-motorized travel behavior. Bicycle ownership has been shown to be correlated with recreational activity, propensity to travel by bicycle, and injury rates. Thus bicycle ownership may have farther reaching effects on public health, congestion, energy usage, recreation facility demand, and infrastructure investment. This paper proposes to analyze bicycle ownership on a national scale using the 2001 National Household Travel Survey. Three ordinal logit models were created which analyzed general trends in household bicycle ownership, regional effects at a micro household scale, and regional and city effects at a macro scale. This analysis showed that larger households owned more bicycles and that educated, higher income households were more likely to own bicycles. Minority households were less likely to own bicycles as well as households in rural areas. Women contributed to bicycle ownership but to a lesser degree than men. Children greatly contributed to bicycle ownership, especially between the ages of 10 and 15. Adult bicycle ownership peaked at middle age and declined rapidly beyond age 55. Divisional and city effects were also found to exist which suggest that local infrastructure investment as well as cycling culture may contribute to bicycle ownership. Further research into the behavioral causes of many of these effects is suggested.