Bike commute rates rise in northern Alameda County, underscoring a growing demand for a complete network of bikeways
Bike commute rates have risen above the 10% threshold in much of Berkeley, which means that 1 in 10 people in many neighborhoods regularly commutes by bike. Kudos to 94703, 94705 and 94709-north campus and central Berkeley, for leading the way. Overall, the bike commute rates in Albany, Emeryville, most of Oakland and all of Berkeley are rising quickly, and collectively have a bike commute rate of over 4%, 2nd best in the nation for a major metropolitan area.*
While the following maps show 5-year averages for zip codes, the latest 1-year data from 2011 for cities shows Berkeley’s bike commute rate as a whole is above 10%, essentially tied for 2nd best in the country. Many of our members are living in an area where lots people are biking and even more would bike if we had a complete network of safe and comfortable bikeways, which is where we can use your help.
Our Oakland Bikeways Campaign is pushing the City of Oakland to design much-improved bikeways on Telegraph Ave, 14th St downtown and Park Blvd connecting Oakland neighborhoods with downtown. The maps shown here highlight why new bikeways on these streets are needed and will be quite popular.
Similarly in Albany, we are working with the Albany Stollers & Rollers to complete the Buchanan St Bikeway to the Bay Trail as well as improve bike connections to and along San Pablo Avenue. With a bike commute share above 5%, the neighborhoods around San Pablo Avenue need to be safe for riding.
We have two key bikeway projects in Berkeley that need support now: bike signal at Hillegass and Tunnel Rd bike lanes. In addition, Berkeley will be updating its Bicycle Plan to significantly improve bikeway designs for completing the bicycle boulevard network and to look at connections from the boulevards to key destinations, such as UC Berkeley and popular business districts. Once complete, Berkeley’s Bicycle Plan should be ‘world-class’ possibly enabling the city to become the most bike-friendly city in the United States.
Here are the bike commute rates in North Alameda County 
Here are all commute rates in North Alameda County 
*Quick disclaimer: this data does not include the more common ‘non-commute’ bike trips, such as shopping trips, and also does not capture how people commute to transit. Thus, people who regularly bike to BART, for example, are only counted as ‘transit’ trips. Consequently, the percentage of trips by bike is higher than shown in this data.