[H+T--Friends] African American bicycle riders

The 2011 Pucher study on bicycle riding in the US and Canada supports the statistics re roughly similar levels of biking among whites and African Americans. http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/pucher/TRA960_01April2011.pdf. The study shows that for whites the % of all trips that are by bike in 2009 was 1.1, whereas for African Americans it was 1.0. (These numbers might not translate directly into the bike trips per day discussed in this chain because different racial groups may have different average number of trips per day.) One reason that there may seem to be fewer African Americans bike riders is just because African Americans are only around 12% of the population. Of course, neighborhood segregation also means that people of one race may not see much at all of people of another race. I can't find any statistics on the reason for bike trips broken down by race, but there are stats showing whites and upper income individuals are more likely to bike for recreation and lower income individuals are more likely to bike for basic transportation, so the trip purpose may also affect the numbers of people you see out and about on bikes while you are biking. For example, when I bike home from work in Oakland, I see lots more African Americans on bikes if I leave early than if I go at 5 pm work commute time. ________________________________________ Sara Zimmerman, Senior Staff Attorney National Policy & Legal Analysis Network to Prevent Childhood Obesity Public Health Law & Policy (510) 302-3303 www.phlpnet.org<http://www.phlpnet.org> The information in this message is provided for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Public Health Law and Policy and its projects do not enter into attorney-client relationships.