Chicago Area Cycling Growth During Pandemic Pushes State Up Rankings

CHICAGO — After two years of significant growth, the bicycle boom that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic slowed last year, a new report found.

Transportation data firm Streetlight measured the average annual daily bicycle trips in the U.S. to compare growth and per capita cycling statistics from the top 100 metropolitan areas and the lower 48 states.

After jumping by 24 percent in 2020 and 9 percent in 2021, the number of bicycle trips stayed flat last year, according to Streetlight's "Bike Boom or Bust?" report.

"In 2022, I think, is when we would definitely begin to expect to see some of that activity start contracting — for people to go back to their typical routines, some of that biking enthusiasm to begin to tamp down, potentially," said Streetlight Director of Content Emily Adler.

"But that's not what we see," Adler said, presenting the report. "In 2022, we don't see any more growth, but it becomes a flat line."

---

The report shows the growth in cycling in the Chicago area has remained strong after the first year of the pandemic.

The Chicago-Joliet-Naperville-IL-IN-WI metropolitan statistical area ranked just 26th out of 100 for growth in bicycling trips from 2019-2020, but by last year, its ranking had risen to 16th.

Before the pandemic, the Chicago area ranked 11th in per capital bike trips. By last year, it had reached 7th, trailing only the New York area, four metro areas in California and Tucson, Arizona.

Cycling growth in Chicago — Streetlight reports it has been greater than 50 percent — has also pushed Illinois up the state rankings.

Back in 2019, the Illinois ranked 13th in per capita bicycle trips. By 2022, the state was up to 8th, trailing only New York, the District of Columbia and five states in the West Coast or Mountain West.

The report shows just a few places where cycling declined during the pandemic. One of them is Madison, Wisconsin, which began the pandemic with the 8th most bicycle trips in the nation and ended 2022 as 25th — last year the college town ranked 98th out of 100 metro areas for growth in cycling.

Portland, Oregon, another region with a well-established cycling culture, was the biggest metro area to lose bicycling activity since 2019.

According to the authors of the Streetlight report, the flattening of growth in cycling last year is "a warning that continued investment in safety-focused active transportation infrastructure — especially to support community connectivity, in addition to recreational access — will be critical to re-animating growth."