Originally published on Sound Data Stories, PSRC’s data blog, May 2015. Co-authored with Ashley McCulley.

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It’s National Bike Month, an annual celebration of active transportation — and what better way to honor it than with some bicycle commuting data! We recently completed our 2014 Regional Travel Study, and here are some interesting stats.

In the Puget Sound Region, people make about 178,000 daily trips by bicycle, averaging about 4 miles a trip. This brings the daily region total to 711,000 miles biked. About 65% of these trips are by males, with people in the 25–34 age group representing the highest proportion of bike riders.

Where are people biking?

Residents in the North Seattle–Shoreline district and the Seattle Central Business District have the highest bicycling mode share. North Seattle–Shoreline likely leads because of proximity to the University of Washington and easy access to the Burke-Gilman trail.

The regional center that generates the most bicycle trips by residents is First Hill/Capitol Hill with 6,700 daily bike trips.

Has mode share gone up? Why are people biking?

Since 1999, bike mode share has increased as a share of total trips by 44%. Much of that increase has occurred since 2006.

The largest purpose people are biking for is work (39%). Exercise (19%) is the second largest purpose and school is the third (9%). There are a wide variety of other reasons (27%) — visiting friends, going to a restaurant, or running an errand.

The survey also revealed that around 8,500 trips per day are made for biking to transit.

What else would you like to know?

National Bike to Work Month is a great way to raise awareness about bike commuting and safety, and to encourage first-time commuters — many people who participate as first-timers become regular bike commuters.

This data was derived from the 2014 PSRC Regional Travel Study. You can download the data yourself here.