Cars Still Dominate the American Commute

June 3 marks World Bicycle Day, an official UN observance celebrated to draw attention to the benefits of using a bike, a healthy, affordable and environmentally friendly way of getting from A to B. On this day, people are encouraged to leave their cars behind and hop on their bikes for their daily commute to work. After all, cycling to work is still relatively rare in the United States, despite the many benefits it offers in terms of personal health, reduced traffic and emissions savings.

According to Statista Consumer Insights, 72 percent of American commuters use their own car to move between home and work, making it by far the most popular mode of transportation. Meanwhile, only 14 percent of the 7,447 respondents use public transportation while just 9 percent ride their bike. As our chart shows, alternatives to the car have become more popular since 2019, but none comes close to challenging the car's status as the king of the American commute.

There are several factors contributing to the low adoption of bicycles as a means of everyday transportation: for one, Americans are used to commuting longer distances than people in most European nations, automatically ruling out the bike for many. And secondly, many major cities in the U.S. aren’t exactly bike-friendly. According to a recent study, just two American cities made it into the 50 most bicycle-friendly cities in the world, when taking into account factors such as bicycle infrastructure, safety and usage as well as things as mundane as the weather.