May is Bike to Work Month, and we are now rolling through Bike to Work Week. Friday is Bike to Work Day, and soon, we'll have Bike to Work Hour. Biking is heralded as a healthy, environmentally friendly form of transportation, but how many people actually bike to work? and where is it most common? Social Explorer takes a look at the biking to work data.

The Census Bureau tracks how people commute, enabling us to look at the bike to work population over the years. The following chart shows different commuting methods from 1990 to the present. In America, commuting by car continues to reign supreme.

While cyclists make up less than one percent of commuters overall, they have been growing in number. The following chart shows the number of bicycle commuters, which has especially grown since 2000. From 1990 to today, bicycle commuting increased by fifty percent. Meanwhile, car commuting decreased slightly (-0.8 percent). 

Bicycle commuting is more popular in certain regions and areas. For example, nice weather, good bike paths and campus environments tend to attract more cyclists. Explore the county-level map to see if bicycle commuting is popular in your hometown.

Because the percent of bicycle commuters is very small and hard to see on a regular map, we customized this map to make biking areas more visible. Using Jenks Natural Breaks for the legend helps make these areas standout.

For more on transportation data and our Census Explorer Commuter Edition, please visit our Commuting in America feature.