The City of Omaha and Metro have released a study of tracking the usage of the bike racks on buses over the last few years. What we see from the numbers is a steady trend of not only growth, but accelerating growth. Setting aside 2008 totals, we see a growth from 2009 to 2010 of 12% and from 2010 to 2011 of 52%
Yearly Usage
The really exciting news is in the monthly usage numbers. 2011 beat every month of the previous two years, often with large gaps. The resource is being used because the resources is available. The site of a bike on a bus has become normal. KETV News, here in Omaha, did an excellent story on how the bike racks on the buses offers “more connections” for Omaha cyclists.
Monthly usage since program began
While the numbers are nowhere near that of the automobile, they show an increase in choice of a particular combination of modes. This represents real improvement in mobility for the people of Omaha. If you look at the Alliance for Biking and Walking’s 2012 Benchmarking Report, you can see that Omaha is improving and ranks well with many cities of larger size and longer histories of bike/pedestrian/transit projects.