My wife works as a guide for French speaking tourists here in Stockholm and keeps newspaper articles she considers valuable to her knowledge whether they depict interesting stories and anecdotes or contains statistics she could mention during a tour. As she was spring cleaning through the piles of paper on her desk she set aside a couple of clippings about cycling in Sweden and Stockholm so I would read them and stop asking her the same questions over and over.
I don’t know about you but I have a hard time remembering figures and statistics which pop up in the news every other day so I decided to put those numbers up on the blog.
Modal share
From Dagens Nyheter published on September 14th, 2012.
In 2012 the modal share for the Municipality of Stockholm (837,031 inhabitants as of June) was as follow:
- 47% – use public transportation
- 23% – drive
- 22% – walk
- 8% – ride a bicycle
It is important to point out that the number of Stockholm-dwellers using public transit and bicycling is increasing.
Bicyclists behavior
From Dagens Nyheter published in September 2012 (missing the day).
Here are the questions asked to 1,000 people (in Sweden, not only Stockholm) over the phone and their answers.
How much do you cycle today compared to 5 years ago?
- 2% – don’t know
- 38% – cycle more
- 17% – cycle less
- 43% – cycle as much as before
What makes you ride your bicycle?
- 53% – health benefits
- 43% – pure exercising
- 41% – faster to get to work
- 40% – environmental reasons
- 34% – fun and enjoyable
- 30% – expensive gas prices
- 16% – avoid traffic jam
Bicycle facilities
From the “Cykelplan” report published by the City of Stockholm in October, 2012.
There is no exact figure but Stockholm’s bike lane network is believed to be around 750 kilometers long. There are 12 bike pumps along the cycling routes. The first one was installed in 2005 on the busy Slussen interchange and is used 3,000 times each month.
As of 2012 80% of Stockholm’s inhabitants live less than 15 kilometers away from the main train station (Centralstationen) and could ride to their workplace under 30 minutes. In general cycling is the fastest transportation alternative during rush hours.
With the increasing number of cyclists there is a shortage of parking facilities and the City of Stockholm plans on making room for 500 additional bicycles each year.
Bicycle safety
From the “Cykelplan” report published by the City of Stockholm in October, 2012.
During the last 5 years 12 bicyclists died in traffic accidents with 7 of those casualties (60%) involving a motor vehicle.
Bicycle thefts
From Dagens Nyheter published in September 2012 (missing the day).
In 2012 65,700 bike thefts were reported to the police in Sweden, half of those in Stockholm. One percent of stolen bikes are recovered and given back to their rightful owners.
