Americans drive to work

Graphic by Wendell Cox on  New Geography

Wendell Cox in New Geography:

...In 2007, 76.1 percent of employment access was by driving alone, a figure that rose to 76.3 percent in 2012. Between 2007 and 2012, driving alone accounted for 94 percent of the employment access increase, capturing 1.55 million out of the additional 1.60 million daily one-way trips (Figure 1). The other 50,000 new transit commutes were the final result of increases in working at home, transit and bicycles, minus losses in car pooling and other modes...Bicycling also did well, rising from a 0.5 percent share in 2007 to a 0.6 percent share in 2012. Approximately 200,000 more people commuted by bicycle by 2012. Walking retained its 2.8 percent share, with only a modest 15,000 increase over the period. The largest increase in employment access outside single occupant driving was working at home, which rose from 4.1 percent to 4.4 percent. This translated into an increase of approximately 470,000...

Rob's comment:

Putting bikes in perspective: Commuting by bicycle in the US increased from 0.5 to 0.6 in five years, which is an increase of only 0.02 a year.

Graphic by depaul Brown

Here's another reality-check on home sales and parking in the city:

It probably comes as no surprise that the vast majority of San Francisco home sales include at least one on-site parking space in the sale. It also probably comes as no surprise that 80%-90% of buyers include parking on their must-have list when home-searching...

Graphic from Parascope

Rob's comment: 

But when these homeowners drive on city streets to take their children to school, go shopping, or eat at a restaurant on the other side of town, they will do so on streets with fewer traffic lanes and parking spaces because city streets are increasingly redesigned for the 3.4% of the city population that rides bicycles.