Fremont Bridge bike counts continued to climb in 2024 leading up to return-to-office mandates
Check my math or duplicate this messy Google Doc to play around with the numbers yourself. Let us know what you find in the comments below.The number of people biking across the Fremont Bridge in 2024 clocked in at 931,637, up 3% over 2023 and the largest total measured since the COVID-19 pandemic.
2025 is shaping up to be a big test both for the downtown workplace economy as well as efforts to encourage people to commute by bike. Office vacancy remains stubbornly high, but several major employers have instituted return to office mandates for employees. Amazon's return to office policy kicked in January 2025, for example, so the 2024 numbers here will serve as something of a baseline measurement for how well Seattle does at encouraging bike commutes as part of the effort to reenergize the state's top employment center.
The numbers show that 2019 remains a behemoth year for biking in Seattle. Many years of consistent advocacy and workplace organizing efforts created a culture of bike commuting that was elevating to the next level just as the pandemic blew in and scrambled the city's travel, worksite and commute patterns. The bike counts are building back up, and 2024 has officially passed 2013 despite the struggling daily downtown job numbers, but there's still a long way to go.
2019's numbers might be a bit ambitious for 2025, but can we reach 1 million? That's right, the race to 1 million bike trips is back, baby!
The monthly breakdown shows that 2024 had a very strong late winter and early spring as well as decent showings in July, September, October and December. Looking at the monthly data suggests that 2024 would have smashed the 2023 figures if not for a middling May. May 2024 was significantly rainier than 2023, including the week of Bike Everywhere Day when the numbers can really balloon if the weather agrees due to all the new rider encouragement programs during that time. It makes sense that new or occasional bike commuters are more sensitive to weather than all you everyday riders with a full set of rain gear. Bike Everywhere Day 2024 measured half as many bike trips as 2023, for example. As a result, May 2024 bike counts were down 10% in May compared to 2023, and that prevented the annual percentage growth from being significantly higher than 3%.
We focus on the Fremont Bridge bike counter because it is the best single point we have to measure the city's biking pulse and it has the most complete and long-running dataset. You can also audit the counter in person just by watching the numbers tick away on the display on the northwest side of the bridge, which ensures we are not getting faulty readings. Several major bike routes all converge to cross this one bridge (and yes, it counts both sidewalks even though there is only a display on one side). The downsides to this counter are that we are only getting a snapshot of northend biking that is headed toward the city center. The figures are therefore highly sensitive to bike commute trips to downtown workplaces. We saw during the pandemic shutdowns, for example, that weekend biking was way up, but the commute peaks were way down. People were biking a lot since it was one of the few activities available, but they weren't necessarily crossing the Fremont Bridge since they were less likely to be headed to a downtown workplace.
While office work like Amazon tech jobs get most the news attention, the Downtown Seattle Association reports that retail jobs were down 19% in 2023 compared to 2010. There are many non-desk jobs that support a thriving downtown, and all these workers also need to commute. Major declines in retail work signifies declines in nearly every kind of downtown job. Business groups are hoping that return to office mandates also help rebuild the larger downtown economic structure, and 2025 will be a big test of that idea. For our purposes in this post, these issues are all academic because the Fremont bike counter does not care what kind of job you have. Every bike trip counts as one.
Regardless of how anyone feels about those mandates themselves, a potentially unprecedented number of people may be looking for help getting started as new bike commuters. A lot of people have moved to Seattle since the pandemic, but have never had to deal with typical rush hour commuting. As so many readers of this blog know, biking is by far the best way to get around town during heavy travel times. But biking to work for the first time can be intimidating, and programs supporting first-time bike commuters can go a long way. Workplaces will need to rebuild their bike commute encouragement programs, advocacy groups will need to expand their programs and events, and the city will need to monitor all the great bike infrastructure built since 2019 to see how it holds up under the new traffic patterns.
Stay tuned for a follow-up post looking at data from the Spokane Street Bridge.