Denver Bike Share Membership Almost 90% White

Denver’s bike share users are overwhelmingly white.

“Our demographic profile is nothing to be proud of , and we know that,” said Parry Burnap, executive director of Denver’s bike share program.

Speaking Thursday at the Designing Cities conference, Burnap displayed the results of a self-reported survey that found 89.9 percent of users are Caucasian, 4.7 percent are Hispanic, and 0.7 percent are African American.  According to Census statistics, 53 percent of Denver County residents are white non-Hispanic.

“We are mostly male, mostly white, mostly wealthy, mostly well educated,” she said. “Still, it’s not a surprising early adopter profile.”

Denver’s findings are consistent with bike share programs in other cities. Earlier this year, a study found that whites are overrepresented in D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare.

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