DATA CONFIRMS IT: DC IS THE NEW U.S. BIKE CITY TO WATCH | @PeopleforBikes

Riding in DC's protected bike lane on 15th Street.

Well, Washington DC isn't working the way it's supposed to. But one thing in the District definitely has been: its local bike transportation policy.

Census data released last month validated an idea that's been bubbling through the bike world for a couple years now: of all the major U.S. cities reinvesting in human transportation, none has been making bikes work better for its people more rapidly than the nation's capital.

Source: Census Bureau, via League of American Bicyclists.

Last year, the new estimates found, DC jumped past San Francisco and Seattle to become the nation's No. 3 city for bike commuting. Since 2007, the District has added about 9,000 net new regular bike commuters, almost as many as there are in all of Minneapolis, the No. 2 city. And all this despite having only a "Silver" rating from the League of American Biyclists' widely respected rating of cities' bike-friendliness. DC is the only major U.S. city that has sold more than 3 percent of its population on bike commuting without at least a "Gold" rating from the League.

[Keep reading at People for Bikes]