50+ Cycling Survey

Year 5 Survey Report

The Year 5 Survey Report is now available, published by the Mineta Transportation Institute (MTI). Click on this link or the report cover thumbnail to download. The Mineta Transportation Institute is providing support for data analysis and editing of the Year 5 report.
The report offers reasons why older adults continue to cycle as they age, how they adapt to the effects of ageing, what creates a safe and comfortable cycling environment, and how cycle rates change due to changing life circumstances. MTI’s Research Brief provides a summary.

Consider these 8 take-aways from the survey:

Leveraging the Year 5 Survey: Project with Blue Zones

We are working with Blue Zones to develop materials intended to encourage older adults to continue or take up cycling. Our project team includes seven Advisory Board members, as well as four Blue Zones staff.

The project team is using results of the Year 5 50+ Cycling Survey to understand how the ageing process and life circumstances influence our inclination for cycling. Our goal is to develop an outreach campaign to address at least one key issue that prevents cycling in those over 50

The project team is:
Esther Walker Advisory Board Member
Esther Walker serves as the Executive Director of Outride, a nonprofit dedicated to empowering all people to experience the social, emotional, and cognitive benefits of bicycling.

David Levinger Advisory Board Member
David Levinger is a political anthropologist of transportation policy & planning, with expertise in creating healthy, sustainable communities, and works part-time for the Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition.

Meri Gruber Advisory Board Member
Meri Gruber is an active older adult and retired tech professional committed to getting active older adults biking again.

Dr. Angie Cradock, ScD, MPE Advisory Board Member
Dr. Angie Cradock is a Principal Research Scientist and Center Director of the Prevention Research Center on Nutrition and Physical Activity at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

Armando Zelada, MD Advisory Board Member
Dr. Z – as he’s affectionately know – is a long time cyclist and advocate for people who bike and walk in Oregon.

Katherine Kraft, Ph.D. Advisory Board Member
M. Katherine Kraft (Kate) is a nationally recognized expert on the impact of the built environment on health outcomes and the immediate past Executive Director of America Walks, where she founded the EveryBody Walk! Collaborative to cultivate local and state champions for safe, accessible, and equitable places to walk and move.

Linda Crider Advisory Board Member
Linda Crider, former University of Florida professor and Executive director of Bike Florida, who uses music to engage her audiences in her passion for trails and history of the places she loves.

Tony Hull Blue Zones
Tony Hull is a freelance Nonmotorized Transportation Consultant with over two decades of experience in planning, designing and evaluating active transportation projects.

Carol Kachadoorian dblTilde CORE
Carol Kachadoorian has a long career combining lived experiences with mobility including public transit, walking, and cycling.

Dan Burden Blue Zones
Dan Burden, with over 40 years of experience in community and transportation planning, urban design, and active transportation studies, is a renowned expert in creating livable and walkable communities.

Sarah Bowman Blue Zones
Sarah Bowman is an accomplished professional with a career spanning over two decades, characterized by her unwavering commitment to strategic program development and deployment.

Liv Assael-Benjamin Blue Zones
Liv Assael-Benjamin is an Urban Planner and project manager working across the US and UK to advance healthier, more connected, and more affordable communities.

Year 6 Survey, Spring and Summer 2026

Called the Local Promotion Program, we are adapting the survey in Year 6 to older cyclists in five cities or regions with the goal of providing information to be used locally. Each city will promote the survey locally in the Spring and Summer and will use local photos for the visual preference portion of the survey,

We will prepare a case study for each city as well as an overarching report that compares and contrasts these different cycling contexts and cultures.

The cities shown on the map are:

Rockville, MD
Fayetteville, AR
Santa Fe MPO, NM
Albuquerque MPO, MN
Palo Alto, CA

CalBike Blog Post

Thank you to CalBike for publishing a blog article on ways older adults are remaining physically active through cycling. The article draws on responses to the 50+ Cycling Survey, Years 4 and 5. Take a look at the article and share it with an older adult you know who is considering starting or giving up cycling.

Communities for All Ages

Executive Director, Carol Kachadoorian, talked with Steve Wright as part of his research for an article, Communities for All Ages, published in the National Association of Realtors’ Common Ground magazine. The article closes with Carol’s work on active mobility warning that “ “If we don’t design the right way, the person will be less inclined to be physically active,” said Kachadoorian, who leads a survey of people 50 and older that cycle. “The fundamental thing is to create infrastructure that keeps older adults physically active. The result is better mobility, independence and dignity.”