Mayor Garcetti bikes to work (photo)

Mayor Eric Garcetti's staff has posted another set of Facebook photos showing him as a regular guy. This time he's riding a bike to work in Koreatown. As a transportation niche in LA, bike commuter is one of the smallest constituencies there is, but on Facebook the symbolism works: More than 340 likes on Facebook in two hours. More on Facebook

How small a niche?: The Daily News website just today runs a City News Service story citing Bicycle Coalition stats showing bike riding is up 7.5 percent since 2011 in Los Angeles. The story includes Census Bureau stats from the 2008-2012 American Community Survey showing that riding a bike to work, nationally, is gaining converts faster than any other commuting mode. But the starting base is tiny. This is the data for Los Angeles, per CNS:

Motorized, solo commutes: 77.3 percent
Public transportation: 11.1 percent
Walk to work: 3.7 percent
Ride a bike to work: 1 percent

So there's still room to grow. Though not necessarily all that much. In Portland, considered by many the most bicycle friendly of cities, just six percent of workers commute by bike, according to the CNS interpretation of Census Bureau figures.