The League of American Bicyclists has recently expanded its efforts in building a Bicycle Friendly America with its Bicycle Friendly State Program. The two part program recognizes states that promote cycling through legislation, policies, programs, and by creating new places to ride, educating motorists and cyclists, and encouraging people to bike for transportation and recreation.
The first part of the program has been to create an annual ranking of all 50 states. The ranking was based on 74 questions across 6 categories, and looks at all Virginia is doing for bicycling and bicyclists. Virginia has finished 23 overall. In each of the 6 categories your state ranked:
8-tied in Legislation
19-tied in Policies & Programs
25-tied in Infrastructure
29 in Education & Encouragement
14-tied in Evaluation & Planning
34-tied in Enforcement
For a full listing of all 50 states visit bikeleague.org
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1 comment:
Sadly, Virginia's ranking is probably inflated. Our largest city, Virginia Beach, was considered a bike-friendly in 2006.
http://www.vbgov.com/vgn.aspx?vgnextoid=bd5f38c7ac1ee010VgnVCM1000006310640aRCRD&vgnextchannel=dfee54cf18ad9010VgnVCM100000870b640aRCRD
I've lived in Virginia Beach for almost 20 years, and have yet to see a bike lane that isn't on a sidewalk. Riding on a sidewalk is not only uncomfortable with little bumps, dips, and obstacles (street signs & residential driveways with parked cars) - but it's also extremely dangerous. Drivers do not expect a 20mph vehicle on a sidewalk, and therefore the cyclist has to take extra precaution to cross every driveway and intersection. At times they must come to complete stops to make sure cars are not taking right hand turns from their left sides. Instead of being treated like a vehicle with the right of way in a lane of traffic, bike lanes on sidewalks in Virginia Beach cause them to be hazardous to the safety of cyclists, pedestrians, and drivers.
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