League of American Bicyclists Announces 2015 Bicycle Friendly State Ranking

Sad to see Wisconsin drop from #3 to #9…but if we’re #9 the top 5 must be cycling utopias

I don’t know how Hawaii is ranked worse than Maryland and Wisconsin. I’ve spend a lot of time in each of those states(lived in the latter two for many years). Wisconsin’s road conditions alone should put them well out of the top 35. Even many of their paved bike trails are in worse shape than many open traffic roads in the Philippines. Milwaukee bike lanes are full of potholes and there’s very rarely a buffer zone for parked cars. Maryland has very few bike lanes but where it has them, parking is typically considered. Its the drivers in Maryland that are often not so friendly. Hawaii doesn’t have tons of bike lines but generally very courteous drivers and great pavement(I’ve logged many hundreds of miles in Maui, Oahu and The Big Island)

States with a three-foot law should get an automatic failing grade.

Robert W…

Do you want a 12 foot law or no law at all?

Portland sucks because they don’t have the Idaho stop law and Idaho is 20th? I’d like the Idaho stop law but its really just a minor inconvenience to not have it. It does little for safety and I’ve had enough problems with cyclists pretending there’s an Idaho stop law(or now law) while nearly mowing me down when I ride legally at intersections.

For the record, Oregon is in the process of instituting a similar stop law. SB 533 passed through the Senate, and is going through the House this week. I believe it allows bicycles and motorcycles to proceed though a red, but only if the intersection is clear and they have waited a full cycle without being given a green. Not full Idaho stop freedom, but seems pretty fair. Especially because of all the bozos out there who run reds in traffic and give the rest of us a bad name.

Re. Hawaii: The state’s low ranking has to do with its refusal to spend anything on biking facilities. The state DOT is openly hostile towards bicycling. This is also true of Alabama. Funding is weighted heavily in these rankings.

This is cute, but because I had nothing else to do, I ran the correlations with other rankings like income, education, ‘greenness’, recycling, ‘happiness’ etc and they’re all quite weak… not sure what to say, but I am now questioning the validity of this ranking.

@VeganPotter: I have no idea what part of Hawaii you rode, but I was stationed on Oahu and it was awful. One of the worst places in the world to ride (and I’ve rode in countries that still have land mine problems). Doubly so if you’re “haole”, in which case you’re taking your own life into the balance if you ride outside the densely packed tourist areas.

I’m currently in New York, and I’m surprised it was as high as #29. There’s some great places to ride, especially in rural upstate… But at the state level New York is inept. Seriously: we have a nearby state bike route on a four lane road with a 55 mph speed limit and no cyclist facilities- not even a shoulder.

Honestly though, I’m surprised Missouri isn’t #50. Seems like they have an annual braindead anti-cyclist piece of legislation EVERY SINGLE YEAR. 2015 had a requirement for cyclists to purchase motor vehicle equivalent insurance. 2014 and 2013 brought an attempted ban on cycling infrastructure funding. There was a requirement for fluorescent riding vests in 2013 and 2012 had a ban on cyclists using roads in the state highway system. 2009 they attempted to make it a crime to cross yellow lines in order to safely pass a cyclist. And even if none of those laws passed, the police of that state still pull cyclists over for violating them … Happened to me on a cross-country tour last year.

Great! I just bought my son a bicycle to get around town and campus while he’s at college. He goes to college in Alabama (sad face)

Matthew…
I lived in Hickam AFB(even though I’m a Navy Brat) when I was a kid but frequently visit. My sister lived in Kaneohe and I visited her there and also when she moved to Kona(rode in Hilo too). She now lives in Makawao, Maui. I’d much prefer riding there than Maryland and most definitely Wisconsin. Maybe the fact that I’m a bigger Filipino and can sorta pass as local may let me slide but I’ve only had one bad altercation in Hawaii while biking and have issues with drivers nearly every day I’m in Maryland and Wisconsin. Hawaii has little biking infrastructure but I feel the way people drive should matter, as well as shoulder width, even if its not marked for bikes. I admit, I’ve been passed by drivers driving way over the speed limit in Hawaii but I’ve always been given tons of space, even if it’s occasionally crossed my mind that they may have been trying to scare me by passing quickly. Milwaukee and Madison, WI have bike lanes all over the place. I don’t want anything to do with the bike lanes or drivers in Milwaukee(Madison is much better but even their pavement is only OK)

Simon…
I’ve heard the winter excuse for Wisconsin. I’ve also ridden in the Twin Cities and know their typical winters are far worse in terms of snow and cold. Calgary doesn’t have the snow(typically) but they literally have fairly common 60degree swings in temperature over a day or two and their roads are in spectacular shape.

Yes…Madison isn’t bad but they’re the shining light of Wisconsin when it comes to road conditions and it gets progressively worse as you leave the capitol. Outside of that…the rest of the state is deplorable. I left due to neck problems from a car accident being aggravated by the roads. Now that I’m in Maryland, mostly all those issues are gone and Maryland only has OK roads compared to Utah, Oregon and even Virginia. Wisconsin does not deserve to be in the top 10 because they have plans to build bike lanes /trails that they have zero plans on keeping in useable condition.

How odd…I’ve lived in most of the places under discussion.

I agree that Madison’s roads are in iffy condition, but overall the riding here is pretty great. I’d prefer it if the city would maintain its roads as Minneapolis does, but things are so politically divided here that things like local transportation policy just, uh, fall through the cracks.

I used to have family on the big island of Hawaii and did a fair bit of riding around Kona. It was miserable! The locals sometimes buzzed riders for fun, and the tourists made things very dangerous for everyone: the Americans were jet lagged and dopey, and the Japanese were jet lagged and driving on the right-hand side of the road for the first time ever. The locals would get annoyed at the tourists doing 35 mph on King K highway, and PASS ON THE RIGHT using the generous shoulder that I and other cyclists rode on. If the locals didn’t see you as they moved right and accelerated, that was all she wrote.

Tri-geeks would ride along in ecstasy, seemingly thinking, “OMG I’m riding the ironman route!!!1” which baffled me. I mean yeah, live the dream, but there’s a 30-mph headwind, the drivers are aggressive and/or incompetent and there are only about three roads to ride on the whole island. (Up near Waimea was better, but still, there just weren’t that many places to ride a road bike).

I grew up racing in Maryland, and there are some fantastic little Pyrenees-like roads around Ellicott City. It’s in a valley, and there are about 15 different tiny roads climbing up from the valley including Ilchester, at a 25% gradient. The climbs aren’t nearly as long as those in the Pyrenees, but they’re steep and windy.

Props to Cascade Bicycle Club, and Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance. These organizations are why Washington is at the top, powerful political groups that make sure cycling interests are represented.

“Massachusetts jumped 6 spots to #4 in the ranking, thanks in part to a new transportation bond, which set aside more than $400 million over the next five years for biking and walking projects, Complete Streets projects and the continued implementation of MassDOT’s GreenDOT Initiative.”

Lifelong MA resident here: Out of that 400 million, new bike lane paint may be applied in Boston. Maybe some bike path work. But like everything in the MA, the other categories may suck up most of the funding. Read just the mass dot (not including the green streets) objectives, and tell me how much will be left for cycling. After MassDot builds themselves a new office, there will be about $18 left over.

MassDot:

The Plan centers around sixteen sustainability goals organized under seven sustainability themes illustrated below:

Goals
Air
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Improve statewide air quality
Energy
Consume less energy
Increase reliance on renewable energy
Land
Minimize energy + chemicals used in maintenance
Enhance ecological performance of MassDOT impacted land
Materials
Improve life-cycle impacts of investments
Purchase environmentally preferred products
Build green facilities for MassDOT
Policy/Planning
Design a multi-modal transportation system
Promote healthy transportation + livable communities
Triple mode share of bicycling, transit + walking
Waste
Achieve zero solid waste disposal
Reduce all exposure to hazardous waste
Water
Use less water
Improve ecological function of water systems

Vega potter, I didn’t mean to say that Ellicott City was the Pyrenees, but Rather that some parts of it have steep and windy climbs that remind me of the Pyrenees. They’re not the same, that’s for sure. (I’ve ridden in both places, FWIW).

You’re so blasé about it that I suspect you haven’t found the good climbs there yet. Either that, or you think King K highway is awesome riding, and our tastes are just different. These are things about which reasonabLe people can disagree.

Alaska is more bike friendly than 9 other states. How bad is Alabama?!