Growing up, I used to go everywhere on my bike. I’d get on my bike and just go. I actually got in trouble, because I had a lot of friends in the next town over, which was 30 miles away, and me and my buddy biked there a couple of times. My parents found out — and it was bad news for young Shailen. But generally, I have very care-free, happy memories biking around everywhere with my friends.

Biking makes sense on a number of levels to me. I see the economic benefits, for one. Just the other day, my in-laws were in town and my wife asked me to pick up an extra gallon of milk. And I started thinking how, we, as a family, go through a gallon or two of milk per week — and there are some people who are going through 100 gallons of gasoline per week. That’s a lot!

I bike to work occasionally and, a couple times a week my wife bikes to work, too, but our built environment is not conductive to that. There are a lot of people out there and there’s a wide range on the scale of comfort when it comes to biking. There are people out there in spandex with that road warrior mentality, but they’re a very small minority. For a lot of people, it’s not intuitive. We’re not saying everybody needs to get on a bike, but, from an economic perspective, from the environmental side, we need to give people who want that opportunity the safest shot possible to adopt this lifestyle.

The impetus [for the state's leadership on bike/ped issues] came from the Governor [Jack Markell] — this is something important to him. Early on, I had some meetings with him about ‘What will be the legacy at the end of the first term?’ I think it’s important when you’re in public office that you have a sense of urgency. From a legacy perspective, what can we get done? One thing that’s a challenge in transportation is we talk about a lot of things. There’s a lot of planning, thinking, visioning — but what can we get done now? What we wanted to do was come up with a plan where we could see things going to construction very quickly… And the demographic, geography and economics of the situation make Delaware a perfect state for this. We’re small enough to get things done quickly, but we also have a diverse population and everything you’d find in any state.

My wife and I do a lot of biking events. When we got engaged a couple years ago in D.C., we bought matching bikes… Here in Delaware, we decided to do the Amish Country Bike Tour, which is five, 15, 25 or 50 miles. We were going back and forth on the 15 or 25 and I thought, I’m the new Secretary of Transportation, I gotta do the 25. Well, it was a lot more than either of us was up for that day. But the best part was, halfway through, they give you Amish baked pie. So, here we were, in middle of bike ride, scarfing down pieces of apple pie. That’s definitely been the highlight of being Secretary thus far.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

Click on the map above to explore the state ranking

“We are encouraged to see significant progress in top states like Washington, Minnesota, Colorado and Massachusetts,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “But, as the scores clearly highlight, there’s much work to be done in critical areas like infrastructure and funding. Overall, we see states — and especially state Departments of Transportation and state legislatures — lagging behind cities and the expectations of local cyclists, despite the many well-documented benefits of a more active lifestyle.”

The 2012 rankings mark the launch of an updated and improved evaluation process. Throughout 2011, the League held Bicycle Friendly America listening sessions across the country to understand the successes and shortcomings of the program.  Based on public input, the Bicycle Friendly State survey was revised to give a clearer picture of a state’s accomplishments and next steps towards becoming more bike-friendly.

Click here (or the image below) to see the rankings and how each state scored in the five evaluation categories.

Even with the revised survey, Washington once again set a high bar in 2012. With support from the highest levels of government, the state leads the nation in creating new bicycle infrastructure and using federal funds for bicycle and pedestrian projects. In 2011, the state passed a safe passing / vulnerable user law, due in no small part to the efforts of the Cascade Bicycle Club and Bicycle Alliance of Washington, which have some of the highest advocacy capacity in the country.

“People in the Pacific Northwest embrace bicycling as part of a lifestyle that honors the environment, healthier living and transportation choices,” said Washington Governor Christine Gregoire. “This title once again confirms that we’re on the right track, supporting bicycling as a transportation option in our communities.”

Also on the right track, Colorado and Delaware rose to #4 and #10 respectively in the 2012 rankings. Colorado exemplifies many of the qualities the League looks for in a bicycle friendly state, including a bicycle commuter mode share that’s more than double the national average, a bike-friendly department of transportation, and a top-notch statewide advocacy group.

Delaware also jumped to #10 thanks to visionary support from top government officials. With dedicated state funding for bicycling projects, Governor Jack Markell and the state departments of Transportation (DelDOT) and Natural Resources and Environmental Control (DNREC) are leading the way to create a multi-modal transportation system. And the partnership between state leaders and Bike Delaware, the statewide advocacy group, is a model for other states seeking to become more bike-friendly.

“We welcome our rise in the ranking as recognition of what we are doing to make walkable, bikeable communities a priority in Delaware,” said Governor Jack Markell, who is himself an avid cyclist. ”Trails and bike routes are a part of a vision for a state with interconnected communities. We will continue working to make Delaware an attractive place not only to bike, but to live and work.”

But the BFS program is more than an annual assessment. Throughout the year, League staff work actively with state officials and advocacy leaders to help states identify and implement the programs, policies and campaigns that will improve conditions for bicyclists. While Mississippi placed #38 in this year’s rankings, Melody Moody, executive director of Bike Walk Mississippi, is confident her state won’t be in the bottom tier for long.

“Mississippi is a state typically ranked low in bicycle friendliness, but bicycle advocates across the state are working hard to make these changes, and fast,” Moody said. “Bike Walk Mississippi is working one-on-one with local communities to provide on the ground assistance to connect leaders to tools and resources that can be used to create better and safer infrastructure, policies, plans, and programs.”

Learn more about the BFS program at www.bikeleague.org/states and stay tuned to the blog for more analysis in coming days.

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Szczepanski joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

First, it serves as a memorial for fallen cyclists. Every bicyclist matters and we want to honor the memory of those who have lost their lives bicycling, while also providing a place for grieving friends and family to pay tribute in the comments, if they wish.

Second, we recognize that we all have a lot to learn about the circumstances of fatal crashes. To improve safety on our roads, we need to better understand what leads to fatal crashes and other bicyclist deaths (they’re not all crashes).

Third, we want to try to improve the response to, coverage of, and follow-up to every one of these fatal crashes. We believe that if we can hold a spotlight to the police, justice system, and media response to these incidents, we may be able to improve the quality of such responses over time.

This month, we sent out an appeal to League members describing Every Bicyclist Counts and asking for support for this important memorial, data-gathering, and awareness-raising tool. We immediately heard from members who were appreciative of the project – and eager to find out more about what we’ve learned so far.

In recognition of the interest in new data on bicycling fatalities, we decided to share some of what we know up to this point. However, please treat these data as highly preliminary. Imagine a big “Draft – Data not final” watermark on the page behind all that follows.

Why Every Bicyclist Counts

Every death of a cyclist is a personal tragedy for the family and for the entire community of bicyclists. We want to honor that with this project. We also see a gaping hole in the data currently collected about bicyclist fatalities. Only the most basic information on fatal crashes (time of day, intersection/non-intersection, gender, age, etc.) is gathered by the federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and there is a long wait before the data is publicly available. We gather that information here too, using the same categories when possible for consistency. But by delving more deeply and gathering specific details on bicyclist fatalities, we are able to add more richness to the data. We also report on fatalities that take place off of roads and those that do not involve motor vehicles.

Methodology

We gather information on fatalities as we learn about them through web-alerts and notifications from the public (primarily cyclists and family members; email Elizabeth[at]bikeleague.org). It appears that we are collecting a majority of – but not all – fatalities. We hope that as word of the project spreads, we will capture more and more of the 600+ annual fatalities and fill in more details about the circumstances. We rely first on public documents – newspaper reports and obituaries, blogs, police reports – and supplement that with first hand reports. We plan to compile and analyze the data annually.

To date, we have recorded 148 fatalities. We gathered information on four early crashes to work out the kinks before starting in earnest in February 2011. The remaining 144 fatalities reported below took place between February 2011 and May 16, 2012. We do not catch every fatality (we will back-fill as we find out about more), but our data appears consistent with FARS records from past years. Our high crash times of day line up with the times reported in FARS. The proportion of male and female fatalities is also consistent (FARS 2010 reports 87% male, our data set reports 88% male).

Limitations: Despite the enormous value and new analysis we believe this project will bring to the bicycling community, we recognize that there are (at least) several limitations.

• No coverage of injuries and near-misses. As it is, we have taken on the significant task of trying to track down what amounts to nearly two crashes per day. It would be nearly impossible to do the same for the tens of thousands of non-fatal crashes.
• No exposure data. Without knowing how many people are riding under difference conditions, it’s impossible to know the relative risk of different circumstances. This problem haunts other bicycle risk analysis as well.
• Not scientific. It is not a census of all fatal crashes (though we are trying to make it as comprehensive as possible), nor is it a random sample. We report only the ones we find out about. In addition, it requires a person enter the information and make determinations about which categories best apply. (Links to all sources are available on EveryBicyclistCounts.org.)
• Dependence on public sources. Every Bicyclist Counts still depends, to some extent, on police reporting and media accounts. These are often flawed, incomplete, or biased. We believe that additional information from cyclists and families can help improve our data. The project may, in the long run, help improve the quality of future reporting.

Nonetheless, we felt we had to start somewhere. We hope that through this project we will add to our understanding of the causes and circumstances fatal crashes and, ideally, improve institutional reporting practices.

Preliminary findings

Please consider these findings as the first step to learning more about fatal crashes. We have much more to learn through this project. The proportions will be slightly different in our Every Bicyclist Counts annual reports, since they will be derived from different data sets. As described above, this preliminary dataset is cumulative, starting primarily late-2011.

Collision type

We were able to determine the nature of the crash (eg. right hook, rear end) in 125 of the 148 fatalities.  We were surprised to learn that more than a third (35%) of cyclists killed were hit from behind. This is a considerably higher share than we had previously thought. Additionally, one cyclist was killed after rear-ending an automobile.

The next largest category is the generic “failure to yield” – 18% by drivers, 10% by bicyclists. This category was borrowed from FARS. Going forward, we are going to further break down this category to understand the nature of the failure to yield. This is an area of rich potential to add to our understanding of fatal crashes.

There were an equal number of fatal head-on collisions as right hooks, 11 fatalities/9 percent in each case. This will be one to watch as our dataset expands. Sideswipes and T-hits accounted for 6 percent each.

There were other deaths that would not be captured in the federal FARS database of traffic fatalities. For example, one cyclist died of dehydration on a trail, another died after striking a bollard on a trail. Sad occurrences like these reinforce the need for proper preparation and caution on all rides.

Collision location

The FARS database tells us only if bicycling fatalities occur at an intersection (~40% in 2010) or not at an intersection (~60% in 2010). We wanted to know more.

Half of the recorded fatalities occurred on the road at a non-intersection location. An additional 16 percent occurred on a roadway shoulder. Nearly 20 percent took place at an intersection; one more was recorded as occurring at a driveway; two happened in crosswalks. (Not included here are two people who were killed walking their bikes.)

Twelve of the fatalities in the dataset occurred in bike lanes (or intersections where the cyclist had been in a bike lane). Fatal crashes also occurred on trails and sidewalks, and took place at a railroad crossing.

Other trends

Among the 81 fatal crashes where an additional factor was reported for the driver, 37 (46%) were operating in a careless or inattentive manner, 20 (25%) committed hit-and-runs, 11 (14%) involved alcohol and/or drugs. Other factors were “sun in eyes” (4), distracted (3), drowsy (2), and red-light running (1).

Among the 29 fatalities with cyclist-related factors, 8 (35%) involved wrong-way riding, with one more reported as wrong-way sidewalk riding, and one more same-direction sidewalk riding. The remaining factors were one-offs in the current data set, including an instance of alcohol/drugs, a fall, a lack of lights or reflective gear, weaving in the road, holding the back of a pick-up truck, striking a bollard, and a fatal dehydration.

Several factors correspond with the highest rates of cycling:

• The highest concentration of fatal crashes (43%) occurred between 3:00pm and 9:00pm
• The majority (88%) of those killed were male
• Large proportions occurred in California (24%) and Florida (18%) – note that winter months are over represented in this data set which began in earnest in February 2011
• The average age was 42; the median age was 45

The vast majority of the sources (104 of 148) did not report on the presence of a helmet.

As our data set expands, we some of these data will likely smooth out.

Take-aways

Discussions of data can seem cold. This project is driven by a desire to understand and prevent future bicyclist fatalities through education and street design. Behind every number there is a life. Just as every bicyclist counts, every death needs to be counted. If this resonates with you, we invite you to support this project with a donation.

Keep riding and be safe out there.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Analyst

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

Our community culture has embraced cycling for some time. I can only speak to my time spent here in Gunnison, although we do have a picture in our council chambers with one on Gunnison’s founders, Alonzo Hartman, by his bicycle in 1882.

I moved to Gunnison in 1981, 100 years after Alonzo. My brother attended Western State College and after graduating began working for the school district here. I ended up relocating to the area and when I arrived he told me I needed three things: shades (it’s sunny), some telemark skis for those long winters, and a mountain bike.

After I settled here, he took me on a day ride over West Maroon Pass to Aspen and back. Although that almost killed me, I immediately went down to the Tune-Up Ski and Bike Shop to buy my first mountain bike. The owner, Chris Haas, talked me into a sweet little Univega number. Since I was all but broke, he let me take that bike, ride it all summer and make payments until we were square. Where else would that happen other than a truly bicycle-friendly kind of place?

Our community has cycling embedded in its soul. As you pass through the community there are bikes leaning against porches, parked in racks, resting by sign poles and ambling here and there with a lucky rider mounting the saddle. The townie scene ranges from utilitarian to outright ostentatious. Children converge on the schools each day in packs and you have to navigate a maze of bikes to get a cup at the local cafes.

The Red Zinger Classic bike race had been successful in Colorado and our local bike shop entrepreneurs brought some of the professional riders to our town for training. The Coors Classic followed the Red Zinger and, with it, our local sports enthusiasts hosted some stages. A citizen criterion also brought some cycling excitement to our downtown. The mountain bike scene grew up right outside our doors and we offered training to Olympians. Alexi Grewal, Connie Carpenter, and Rebecca Twig tuned up their ride for the 1984 games on our county roads. Davis Phinney was a regular at these events.

It wasn’t just the pros that were enjoying our venue, though. The town has had year round biking long before I arrived. It’s how folks get around here. There are many commuters enjoying the brisk mountain air each morning, and each weekend there are road and mountain bikes winding their way through the network of trails and scenic roadways. I guess it just seemed natural that we ARE a bicycle-friendly kind of place — so naturally we’d apply for Bicycle Friendly Community status.

Our city staff has picked up the ball and carried it to the goal line. The planning for trails and bike lanes, the events that bring the community together, the educational material, enforcement strategies, and actual building of infrastructure along with the BFC application were handled by city staff. Since we are a small community with a smaller budget we do not have a dedicated bicycle program director. I felt it was important, so I personally volunteered to help organize the effort.

Thus far, I’ve been learning by trial and error. We hope to improve our ranking with each application. I would love to see us roll out a solid school program that gets our youth educated to the benefits and proper use of bicycles. It only makes sense to give the young folks the right information up front so they can enjoy many years spinning their wheels.

The best experience I have ever had is when I was in Kenya, and my friends and I went cycling in the woods. As we were still riding, a monkey jumped on my back. It was so exciting that he made me lose my way home. I had never been that close to the monkeys; it was then that I learned they are very friendly animals.

In Kenya, at one point, I used to actively train and race every other Saturday with my friends. I still train, but only for physical fitness. Cycling provides physical relaxation, too, despite the intensity of exertion. I always feel refreshed, relaxed and motivated after a good ride.

When I first came to the United States and had my physical done, the doctor noted that I had high cholesterol. Without any medication, riding a bicycle has helped lower cholesterol in my body. It acted as a mood enhancer, as well, providing me with physical and mental benefits.

Now, when I have time to ride my bicycle, I do it. Riding a bike to go to work, school, and shopping can be faster than riding the train or buses. I get straight where I want to be because it’s accessible and it’s cut my cost for bus fare a lot. On a bike, a person is able to bypass heavy traffic jams, eliminate the time it takes to find a parking spot, and arrive wherever I am going refreshed.

As a bike rider, I find myself multitasking by getting from different places and getting some exercise in at the same time.

I cycled back in Kenya but not on major roads, because drivers in Kenya don’t agree that cyclists have the right to the road. Now I can ride my bicycle anywhere, provided I am in a safe position to do it. I am learning how to ride in traffic; I try to ride as safe as I can. I am now eagerly looking forward to the day when I will know how to ride even on major busy streets.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

I started riding a bike when I was a kid because it was fun: pure and simple.

Now it’s still fun, but it’s also so much more.

In high school and college I found it the fastest, cheapest, and most enjoyable way to get around town. After college, when I moved to San Jose (which is a huge sprawling city in Silicon Valley), I wanted to ride to work but found it a little intimidating. I was lucky — I had a colleague at work who helped set me up with a good road bike complete with a rack and also advised me on what panniers to buy, and what gear I would need. For years I rode my bike to work, often taking my bike on the train for part of the 10-mile route.

Over time, I began to notice that each time I chose to drive my car for some reason–maybe I thought I had too much to carry, maybe the weather was wet–it made me grumpy. Really grumpy.

Thus I learned the great secret that bike commuters keep: sitting in traffic in a car is really annoying, and flying by stopped traffic on your bicycle is really invigorating.

When I took the Executive Director position with Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, I was plunged head first into the world of bicycling. In Silicon Valley, where “bicycling is the new golf,” I quickly found myself in circles where our fundraising asks were best made while in the saddle. While I’d ridden some casual recreational rides before then, at that point I started doing more frequent hill climbs and longer rides.

Thus I learned the great secret that recreational riders and racers keep: rides on which you burn over 1000 calories are a great way to stay in shape while not having to pass up your favorite foods.

Finally, I started traveling around with my bicycle. I’ve now ridden my folding travel bike in France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. This summer I’m going to hit England and Ireland. What an amazing way to see a country, and a culture. In Italy, a town elder in Sicily invited us into his home and shared some brandy with us while telling us all about his life. That sort of thing doesn’t happen very often when traveling by motor vehicle; traveling by bicycle is an entirely different way to see the world.

Thus I learned the great secret that bicycle travelers know: bike travel is the single best way to really see a foreign land and dive into its culture.

My typical week these days includes two or three recreational rides along with a bunch of commute trips. Our organization serves a very large area, so sometimes I drive when that is the most convenient option–but I much prefer it when I can ride. When riding a bike becomes the most convenient option for the majority of the trips taken in Silicon Valley, and all riders are given respect on the roadways, then I’ll be able to retire.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

I think every cyclist has that moment in their life when they are riding, feeling great and a little voice inside asks, “What if you just kept going?” For Laura and I, that voice got louder and louder until we couldn’t ignore it anymore, and we decided to embark on an open-ended bicycle tour.

In short order, we sold everything we owned and loaded our bikes and set off across the country. We ended up traveling continuously for 15 months in the U.S. — and have been living as nomads for the last three years.

As we traveled, we always looked at things through a bike advocate’s lens. We would meet and do presentations with local bike groups and talk about the growing nationwide bicycle movement (especially bicycle travel). When we first started PathLessPedaled.com, it was meant to document our personal experience,s but over the years it has changed to advocate and inspire others to travel by bike.

Our goal has been less about our own personal feats and exploits as it is about democratizing bicycle travel and making it accessible. Too often it is seen as the sport of young, adventurous, college-aged young men with stubble who sleep under bridges. We want to change that image and show that bike travel can just be another travel choice.

We’ve also recently been more interested in how bicycle tourism can revitalize rural communities. We traveled to New Zealand and rode the Otago Central Rail Trail and saw first-hand how a simple gravel rail trail conversion brought back a string of dying communities. We want to share that vision to others in the U.S. and work with communities to attract and promote bicycle travel.

We’ve already seen some people that get it in the U.S. Oregon is rolling out a series of Scenic Bikeways that go through some stunning rural areas, and we hope to ride those this summer and document, not only the riding, but the communities around the bikeways.

The last three years have been a strange journey where we’ve switched hats from being tourists to advocates of bike travel. I don’t think three years ago — when we listened to that voice that told us to keep going — we would have imagined doing what we’re doing now, but that’s just one of the joys of pedaling and wondering what’s around the next bend.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

As of this glorious Bike to Work Day morning, we stand at 1.5 million miles logged, and over 36 million calories burned. One and half million miles is 3 round trips from the earth to the moon. But what does 36 million calories get you?

• 52,990 milkshakes
• 21,420 gallons of New Belgium Brewing’s Fat Tire ale, which can be conveniently hauled home in 1,392 kegs. I hope you brought your trailer.
• 182,818 donuts, which, stacked up, would become the highest point in the United States towering over Mount McKinley by 2,500 feet.

By our official calculations, Challenge riders have saved more than $358,000 in the three weeks of riding (this calculation includes only transport trips.) Once all the donuts are paid for, we’ll still have $267,000 left over. In somewhat more official calculations, U.S. bicyclists save $4.6 billion per year by riding instead of driving. That according to new data released today by the League of American Bicyclists, Sierra Club, and National Council of La Raza (NCLR).

I don’t mention New Belgium lightly — they’re one of two new prize sponsors, adding a bike, a case of beer, and a pair of socks to our prize list. We’ve also added prizes from the Better World Club, who will give 10 lucky winners Bicycle Roadside Assistance memberships. Look for an updated prize list on the Challenge site next week.

Looking at the leaderboards, not much has changed at the top since last week. While he hasn’t made the turn at Tranquility Base yet, Leonard Wright is still leading the personal challenge by a fair piece, and he’s the only rider so far to have attained platinum. There are more than 2,500 riders in easy striking distance of gold (500 points) by month’s end, making them eligible for the richest pot of monthly prizes.

Vermont is still leading the state challenge, but Wisconsin dominates the top 10 in the community (Madison at #1, and 5 more besides) and workplace (Trek at #1, Kimberly-Clark at #2, plus 3 more) categories. Trek Varsity leads the team competition. Scrolling down the state list a bit, Maryland, my Maryland, is struggling to stay in the top 20, and trailing Virgina by 2 spots.

The more interesting competition is in the comments, where it seems that each rider’s story is more inspiring than the last — people back on bikes for the first time in years, riding trips they would have taken by car, losing weight, and loving life. Fortunately, that’s a category where everyone wins.

Get up and ride, and get your friends involved — we still have a lot of recruiting to do if we’re to reach our goal of 50,000 riders.

Scott Williams
League Director of Membership

Williams joined the League in April 2010. For the four years prior, he worked providing technology consulting and solutions to nonprofit organizations with Community IT Innovators.

Four years ago, Long Beach put the audacious statement “Long Beach the most bike friendly city in the US” on the wall of our City Hall. We knew that wasn’t true at the time — but it gave us a something to strive for. And we knew that we needed milestones to measure our progress along the way.

In 2009, we were given Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community status from the League and we immediately set our sights on becoming Silver, then Gold and eventually Platinum. We knew that this recognition would be important to our civic and business leaders. We also knew that the measures and metrics that are set out in the League’s application were important measures for us. They helped us identify key things that where important to accomplish. All of this led us to apply for — and achieve — Silver status as soon as we thought we were ready, and will lead us to apply for Gold in the not-too-distant future.

Long Beach’s goal is to become the most bike friendly city in the U.S. and all that this title entails. We know that this is very bold goal. We know that other cities in the U.S. are sprinting to get ahead because they see, just as we do, the value in being bike friendly. But by setting this goal we have been able to enlist our civic and business leaders in the cause. We have been able to articulate to them what it takes to be truly bike friendly and, more importantly, what it takes for them to make our city bike friendly.

The city’s bike culture has and continues to change quickly. We used to be a city where riding a bike was something a few people did, but it wasn’t the norm. It was something that was accepted, but not necessarily encouraged. It was something that collage kids did to get to school and a few Lycra-clad folks did for fitness.

We had a few bike lanes along with beach and river paths that were mainly for recreation. But as a result of our efforts, over the past 24 months, more than 20 new bike-related businesses have opened in Long Beach. We have added over 170 bike friendly businesses to our Bike Saturday program. We have created four bike friendly business districts. And most importantly we are seeing more and more people on their bikes, riding for fun, to get to school, to get to work and to run errands.

On some streets, where we have put in new bike infrastructure, we have doubled the number of kids walking and tripled the number of kids riding bikes to school. We are seeing people move to Long Beach because of our biking and our active living culture. We are seeing conventions, such as Pro Walk Pro Bike, select Long Beach because of what we are doing.

Anytime there is change there are challenges. We have put streets on road diets. We have added separated bike lanes, removed vehicle travel lanes, added sharrows, and put in bike traffic signals. All of these are very noticeable changes that get people’s attention. For most people, these have been positive changes. Of course, not everyone has that view. But overall we’ve found that, if you’re willing to experiment and give things a try, people will find that Armageddon — or in the case of Southern California, Carmageddon — has not set in. Listening and adjusting your plans will take you a long way toward meeting your overall goals of becoming bike friendly.

Bicycling is making a big difference in our community. It is making Long Beach feel more friendly and more attractive to residents, businesses, and visitors. It is helping Long Beach become the type of city where the 20- and 30-somethings want to live; where people are eager to raise their families; and where baby boomers like to live car-light. We are not trying to say “Don’t use a car.” We are saying, “We want you to have options.” We want it to be safe and easy for you and your kids to walk and bike. We want it to be easy to go to the grocery store, the restaurant or the local merchants.

We have so many things on the horizon. We have several bike boulevard projects lined up over the next 18 months. These will greatly enhance our Safe Routes to Schools program and encourage more children to bike and walk to school. We have a two-year grant for safety education in the schools. We are launching a new website and doing more on the social media side to reach out to the community. But the most notable will be bike share. We are anticipating launching a city wide bike share program in January of 2013. We think that this will have an enormous impact on the day to day use of bikes in Long Beach.

From an advocacy perspective we are very excited about the Long Beach-based Women On Bikes SoCal program. Working closely with our cadre of Long Beach-based League Cycling Instructors (LCIs) the goal is to double the number of women and girls riding bikes in the next five years. We also see working closely with our Public Health, and Park and Recreation departments. We know that childhood obesity is a major problem in our city and we’re confident that by working with these departments and our schools, by providing safe places for kids to ride combined with our education programs, we can make a difference in our children’s future.

Click here to learn more about the Bicycle Friendly Community program.

The fact sheet release coincides with National Bike to Work Day, as more than 1 million U.S. residents are expected to participate in hundreds of events across the country, showcasing bicycles as a healthy, affordable and efficient form of transportation.

New and key data highlighted in the fact sheet includes:

• Bicyclists in the U.S. save $4.6 billion per year by riding, instead of driving

• If American drivers replaced just one four-mile car trip with a bike each week for the whole year, it would save more than 2 billion gallons of gas.

• From 2001 to 2009, Hispanics, African Americans, and Asian Americans took up biking at faster rates than other Americans, representing 21 percent of all bike trips in the U.S. in 2009.

“There are so many reasons more people are riding, from improving their health to protecting the environment,” said League President Andy Clarke. “But, especially in tough economic times, bicycling can also be an economic catalyst, keeping billions of dollars in the pockets of American families.”

“Biking is an important piece of a 21st century transportation system,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. “Biking reduces America’s dependence on oil and lets individuals bypass the gas pump, saving individuals money and protecting our health and environment from dirty oil pollution.”

“Bicycling is a crucial mode of commuting for many Latinos,” said Catherine Singley, Senior Policy Analyst at NCLR. “Federal transportation policy should ensure that biking is a safe and viable way to connect people to jobs.”

Widespread desire for-and widespread benefits to be gained from-bicycling make it an important part of a 21st century transportation system. Everyone who chooses to bicycle should have access to safe infrastructure that lets them take advantage of the economic benefits of bicycling.

Click here or the image above to view the full fact sheet. (Click here to download the fact sheet in Spanish.)

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Szczepanski joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.