Targeted Spending Helps Boost Kansas City’s Walkability
The Alliance for Biking and Walking released a big new report yesterday that measures the nation’s progress on active transportation.
There’s a ton of data to nerd out on, but one thing that might be particularly interesting to local advocates is that the report shows biking and walking statistics for individual cities. It has details on safety, public spending, and income and gender demographics for active transportation in 50 large cities and 17 mid-sized cities across the U.S.
Rachel Kraus at BikeWalkKC dove into the data, and she found that a conscious effort to improve conditions in Kansas City seems to be paying off:
Moving Up in the Rankings
In 2012, Kansas City ranked 33rd out of the 52 most populous US cities for walking to work. In 2014, KC jumped to #30. Our closest neighbors include Omaha at #26, Chicago at #8 and Wichita at #50. Nationally the top five walking cities are Boston, Washington D.C., New York City, San Francisco and Honolulu. Our bike commuting ranking also improved from #42 to #41.Still Room for Improvement
KC’s bicyclist safety ranking dropped from #34 in 2012 to #37 in 2014. Our closest neighbors include Omaha at #45, Chicago at #19 and Wichita at #2. (Safety rankings are based on crashes and fatalities.) KC also still lags behind on rankings of residents getting the recommended amount of physical activity. We ranked #38 in 2014.
City investment on bike/ped projects
Kansas City ranked 16th among the largest cities for per capita spending on bicycle/pedestrian projects. Our closest neighbors include Omaha at #14, Chicago at #31 and Wichita at #41.
It goes to show that with targeted investments any city can improve conditions for walking and biking.
Elsewhere on the Network today: The Urbanist looks at four indicators that the demand for car-lite city living is intensifying. Reno Rambler grooves on Pope Francis’s wise words about cycling. And Systemic Failure piles on proposed new FRA regulations that have transit advocates afraid for the future of commuter rail.
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