How good are your state's policies on walking and biking?
The Alliance for Biking and Walking has made it easy to find out with this at-a-glance chart, released as part of its biannual Benchmarking report this week.
According to the Alliance, state policies are getting progressively better for walking and biking. Now, 34 states publish goals to increase levels of active transportation. That's up from 29 states just two years ago. Nearly every state -- 44 -- now sets goals to reduce pedestrian fatalities, and 43 states have set goals for bike fatalities. Even states that aren't known for walking and biking seem to at least be talking the talk. The Alliance reports that Florida now has a policy aiming to get more people walking, and Nevada is trying to increase cycling.
Cities are getting with the program as well, the Alliance finds.
Of the 52 cities analyzed, 39 have set goals for increasing walking, and 47 are trying to increase bicycling. That's an increase of six cities for walking and one for bicycling since the last benchmarking report was released two years ago.
More cities are trying to improve safety as well: 37 of 52 now have goals to reduce bicycle fatalities, and 36 have set out to reduce pedestrian deaths. In the last two years, eight additional cities adopted pedestrian safety goals, while four cities did the same for bikes.
More cities and states are also adopting complete streets policies. As of December 2012, 607 complete streets policies were in place across the U.S. That was a near doubling of 2011 levels.
