Bike friendly rankings make no sense to me
B' Spokes: Hmm, Maryland with a state ranking of 7 per the League of American Bicyclists (LAB) but none of our cities made made Bicycling Magazines ranking of the top 50 cities.
All this says to me is that our Director of Bicycle and Pedestrian Access is really good with the double talk and LAB buys into it. Or maybe all the criteria that LAB uses has absolutely nothing to with conditions on the ground, specially near where most people live. And what about progress?
In 2000 we passed a law for a state wide bicycle master plan. It took one year to develop that plan and another year to start implementing that plan.
| 2003 | 2014 | |
|---|---|---|
| Bicycle mode share (National average 0.6%) | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| % of state roads BLOC grade D or better | 80% | 81% |
| Bicyclists fatalities | 6 | 5 |
| Bicyclists injuries | 162 | 658 |
After 10 plus years is this progress? Is this progress worthy of a top 10 ranking by LAB?
References:
Bicycling magazine's 2014 rankings
2014 BICYCLE FRIENDLY STATE℠ RANKING
MDOT's 2003 Attainment Report
MDOT's 2014 Attainment Report
National Average of commuting characteristics