Washington adds another ring to its bike-friendly state rankings dynasty
From Washington State's Report Card (PDF) from the League of American Bicyclists.We don't use the term dynasty," lightly, but the 1960s Boston Celtics have nothing on Washington State's utter dominance of the bike-friendly state rankings by the League of American Bicyclists. The League announced the 2024 rankings today, and the trophy is coming home to the Evergreen State once again.
Since the League started publishing their rankings in 2008, Washington has only failed to hold the top spot once: A devastating fall to 3rd place in 2022. But that 3rd place finish behind the Celtics Massachusetts and Oregon did not account for Washington's ace up it's sleeve: The Move Ahead Washington transportation investment package the legislature has just passed. Move Ahead Washington included $1.29 billion of safety focused programs and other active transportation investments such as an e-bike subsidy that has yet to roll out to the public. Those investments were enough to take back the top spot. Eat your heart out, Massachusetts.
In all seriousness, it's great that Washington finally has competition on this list and that it now requires safety investments like those included in Move Ahead Washington to stay on the top. Even as recently as 2019, we ran the headline: Other 49 states still seemingly uninterested in being more bike friendly than WA. Well, now Washington will need to keep pushing hard if it wants to keep its spot, especially considering it's middling score in the safety category. Depressingly, even though Washington's bicycle fatality rate increased since 2022 (reported as 4.9 per 10,000 bike commuters according to Federal data, up from 4 in the 2022 report), it's ranking compared to other states improved (8th safest down from 11th). We have so much work to do to get ahead of our nation's growing traffic safety crisis. The increase in deaths across the nation are unacceptable.
Below are some suggestions for improvement from the League's Washington State report card (PDF):
Washington State, like the US as a whole, is experiencing a traffic safety crisis, with people walking and biking impacted at higher rates than other road users. Recent legislative initiatives, including reducing the legal blood alcohol content level for drivers, banning turning right on red lights, and increasing fees for heavier vehicles, can address this crisis. Robust action is needed.
In 2022, Washington made one of the nation's largest ever investments in in-school, on-bicycle education. The League proudly featured those efforts in a webinar earlier this year so that other states can model this new program which, by 2037, will teach bike education skills to 90% of public school youth, and provide a bike, helmet and lock to program participants that need them.
WSDOT is a leader in slow roads that save lives. Its injury minimization work for speed management is informing its Design and Traffic Manuals and its state laws clearly provide authority for reducing speed limits in population centers. Furthermore, the WSDOT Complete Streets policy means that highway maintenance projects also include upgrades so that state routes serve all users.
New legislative investment has enabled WSDOT to provide grantmaking and technical capacity-building assistance for local agencies and tribes, thus increasing competitiveness of smaller and less-resourced jurisdictions. Ongoing funding for this initiative is critical to providing connected and safe bicycle networks throughout the state.
More state and federal funding is available than ever to build better bike infrastructure, but red tape delays critical projects from being built quickly. Legislative action is needed to streamline project review, environmental analysis, and other administrative steps so that the state and local agencies can build bike projects faster and complete gaps in the network making active transportation networks intuitive and comfortable for users of all types.