Washington Bikes is happy to report that Washington remains the #1 bike friendly state in the nation — for the 11th year running!
The league of American Bicyclists conducts the Bicycle Friendly State program and ranking, based on the following: “The Bicycle Friendly State program is structured around a ranking of all 50 states based upon publicly available data and a survey completed by state Departments of Transportation and/or state bicycle advocacy organizations. This data is used to rank and create a report card for each state. Our last ranking was completed in 2019.”
The League of American Bicyclists has identified five bicycle friendly actions as part of the Bicycle Friendly State program, and as of this year Washington state checks the boxes on all five!
- Complete streets law/policy
- Safe passing law (3 feet+)
- Bicycle safety as an emphasis area in the state’s highway safety plan
- Statewide bike plan adopted within the last 10 years
- 2% or more federal transportation funds spent on bike/ped
Safe Passing Law rounds out bike friendly policies
In the 2019 legislative session, Washington Bikes led efforts to pass an updated Safe Passing law, completing the fifth bicycle friendly action for the state. Read more about the updated safe passing law here.
WSDOT’s Active Transportation Division (Washington was the first state DOT in the nation to create an Active Transportation Division) is currently updating the statewide Active Transportation Plan — another marker of a state that knows that people on bikes matter.
While we are thrilled to be in the #1 spot, Washington Bikes knows there is much work ahead to create bike-friendly communities across Washington state.
