New National Report Ranks Florida on Biking and Walking

When it comes to biking and walking, how does

Florida stack up? A new report from theAlliance for Biking & Walking puts local and state efforts in perspective in Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2016 Benchmarking Report.

The broad trend is clear: Walking and biking are on the rise across the United States. Active

transportation has broken through into the

mainstream conversation and been embraced by powerful stakeholders. But the real story is far more complex than a single trend line — or simple narrative.

Our transportation choices are significantly impacted by a wealth of different factors —

from gender to income to available infrastructure — and a new report from the Alliance for Biking & Walking illuminates these often overlooked indicators that shape American mobility.

Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2016 Benchmarking Report collects and

analyzes data from all 50 states, the 50 most populous U.S. cities, and 18 additional cities

of various sizes. The report traces the rise of walking and biking and explores the intricate

intersections between transportation, health, economics, equity, government funding,

advocacy efforts — and so much more.

So where does Florida stand?

First the bad news:

Walking

● 39 pedestrian fatalities per 10,000 pedestrians in Florida (highest of all 50 states)

● 1.5% of commuters in Florida walk to work, behind the national average of 2.8%.  Jacksonville is last among the 50 most populous cities at 1.2%

Biking

● 4% of all traffic fatalities in Florida are bicyclists (highest of all 50 states)

(Mississippi is highest at 41 in the number of bicyclist fatalities per 10,000 bicyclists, 

Florida is at 23)

Better news:

● 0.7% of commuters bike to work, slightly higher than the national average of 0.6%

● $2.98 in per capita funding in Florida for biking and walking projects, higher than the national average of $2.47.  This is great for local jobs:

Also bicycling and bike share are good for businesses:

Read the full report here and follow @BikeWalk and #BikeWalk16 on Twitter for ongoing

conversation about the Benchmarking Report!

Needed: a low-stress bicycle network for the Daytona Beach area

Imagine a city where traveling by bicycle is not only fun and healthy, but less stressful also.   San Jose, CA got low-stress bicycle network assessment, Daytona Beach should have one too!

Mapping streets by Level of Traffic Stress (LTS) should help prioritize what is needed to connect the lowest traffic stress neighborhoods of a city together into a large low-stress bicycle network!

A map like this has been made for San Jose, CA.

The study, Low Stress Bicycling and Network Connectivity,  found that most streets in the city had the lowest stress level, LTS =1, but they are isolated from each other.

The study suggested improvements, marked in orange:

These changes greatly increase the size of the network for bicycle travel less than or equal to LTS=2 (Most Adults).

Here's a comparison of the network before and after the improvements:

Bike There Presentation at City Island Library on March 5th, 2016

It was great to meet members of the Sandy Cyclers at my library presentation today!

Here's a link to my presentation PDF file. 
Many website links within the PDF presentation.  Check it out.