Missouri Bicycle News Article

Today the League of American Bicyclists launched a major effort to rank states for bicycle friendliness.

Missouri ranked 26th out of the 50 states.

We see many of the results of MoBikeFed's legislative efforts since 1993 or so--we are tied for 3rd place in that category.

But we also see that Missouri is tied for 42nd place in infrastructure--exactly what we bicyclists mean when you hear us say (as we so often do) that Missouri isn't a friendly state for bicycling. It's exactly the missing infrastructure--the good roads & trail systems--that other states have in place and where Missouri is clearly playing catchup.

BikeLeague is also launching an official recognition program for Bicycle Friendly States--similar to its Bicycle Friendly Community program. It is our goal to get many Missouri communities to become Bicycle Friendly Communities--and now our goal to move Missouri to the top level of the Bicycle Friendly State rankings: Platinum.

It may take us a while to get there, but we will set our sights on Platinum and we will keep working until we get there.

Dear Bicycling Advocate:

The League of American Bicyclists has recently expanded its efforts in building a Bicycle Friendly America with its Bicycle Friendly State Program. The two part program recognizes states that promote cycling through legislation, policies, programs, and by creating new places to ride, educating motorists and cyclists, and encouraging people to bike for transportation and recreation.


The first part of the program has been to create an annual ranking of all 50 states. The ranking was based on 74 questions across 6 categories, and looks at all Missouri is doing for bicycling and bicyclists. Missouri has finished 28 overall. In each of the 6 categories your state ranked:

3-tied in Legislation
24-tied in Policies & Programs
42-tied in Infrastructure
26 in Education & Encouragement
26-tied in Evaluation & Planning
1-tied in Enforcement

For a full listing of all 50 states visit bikeleague.org

As advocates, we hope you find the Bicycle Friendly State program to be a great tool to assist you in your work to make Missouri a great state for cyclists, as it allows a unique opportunity to open doors with the DOT, tourism board and state legislators. We hope you encourage Missouri to apply for further recognition- Bronze through Platinum, similar to our popular Bicycle Friendly Community program. This award program will be open to all states regardless of where they ranked, and the additional questions will allow for the further description of policies and programs that many of you asked for. This BFS Award application will be available later this fall, and will build upon the information already collected.

Related:

News: Bicycle advocate running for mayor of Shawnee, KS

News: California dedicates 1/3 of safety money to Safe Routes to Schools

News: Lawrence, Kansas, receives LAB's bicycle-friendly community award

News: Adriana Giraldo awarded "Distinguished Service to Missouri Bicycling" honors

News: St. Louis name bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community