Bicycling in Missouri compared to other U.S. regions

The Thunderhead Alliance (coalition of bicycle advocacy organizations) has produced a very interesting report with bicycle statistics from a number of U.S. cities and states.

Here are a few interesting tidbits relating to our area:

• St. Louis has lowest bicycle mode share of any city listed (St. Louis was 1.2%, highest was Madison, WI, at 11%, Chicago has 1.8%).
  
  
• In bicycle fatalities per 10 million trips, Missouri is about average, about the same as Illinois and Ohio, and just a bit better than New York. Louisiana and Florida are far worse for bicycling fatalities, while California, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, and Washington have only about half the bicycling fatalities per trip of Missouri.
  
  
• There is a pretty clear relationship between spending for bicycle facilities and safety programs and actual safety (injury and fatality rates).
  
  
• Of the 15 states surveyed, Missouri is one of only 3 spending 0% of their NHTSC Section 402 (Highway Traffic Safety Grants) funds on bicycling/walking.
  
  
• Based on the factors they measured (income from membership, partication in sponsored events) MO is on the lower end of participation in bicycle advocacy organizations. There also seems to be a correlation between how large, active, and well funded the advocacy organization is and how well bicycle facilities and planning goes in any particular region.

Work to do!