Bicycle Friendly State program--new from the League of American Bicyclists

The Bicycle Friendly Communities program is an important part of MoBikeFed's Vision of Active Transportation in Missouri.

But what about something similar on a STATE level?

Here it is--and we need to be working to make sure Missouri measures up to the rest of the nation:

A Bicycle Friendly State promotes 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 Bicycle Friendly State Program is a two part recognition program that ranks and recognizes states that actively support bicycling. First, states are ranked annually based on their level of bike-friendliness. Secondly, states that wish to apply for a Bicycle Friendly State award designation can receive further recognition and promotion of their efforts as well as feedback, technical assistance, training and further encouragement to improve their bicycling legislation, projects, and programs.

The Bicycle Friendly State Program is generously support by program partners Bikes Belong and Trek Bicycle.

If MoBikeFeds Report Card on Walking and Bicycling in Missouri is any indication, Missouri's grade might not be too high.

But the purpose of these programs is to see exactly where we are and how to compare to other states around the country. Then we can see exactly where our strengths and weaknesses are.

And then we can work to celebrate our strengths and fix our weaknesses.

Seeing how Missouri stacks up to the other 50 states should be a very revealing exercise!