Where Do People Walk and Bike the Most?
In its biannual benchmark report, the Alliance for Biking and Walking has announced the cities and states with the greatest percentage of cyclists and walkers — and the results have people talking.
The state taking the top honors? Alaska. But Alliance president Jeffrey Miller said that’s easily explained: “We know that people will vote with their wallet. Gasoline is like $10 a gallon there. It’s expensive to drive.”
Among cities, Boston takes the crown. While it doesn’t have a lot of cyclists, almost 14 percent of its residents walk to work. Runner-up honors went to pedestrian and bike-friendly Washington, D.C., San Francisco and Seattle.
Of the country’s 50 largest cities (plus New Orleans), Portland is home to the greatest percentage of people commuting to work by bike. It’s also the only city listed in which more commuters choose to bike than to walk.
Overall, the Alliance found that Americans make 12 percent of all trips on foot or by bike despite the fact that these transportation modes receive just 1.6 percent of federal transportation dollars.
But if you’re a cyclist, you’ll be interested to know the list of planned bike facilities shows that by 2027, Nashville will have more than 850 additional miles of bike infrastructure. Los Angeles is adding more than 1,600 miles by 2041, and by 2032, New Orleans and New York City will both have more than 1,000 miles of bike facilities.
“What it seems we need is for communities to engage as many options as they can to encourage biking and walking,” Miller says.
[Good]