A Bike-Ped State of the Union: 9.6% of Trips, 1.2% of Federal Funding

With the nation still digesting the State of the Union address, the Alliance for Biking & Walking picked an auspicious day to release their biennial Benchmarking report on America’s bike-ped behavior. The group’s bottom-line conclusion: federal transportation funding continues to disproportionately shortchange travelers powered by their own two feet.

chrt.png(Chart: Alliance for Biking & Walking)

The Alliance crunched numbers from all 50 states to determine how much of their federal transportation dollars are spent on improving bike-ped infrastructure, access, and safety.

Overall, the report found that biking and walking account for 9.6 percent of all U.S. trips (0.9 percent of that share from biking, 8.7 percent from walking) but just 1.2 percent of federal transport spending.

That gap was exacerbated in recent months by a cancellation of transportation funding that occurred when Congress failed to pass a new six-year federal bill in the fall. Many states trimmed disproportionately from their Transportation Enhancements funds, which come from Washington’s highway program and account for about half of federal bike-ped spending.

But that doesn’t mean states are entirely losing ground when it comes to bike-ped improvements. Since the Alliance’s last report in 2007, the number of states setting goals to boost walking and biking has risen by 44 percent — while the number of states working on decreasing bike-ped fatalities has increased by 78 percent.

The Alliance also singled out states doing particularly well — and poorly — at encouraging residents to walk and bike. Some of the highest-achieving states may come as a surprise (Alaska, home of the "bridge to nowhere," is tops for walking to work). Check out a few winners and losers after the jump, and download the Alliance’s complete Benchmarking report right here.

Share of commuters who walk: Alaska at No.1, Alabama at No. 50

Share of commuters who bike: Oregon at No. 1, Alabama at No. 50

Bike-ped fatality rates: Vermont has the lowest, Florida the highest

Per-capita bike-ped funding: Virginia has the lowest, Alaska the highest

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Bike-Ped Traffic, Funding, and Fatalities All Inch Upward

By Ben Goldman |
One day before President Obama’s State of the Union Address, the Alliance for Biking and Walking has released its 2012 Benchmarking Report. Once again, the report indicates, nonmotorized transportation is getting shortchanged by federal funders, while pedestrians and cyclists make up a disproportionately large share of all traffic fatalities. The Alliance looks at all 50 […]

Federal Bike-Ped Funding Sets New High, With Much More Room to Grow

By Ben Fried |
Graph: FHWA [PDF] Federal funding for pedestrian and bicycle projects reached a new high last year, according to a report released yesterday by the Federal Highway Administration. In terms of dollars, federal investment in walking and biking more than doubled compared to the previous high, set in 2007, thanks largely to an infusion of $400 […]

How Does Your State Stack Up on Funding for Walking and Biking?

By Angie Schmitt |
How well does your state fund infrastructure for walking and biking? Or perhaps we should say, how poorly? The Alliance for Biking and Walking put together this handy chart, showing roughly what proportion of each state’s federal funding goes toward projects for walking and biking. Obviously, no state is really rolling out the red carpet […]

Brace Yourself: Here Comes Another Attack on Bike/Ped Funding

By Tanya Snyder |
If petty Congressional attacks on bike/ped funding were a drinking game, you’d be drunk by now. And now two House Republicans want to pour you another shot. Reps. Sam Johnson (TX) and Vicky Hartzler (MO) have introduced a bill to eliminate the Transportation Alternatives Program, the largest source of federal funding for biking and walking projects. TAP is today’s curtailed […]