Washington returned to the top spot as the most bicycle friendly state in the United States, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

The Evergreen State has ranked No. 1 in each ranking that the League has compiled since 2013 but for the last report in 2022, when Massachusetts ranked first.

The Washington, D.C-based advocacy organization’s rankings measure state performance on five “Bicycle Friendly Actions” across categories that “reflect policies, resources, and practices that contribute to safer and more accessible biking for everyone.”

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act led to record federal funds ($1.2 billion) spent on bicycling and walking projects in the last two years yet as a percentage of all federal transportation funds, spending on biking and walking projects was lower than average for those years. Federal funding for biking and walking amounted to $3.75 per person in 2023.

The report also warned of an “ongoing traffic safety crisis,” with preliminary estimates from the Governors Highway Safety Association predicting a record 1,149 bicyclist deaths in 2023.

The complete 2024 Bicycle Friendly States Report & Ranking is available here.
 

In 2009, only 35 percent of students within 1 mile of their school biked or walked to school in the U.S. That's down from almost 90 percent in 1969.

Bike buses have emerged both in Europe and the United States to encourage group biking to school for students. A bike bus generally consists of one or more adult supervisors guiding a group of students along a defined route to one or more schools.

Simply building a bike lane is insufficient to shift modes for many parents and students, according to a recent study. Barriers still exist, including dissatisfaction with infrastructure and a lack of funding.

Exploring Bike Bus Programs in the United States, a report by the Transportation Research Education Center at Portland State University for the National Institute for Transportation and Communities, suggests that bike buses can change the narrative about Active Transportation to School (ATS):

• - Reduces concerns about safety (both from crime and traffic);
• - Longer distances traveled (averaging 1 mile, but often longer); and,
• - Greater breadth of participant age (children as young as kindergarten were reported as riding with bike buses.)

Bike buses have the potential to leverage the last 20 years of Safe Routes To School (SRTS) interventions, according to the report, ensuring that bike lanes, sidewalks, and crosswalks funded by districts, communities, states, and the federal government have their full value realized.

The Streets Ahead podcast recently joined a bike bus in the United Kingdom.

Experience continues to be a main driver of trust and acceptance for people when it comes to robotaxis.

Consumer confidence when riding in a fully automated, self-driving vehicle is 56 percentage points higher among those who have ridden in a robotaxi (76%) than the general population who have not had the experience (20%), according to the J.D. Power 2024 U.S. Robotaxi Experience Study. Exposure to the technology, as seen by non-riders in cities with robotaxi deployments, also improves consumer confidence (34%). Consumers rated their satisfaction with the experience as 8.53 on a 10-point scale.

When asked to describe their ideal robotaxi service, consumers consistently selected image attributes of safe, reliable and trusted. The consistency with which these metrics are prioritized among riders and non-riders (78% selected safe; 71% selected reliable; and 66% selected trusted), as well as the general population, indicates the foundational expectations of consumers.

The study is based on responses from 3,773 respondents comprised of 773 consumers living in cities where robotaxi services are available -- Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Francisco -- and a national sample of 3,000 consumers to better understand their perceptions and knowledge of the technology. To qualify in the targeted cities, respondents had to ride in a robotaxi and/or observe a robotaxi operating in their community. The two groups of participants are classified as riders and non-riders, respectively.

To learn more about the U.S. Robotaxi Experience Study, visit https://www.jdpower.com/business/us-robotaxi-experience-study.
 

Installing one electric vehicle charging station boosts annual spending by almost 1 percent at nearby establishments, such as food, retail, arts and entertainment. The boost grows by four times when stations were installed within 100 meters of such establishments.

Those are among the findings from “Effects of electric vehicle charging stations on the economic vitality of local businesses.” The study, published in September in Nature Communications, analyzed data from more than 4,000 electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and 140,000 businesses in downtown Los Angeles and San Francisco, California.

Between January 2021 and June 2023, spending at nearby establishments increased by 0.8 percent ($404) from January 2021 to June 2023, and by 1.5 percent ($1,478) in 2019, according to the study. Spending increased by 3.2 percent and 2.7 percent during those periods, respectively, when a point of interest was within 100 meters of a charging station. The analysis incorporated three categories of points of interest: accommodation and food services; retail; and,arts, entertainment, and recreation.

Charging stations have the “potential to exert a broader influence on local communities, particularly on the economic vitality of surrounding businesses,” according to the study. They offer businesses the “potential to diversify income streams. Understanding the extent of this phenomenon is crucial for policymakers, providers, and business owners to harness the full potential of EV charging infrastructure and create sustainable and vibrant communities."

InTransition magazine recently looked at the future of gas stations amid the rise of electric vehicles.

The average bikeshare system in the United States had 167 docking stations operating last year. The 53 docked bikeshare systems operated 8,838 docking stations across the U.S., according to the latest data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).

Bikeshare systems range from the largest (CitiBike in New York City, which includes Jersey City and Hoboken, New Jersey), operating more than 2,000 stations to six systems that have 10 stations or less. The number of systems held steady, with just one closing in July. BTS counts systems operating as of June 30 each year. 

There were 60 dockless bikeshare systems serving 49 cities, up from a low of 30 in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but down from a high of 91 in 2018. There were 194 dockless e-scooter systems, serving 130 cities, down from a high of 179 in 2022, thanks in part to consolidation and bankruptcy of e-scooter systems. 

Docked bikeshare stations are part of BTS’ Intermodal Passenger Connectivity Database (IPCD), a nationwide database of passenger transportation facilities and docked bikeshare stations, with data on the availability of connections to intercity, commuter, and transit rail; scheduled air service; intercity and transit bus; intercity and transit ferry services; and bike share.

The BTS interactive bikeshare ridership application allows you to explore the total number of trips taken by year, month, and type for the largest systems with docking stations.
 

Urban areas had generally lower access to jobs as economic and transportation conditions evolved coming out of the COVID era, according to new research from the Accessibility Observatory at the University of Minnesota. The annual Access Across America (AAA) study uses comprehensive travel data for walking, biking, transit, and auto to analyze the sustainability of transportation options for residents of major urban areas.

“Typically, land use and transportation networks change only gradually from year to year, but 2022 illustrated a much different dynamic,” according to the 122-page report, which was released this month and examines 2022 data, the most recent available. The annual research project has been conducted since 2014.

The greatest reductions in access to opportunity were associated with places where congestion increased the most, according to the report. “These drastic changes measure the impact of the return of traffic, magnified by the difference from unusually high job accessibility by auto during the first 21 months of the pandemic.”

Public transit accounted for an estimated 5 percent of commuting trips before the pandemic, making it the second most widely used commute mode after driving. Walking as a commute is typically very low, making up about 2.4 percent of all journeys to work. While bicycling accounted for just 0.5 percent of all commutes, the overall number of bicycle commuters has increased almost 22 percent since 2010.

Findings of the 2022 study are portrayed in an interactive map, which provides a comprehensive look at job accessibility, highlighting the number of jobs accessible within a 30-minute travel time by different modes of transportation. The full report can be accessed here.
 

A rise in remote work since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t stopped traffic congestion in most of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S.

“A reliance on remote work is not a panacea to the rise in VMT (Vehicle Miles Traveled) and the default solution for traffic – adding roadway capacity – isn't solving congestion,” according to The State of VMT and Congestion: How Rising Trends Impact U.S. Metros, published by StreetLight, a Jacobs Company.

The 26-page e-book measured five years of Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), from January 2019 through May 2024, comparing the top 100 most-populated metros by change in VMT, VMT per capita, change in congestion, and overall congestion. StreetLight also analyzed the correlation within the 25 biggest metro areas and in downtowns.

As of spring 2024, VMT has jumped up after steadily increasing since mid-2020. The rise in congestion from January-May 2023 marks the steepest year-over-year increase since the initial pandemic bounce back in 2021.

Eighty-eight of the top 100 metros in the U.S. saw VMT increase from spring 2019 through spring 2024 while only four metros saw decreases in the double digits. Six metros kept VMT down by more than 5 percent compared to 2019 while 27 have seen VMT rise by more than 20 percent.

Metrowide data follows a similar pattern to national data. Overwhelmingly, VMT accelerated in the last year compared to 2022-23. "Without significant changes, the upward trend in VMT shows no sign of peaking.”
 

The number of shared micromobility trips and the numbers of cities with shared micromobility systems are at record highs with the industry having evolved over the past 15 years. 

There were 172 million trips in North America last year, with an estimated 421 cities that had at least one bikeshare or scootershare system, according to the fifth annual Shared Micromobility State of the Industry Report from the North American Bikeshare & Scootershare Association (NABSA). The Portland, Maine-based organization released its annual report last month. 

"Climate, transportation equity, connections to transit, and financial sustainability continue to be key themes for the industry as electrification of shared micromobility devices and of operational vehicles expands,” according to the 21-page report, which tracks the progress and presents new research demonstrating the impact of the industry across North America. 

The total number of shared micromobility vehicles has slightly decreased since 2022 but the vehicles are being ridden more. Micromobility trips replaced a car trip about 37 percent of the time (25 percent, car driver/passenger and 12 percent, taxi or rideshare), according to the report, slightly more than the 35 percent that replaced walking. Some 16 percent of all micromobility trips were for the purpose of connecting to transit. 

Crashes and injuries were reduced by half after the installation of speed cameras along a notoriously dangerous stretch of road in Philadelphia, according to a new study.

The estimated annual safety benefits of an automated speed enforcement pilot program along Roosevelt Boulevard are six times higher than the $22 million in revenues generated in fiscal year 2021, according to the authors of Evaluating the Effectiveness of Speed Cameras on Philadelphia’s Roosevelt Boulevard, published in February in the Transportation Research Record.

“Automated enforcement is likely particularly effective in the absence of other types of enforcement,” according to the authors, who recommended the program be extended and expanded.

Between 2016 and 2022, 100 people died in car crashes on Roosevelt Boulevard and another 17 people died on the local roads immediately surrounding it. The road still accounts for around 8 percent of all traffic fatalities in Philadelphia. The 12-lane arterial "has long moved highway levels of traffic at grade through densely populated neighborhoods at high speeds and taken a steep toll in crashes, injuries, and traffic fatalities,” according to the paper.

The road remains a dangerous combination of high-speed highway that intersects with local streets in densely populated neighborhoods. Further safety improvements will likely require one of three approaches: 

-- Lower speed limits and ramp up enforcement to get traffic speeds closer to 30 mph instead of 50 mph;

-- Grade separate the Boulevard and turn it into the type of limited access highway envisioned by early federal highway planners;

-- Redesign the Boulevard to operate as a lower speed and lower-capacity boulevard that looks and behaves more like other urban arterials.
 

Road diets had little effect on emergency response vehicles although motorists could be better educated on how to properly yield to the vehicles. At least that was the case in one Midwest city.

“Impact of 4-to-3 lane conversions on emergency response,” a study published in Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, examined the impact of such road diets on emergency response in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Researchers at the University of Iowa College of Public Health’s Injury Prevention Center analyzed 170 survey responses and EMS data.

The Hawkeye State was among the first states to implement such conversions in the 1990s. The 4-to-3 lane conversions attempt to smooth traffic flow and reduce crashes with the addition of a dedicated center turn lane while providing more space for bike lanes or parking.

More than half of EMS respondents believed there was no effect or a positive effect on responses while 40 percent believed there was a negative effect, which they attributed to driver confusion on how to properly yield to emergency vehicles.

While there was a lack of evidence of an effect on EMS response rates overall, results indicated that public guidance on how to properly respond to the presence of emergency vehicles may be needed. “Results of this analysis may be applicable to other lane conversion sites when appropriately combined with local context relevant to the target area,” according to the study.

Read the full 12-page study here.
 

As use of electric micromobility vehicles has surged, so too have injuries related to the devices. E-bike injuries have doubled every year from 2017 to 2022 and e-scooter injuries have increased by 45 percent, according to a study that’s believed to be the first investigation into recent injury patterns in the United States.

The study by the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF), published in JAMA Network Open, a monthly medical journal by the American Medical Association, found that e-bicycle injuries increased from 751 in 2017 to 23,493 in 2022, and e-scooter injuries rose from 8,566 to 56,847 over that timeframe. Altogether, there were nearly 2.5 million bicycle injuries, more than 304,000 scooter injuries, 45,586 e-bicycle injuries, and 189,517 e-scooter injuries reported in the U.S.

Both conventional and electric bike and scooter injuries were more common in urban settings. Electric bike and scooter riders were older and more likely to participate in risky behaviors, such as riding while intoxicated and without a helmet than conventional vehicle riders.

Injured e-riders tended to be slightly older and wore helmets less often than conventional riders. E-scooter riders were more likely to sustain internal injuries than conventional scooter riders, while upper extremity injuries were more common among non-electric riders.

Read the full report here.
 

Roundabouts on North Dakota’s highway system reduced the number of traffic crashes and fatalities and serious injuries in crashes, according to a study by the state Department of Transportation.

Across 12 locations, the average crash rate declined by 33 percent, total crashes per year dropped by 36 percent, and fatal and serious injury crashes per year decreased by 59 percent.

The study analyzed five years of crash data at 12 locations where roundabouts were installed between 2012 and 2021. One location was excluded from the average due to lack of volume data.

After roundabouts were installed, angle crashes were more of a merging crash between a vehicle entering the roundabout and a vehicle already circulating within the roundabout, according to the study. Roundabouts virtually eliminate the number of head-on and high-speed right-angle, or T-bone, collisions.

The proportion of rear-end crashes decreased by 22 percent while single-vehicle crashes increased by 55 percent. Almost half of single-vehicle crashes involved overturning or shifting load when circulating the roundabout and going straight into the roundabout’s center of the island.

North Dakota built its first highway roundabout in 2012 and today there are 14 on the state transportation system. Another 13 are planned to be installed in the next few years.

Read more about roundabouts in this story from InTransition.

The full study and other resources are available here.
 

There were a record 157 million trips on bike and scooter share systems across the U.S. and Canada in 2023 -- up almost 20 percent over the previous year and almost 7 percent higher than the 2019 peak of 147 million. That comes despite rising cost and financing challenges for some systems, according to an annual report from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO).

The 2023 Shared Micromobility in the U.S. and Canada makes three recommendations for how cities can ensure long-term success of micromobility systems:

- Investing public money in capital and operating costs;
- Eliminating sales tax to bring it in line with other public transportation; and,
- Building infrastructure to safely connect people to where they want to go, through protected bike lane networks and shared bike and scooter paths close to homes and popular destinations.

Trips in the U.S. increased by 16 percent which was driven largely by continued growth of e-bike trips on larger station-based systems. More than 90 percent of all station-based bike share trips took place on 10 systems, with New York City's Citi Bike alone accounting for 35 million of the 81 million trips.

While bike share and scooter share systems in some cities experienced dramatically climbing costs for riders, others folded or had trouble financing operations. Bike share prices are now significantly higher than other public transportation options, according to the report. A typical 30- to 35-minute pay-as-you-go trip on station-based bike share costs an average of $3.85 one way on a pedal bike and $7 or more on an e-bike. A typical bus trip costs in the United States costs less than $2 on average.

Read the complete 22-page report here.
 

Taxes and fees imposed by cities on micromobility programs like bike share and scooter share vary tremendously and often are higher than most other modes of transportation.

"Taxing Shared Micromobility: Assessing the Global Landscape of Fees and Taxes and their Implications for Cities, Riders, and Operators,” by John MacArthur of Portland State University, Kevin Fang of Sonoma State University, and Calvin Thigpen of Lime, examined data from 120 cities in 16 countries and surveyed shared micromobility program managers throughout North America.

Shared micromobility is taxed twice: By sales taxes and program fees. These revenues can be substantial. On average, annual fees were $0.22 per mile or $0.28 per trip in 2022. When sales taxes are included, the average shared micromobility trip generates fee and tax revenue of $0.70 per mile or $0.89 per trip. This is a combined global average rate of 16.4% in taxes and fees derived from user fares.

When deciding on fees, cities are especially concerned with covering administrative costs as well as influencing operator behaviors.

The information can “help inform cities who are working with shared micromobility companies to align program fee structures with their goals around climate, equity, congestion, and more,” according to the 108-page report.
 

Protected bike lanes, intersection treatments, and reallocated space for biking and walking are some of the common traits found among the top cities and towns for bicycling.

The 2024 City Ratings from PeopleForBikes (PFB) are here. City Ratings aim to identify, evaluate, and compare the best cities and towns for bicycling. More than 2,500 cities worldwide were ranked in the seventh annual ratings, including 816 new cities in the U.S and 133 new cities across the U.K. and Australia. The Boulder, Colorado-based advocacy nonprofit adds cities to its ratings based on requests received throughout the year.

PeopleForBikes identifies the most bike-friendly cities by analyzing six key factors:
* Safe speeds
* Protected bike lanes
* Reallocated space for biking and walking
* Intersection treatments
* Network connections
* Trusted data

The annual report breaks down cities into three categories: small, with a population of less than 50,000; medium, 50,000 to 300,000, and large, more than 300,000. Based on data from PFB’s Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA), each city receives a City Ratings score on a scale of 1-100.

To explore 2024 City Ratings, click here.