The Witch's Cup race in Salem in 2008.
The League of American Bicyclists has released its annual Bicycle Friendly State Rankings and Massachusetts has dropped. We’ve gone from number 16 last year to number 19 this year. Who’s at the top? Well, if the grip of the handlebars and the wind flowing through your helmet vents is your passion, you may want to head to Washington, which ranked numero uno. Too far away? Maine came in number three.
Even New Hampshire outranked Mass coming in at number eight.
This is only the second year the organization has ranked bicycle friendliness, which, according to Director of Communications Meghan Cahill, is based on a 75-question survey sent to each state’s bicycle coordinator (Massachusetts’ bike coordinator is Josh Leiman). Cahill says the organization works with each of the states to make sure the forms are filled out accurately. So, Alabama, which ranked 50, didn’t just skip the survey. What are some of the questions?
“Is a bicycle considered a vehicle? Do they have the same rights and responsibilities [as autos]? Basically they want cyclists and motorists to be equally responsible for sharing the road safely,” Cahill says.
Making communities more bike-friendly was part of a the discussion on a state health summit meeting I attended at Tufts last fall. Some cities and towns are making this a priority, others say they’ve got bigger concerns. But presenters at that summit make a fairly decent argument that activie, healthy communities actually save money.
