Oregon is in a breakaway in the race for America’s most cycling friendly state. [Read more…]

Riding in Salt Lake City.
(Photo: Jake Cain)

For the second time since the League of American Bicyclists began ranking U.S. states’ bike-friendliness in 2008, Oregon didn’t make the top five.

As it has in every year, Washington led the 2015 ranking that the League announced on Monday. Washington was followed this year by Minnesota, Delaware, Massachusetts and Utah, then Oregon at sixth.

Though Oregon’s slip from third in 2013 (its all-time peak) to fifth last year to sixth this year certainly has echoes of the recent #DowngradePortland campaign launched by local bike advocates in an effort to persuade the League to rescind Portland’s “platinum” rating as a bike city, this statewide ranking is different. It’s also a ranking rather than a rating system, based on a 100-point scale that the League bases on a national questionnaire.

[Read more…]

A woman lounges on the bike-frame bike rack outside Modern Times, Minneapolis’s answer to the New Deal Cafe. “Can I take a photo?” I asked. “Hell yeah,” she said.
(Photos: M.Andersen/BikePortland)

Now, don’t get me wrong: Minneapolis is a great place to ride a bicycle.

It has lots of things that Portland can and should learn from. And yes, those things they do in the November snow and the August sweat are seriously impressive. But is Minneapolis a better biking city than Portland?

Don’t be silly. It is not.

[Read more…]

The League of American Bicyclists has ranked Oregon the fifth most bike friendly state in the nation. This ranking marks a slip of two places from our third place ranking last year. Since these rankings debuted in 2008, Oregon has only been out of the top five one time with an eighth-place in 2011 (which the Oregon Department of Transportation took exception to).

While no ranking system is perfect (and most of them are nothing but click-bait garbage) the League of American Bicyclists does have some credibility and they have a rigorous set of criteria that they use to weight a state’s success in integrating bicycling into transportation plans, policies, and projects.
[Read more…]

Bike rack in Sisters, Oregon.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The League of American Bicyclists released their annual Bicycle Friendly States rankings today. Oregon came in third place, which is up from fifth place in 2012 and represents a significant improvement over our eighth place ranking in 2011. The top state in the 2013 rankings is our northern neighbor Washington (they were also #1 last year), Colorado came in second, and Minnesota and Delaware rounded out the top five.

The rankings, which first came out in 2008, are determined primarily through a questionnaire sent to each state’s bicycle coordinator (in Oregon that title belongs to Sheila Lyons at the Oregon Department of Transportation). Answers from the questionnaire are then fact-checked by League staff in collaboration with leaders from bike advocacy groups. The League scored each state on how well they performed in five categories: legislation and enforcement; programs and policies; infrastructure; education and encouragement; and evaluation and planning. Among those five categories, Oregon fared poorly in the “infrastructure and funding” category, earning just 20-40% of the total possible points.[Read more…]

Oregon’s 8th place “Bike Friendly State” ranking by the League of American Bicyclists raised a lot of eyebrows around here. Oregon isn’t perfect; but 8th place? Behind Florida?!

In our coverage earlier this week we explored a few reasons these state rankings should be taken with a grain of salt (for instance, they don’t account for major things like our state-run Scenic Bikeways Program). And now, the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) says the numbers used by the League gives even more reason to question the validity of the rankings.[Read more…]

Oregon State Parks’ Scenic Bikeway
Program wasn’t considered
in the rankings.
(Photo © J. Maus)

New ‘Bicycle Friendly State’ rankings by the League of American Bicyclists put Oregon in 8th place, a loss of three places since last year and the first time since the rankings began in 2008 that Oregon has not made the top five.

Washington retained the #1 spot for the fourth consecutive year followed by Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New Jersey. Also ranking above Oregon are Iowa and Florida.

What’s wrong with Oregon? Are we in a bike-friendly freefall? Not quite. While Oregon needs to do better to stay among the top bike states in the U.S., the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and even the League itself say the ranking system is far from perfect.[Read more…]

… After they’re done dreaming about
WA, WI, ME and MN.

The League of American Bicyclists has released rankings for their Bicycle Friendly States program. Oregon earned the fifth spot this year, slipping from the fourth spot we’ve held the previous two years. For the third year in a row, Washington retained the top spot with Wisconsin coming in second.

Moving up to take fourth place away from Oregon this year was Minnesota — home to Minneapolis, the city that unseated Portland from the top spot in a recent list of bike friendly cities by Bicycling Magazine.

Here are the top five:[Read more…]

Sheila Lyons, the bicycle and pedestrian program manager for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has responded to the League of American Bicyclist’s Bicycle Friendly State rankings that put Oregon in fourth-place.

Lyons, who has held that position since January of 2007 when she took over for Michael Ronkin, was the official contact person with the League and was responsible for filling out the 57-part questionnaire that the League used as a basis for their rankings.[Read more…]

Now that the whole country thinks Oregon isn’t in the top-three best states to bike in, you might assume the Beaver State delegation here at Pro Walk/Pro Bike would be sulking and demanding a recount.

Not exactly.

When the League of American Bicyclist’s executive director Andy Clarke announced the rankings at a party at the South Lake Union Armory last night, people almost immediately began embracing our new, out-of-medal-contention placing.

After the party, many of us from Oregon went on a spirited and star-lit ride around the city (via the Burke-Gilman Trail). I think the photo below will give you a good idea how we’re dealing with the No. 4 news:[Read more…]