It’s official! The State of Nevada has moved up 9 spots to #20 in the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly States Ranking. According to Bill Story, Nevada’s Bicycle/Pedestrian Coordinator at NDOT, “Last year we were ranked 29th in the nation and this year we moved up to the 20th position. This is due, in part, to passage of important legislation (3 ft passing, vulnerable user laws) as well as increases in infrastructure, planning, programs, events and cycle tourism throughout the State.”
That’s a great accomplishment for our state and something all cyclists should be happy about. The higher up we rank in this report, the better our state becomes for bicycling.
What can we do in the future to further boost our rankings?
When I talked with Bill Story, we discussed what we can further do in our State to increase our rankings. The number one thing we discussed, was implementing bicycle plans for all counties. Over the next year and a half, they are going to implement 14 new bicycle plans for rural counties that didn’t have one in place.
Other items to address to further nudge our rankings are implementing complete street programs, law enforcement training and understanding of bicycle laws, and mode share. Mode share is to understand the number of people commuting by bike. Currently, we really have no way to count the number of people commuting by bike. I do know that the RTC counts the number of people who load their bikes on buses to utilize the bike/bus options. But, if I were a commuter, I may not take the bus so how would I be counted? That’s the question for furthering that number, and we as a state need to come up with a way to count the number of commuters. According to Bill, our state’s mode share numbers were less than 1%, whereas the average number is normally around 2 to 2.5%. So, we do feel that by figuring out a more accurate way to count commuters, will allow us to move up the chart in that aspect as well.
On the horizon that we know about
When the League of American Bicyclists were putting together this report, the state of Nevada did not have a 2013 Bicycle Plan that was approved at that time. We now have this bicycle plan in place, which may have increased our ranking slightly, had it been approved prior. (As soon as I receive the link to this plan, I will pass it on to all of you for your review.)
Click here to view Nevada’s 2013 Bicycle Friendly State report card
To see all Bicycle Friendly State Rankings, visit the League of American Bicyclist’s Website.
