Oregon 5th most bike-friendly state

Annual rankings  from The League of American Bicyclists are out, and Oregon has slipped to number five from number three. Washington takes the cake with number one for the seventh year in a row. Here’s the top 10 list:

Oregon’s report card shows that the state gets a four out of five possible points in three categories: legislation and enforcement, policies and programs, and education and encouragement. Its lowest category is once again infrastructure and planning.

The League of American Bicyclists offers this feedback for making Oregon a more bike-friendly state:

• Repeal the state’s mandatory bike lane law.
• Adopt performance measures, such as mode
shift or a low percentage of exempted projects,
to better track and support Complete Streets/
Bike Accommodation Policy compliance.
• Update your state bicycle master plan. The plan update
should evaluate and build on the previous bicycle
master plan, and reflect changes in bicycle user needs.
• Adopt performance measures to
decrease bicycle fatalities.
• Adopt a mode share goal for biking to
encourage the integration of bicycle
transportation needs into all transportation
and land use policy and project decisions.
• Adopt the National Association of City
Transportation Officials (NACTO) Design Guide.
• Adopt a Vision Zero policy to help Oregon
reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
• Increase the dedication of funding to bicycle
and pedestrian projects from 1% of state
transportation trust funds to 2%.
• Adopt a policy requiring state office buildings,
state park and recreation facilities, and other
state facilities to provide bicycle parking.
• Since arterial and collector roads are the backbone
of every transportation network, it is essential
to provide adequate bicycle facilities along these
roads. Increase the percentage of state highway
network that has paved shoulders or bike lanes.