Mass Bike Friendly Rank Rising

Posted by Catherine Cagle, MassDOT Manager of Sustainable Transportation

Massachusetts has another reason to celebrate Bay State Bike Week! We just got great news from the League of American Bicyclists that Massachusetts has excelled in their third annual Bicycle Friendly State rankings – the League has named Massachusetts the 15th most bicycle-friendly state. We jumped ahead four places from our 2009 ranking of 19th, which earned Massachusetts an Honorable Mention Award. 

This has really been a team effort, and MassDOT extends special thanks to all of our partners in regional and municipal government, and in the bicycling advocacy community. We at MassDOT are particularly proud of our recent efforts to support and promote bicycling, including the adoption of Complete Streets design standards in the 2006 Project Development and Design Guide; the completion of the 2008 State Bicycle Transportation Plan; and the promotion of the Bay State Greenway, a statewide network of on- and off-road bicycle routes recommended in the Bike Plan. And this year MassDOT is partnering with MassBike and local and regional partners to make Bay State Bike Week a statewide celebration, in another demonstration of our commitment to bicycling.

When we launched the Healthy Transportation Compact with the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, MassDOT set the goal for Massachusetts to move into the League’s top ten Bicycle Friendly States, and in one year we are halfway to that goal.  We are very proud of this ranking, and we are committed to continuing to advance bicycle transportation and moving Massachusetts to the top of the Bicycle Friendly States list.

Check out the League’s Bicycle Friendly State 2010 BFS Rankings list, complete with BFS awards, and a breakdown of how all Massachusetts relative to other states in each evaluation category.