The State of the Union For Bicycling & Walking
By David Hoffmam
“What isn’t counted, doesn’t count.”
These are the opening words of the Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2010 Benchmark Report published late January by the Alliance for Biking and Walking (www.peoplepoweredmovement.org). This 196-page tome is perhaps the most comprehensive report on all measurements related to bicycling and walking ever published in this country in one place. The report is truly amazing, and tracks an incredible amount of information and trends related to bicycling and walking in all 50 states and the 51 largest cities. This is the second Benchmarking Report released by the Alliance. Plans to publish updates every two years (the next being 2012) are in the works.
Early work on this report goes back to a review of 15 states and 15 cities, and helped to define a methodology as well as demonstrate the need for a much larger and more comprehensive report. This effort led to the first Benchmarking Report that was released in late 2007. The current effort significantly builds on the previous efforts, and provides the most comprehensive data set that this author has seen in one place.