Bike planning minimum requirements

I wrote the blog entry the other day, "State and county advocacy agenda setting for biking (walking/transit)," about creating a model set of criteria to do as part of a state-wide advocacy and capacity building program, a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of local jurisdictions with regard to their bicycling infrastructure and programming.

But that amount of survey items is pretty ambitious, great for researchers, maybe not so necessary for improving mobility.

A Washcycle entry, "Glenn Dale Citizens Association asks PG County Executive to Hire a Bike-Ped Coordinator," about how a local civic association is calling on the Prince George's County Government to hire a bicycle and pedestrian planner, brings the point home.

At the minimum, all "urban" counties in the State of Maryland (and any state for that matter) should have:

- a bicycle and pedestrian master plan (including coverage in the transportation element of the County Master Plan)

- at least one bicycle and pedestrian planner

- a bicycle and pedestrian oversight committee

- implementation program for the recommendations in the bicycle and pedestrian master plan.

That's it, and it's based on the findings of the League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community program, which has determined those are key factors that differentiate the quality of the bicycling-mobility environment between better performing and lesser performing communities.

It's very simple to evaluate all the jurisdictions in a state on that level of criteria, and pretty difficult to evaluate all the jurisdictions in a state on the 24 items listed in the entry from the other day.