Report: Houston ranks near bottom for walking, biking

Texas cities fare poorly

Steve Hawley, Feb 10, 10.

Houston ranks among the worst cities in the country for most categories related to walking and biking, according to a new benchmark report released by the Alliance for Biking and Walking.

The report is part of an ongoing attempt to collect bicycle and pedestrian data from all 50 states and the 51 largest cities in the country. The information includes demographics, safety information, local policies, funding levels, bicycle infrastructure, and public health indicators such as levels of obesity and physical activity.

The report includes six primary benchmark indicators: mode share, safety, funding, staffing, bicycle/pedestrian policies, and advocacy capacity. According to the data, Houston is in the middle one-third in funding and the bottom one-third in four other categories. Data was not available for advocacy capacity. Only 4.5 percent of all trips within the city are done by walking, which ties Houston with Louisville as the worst large cities in the country for which complete data is available. Houston did score well, though, in integrating its transit and bicycle facilities, such as putting bike racks on 95 percent of its buses.

A recent report from Transportation for America said that Houston is the 8th most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians. In response to the report, Mark Seegers, a spokesman for County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, told the Houston Chronicle, “[Sidewalks are] an expense not related to transportation. The county does not do sidewalks; it’s not what gets cars from point A to point B.” According to the Alliance for Biking and Walking, Houston is the 12th most dangerous city for pedestrians and bicyclists.

Other Texas cities fared poorly as well, with the exception of Austin, which ranked in the top one-third in two categories, the middle one-third in three categories, and the bottom one-third in one category. In May, Austin will hold its first Ciclovia event, in which some local streets will be closed to cars and opened to bicyclists, skaters, roller skaters, and pedestrians for one day. But even Austin only ranked 29th in the new report in terms of biking and walking levels, behind cities such as Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Mesa, AZ. Texas as a whole ranked 46th out of the 50 states.

Dallas was in the middle one-third in half of the categories and the bottom one-third in the other half. El Paso and Fort Worth were each in the middle one-third of just one category and in the bottom one-third of the other categories. Arlington and San Antonio were in the bottom one-third in every category for which data was available.

The report finds that cities with more pedestrian and bicycle activity have better public health indicators, and that cities and states have made a lot of progress in recent years. For instance, the number of bicycle commuters increased 42 percent between 2000 and 2007, and residents of the largest cities are almost twice as likely to walk or bike than the national average. The study notes, “Cities with the most residents per square mile have higher levels of bicycling and walking, on average, than less dense cities.”

However, the report also states that there is much work to do to improve levels of walking and biking. Safety is a big factor, and the data shows that in the 51 largest cities, 5.6 percent of all trips are done by walking or biking, but 28.5 percent of all traffic fatalities are pedestrians or bicyclists. Nationally, almost 10 percent of all trips consist of walking or biking, but pedestrian and bicycle facilities receive just 1.2 percent of all federal transportation money. It also notes that while walking and biking have become more popular in the last seven years, their levels fell 67 percent between 1960 and 2000, while the obesity rate in this country increased by 241 percent.

Full report: Bicycling and Walking in the United States 2010 Benchmark Report (pdf, 14.2 mb, requires anonymous demographic information to access)

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