Walking and Biking: peddle paddle

So, a TEN YEAR update just came out on National Biking and Walking (I am wondering how we can say that walking and biking is deserving of merely a TEN year-old project...oh yeah, i guess we forgot about them during the prior 20 years when we also got obese..ahh, yess) oh yeah...ramble ramble, want the link?

http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/pp/nbws1.htm

Target of the Project? "The National Bicycling and Walking Study (NBWS) established the target of doubling the percentage of trips made by bicycling and walking from 7.9 percent to 15.8 percent."

-well at least they recognized in 1990 that walking and biking were the "forgotten modes" yesss, 10 points for FHWA

Good news?

--Omnibus Household Survey found in 2001-2002 that nearly 2 million adults, or approximately NINE PERCENT of all adult workers, REGULARLY bicycle or walk related to their work.

Bad News?

-- the goal of doubling the percentage of trips by bicycling and walking, as called for by the NBWS, has not been met

Good News?

--The Omnibus Household Survey also found an average of 16 percent of the non-institutionalized adult population (what, they don't let crazy people ride bikes? shoooot) rode a bicycle an average of six days a month, for an average of more than an hour on a typical day.

...wait, we are supposed to be proud of that????????????

Ok, but i guess this is Good News...for real this time

--"from 1993 - 2003 there was a 17.3 percent decline in pedestrian fatalities and a 23.3 percent drop in bicycle fatalities" dude, sweet!

and...

--More people DIED but they weren't pedbikers...sweet, so all the gas -guzzlers are going kapoot (that was awful to say): "Bicyclists and pedestrians represented more than 16 percent of all traffic fatalities in 1993, and then dropped to 12.3 percent in 2003. At the same time there was an increase in overall traffic fatalities of more than seven percent."

also good?

--STATES LOVE YOU: all state DOTs have real, live, designated bike and ped coordinator (ummm...ok? woopdedo, why didnt they before???)
--THE GLASS IS HALF FULL: 29 states have adopted statewide bike plans (ok, well at least that is more than half?)

MORE GOOD (for real)

--"Spending on independent bicycle and pedestrian projects has grown from approximately $6 million in 1990 to more than $422.7 million in 2003"

BUT...

--sigh..."Despite this remarkable change, expenditures on independent bicycling and walking projects are still less than two percent of total surface transportation spending."

But..buttt...

--and did you know that in 1990: "many of the Federal-aid funding programs were not used for bicycle and pedestrian improvements and no State was allowed to spend more than $4.5 million in any one year on bicycle and pedestrian projects that were not part of a larger highway project." SHIT!


So basically, my overall assessment of these crude numbers and comments: MAN, WE USED TO REALLY FUCKIN' SUCK, but now we just mostly suck...75% suck...