Ken Mcleod

American Community Survey Data is Available – Highlights from One-Year Estimates

By Ken Mcleod | December 9, 2025
Posted in

The Census Bureau’s American Community Survey was not created to understand how much biking and walking is occurring. Or to help governments understand the demand for biking and walking facilities. Or to help understand whether projects successfully resulted in more and safer biking and walking trips. It is our nation’s “premier source of detailed information…

Read More →

Updates to State Planning Resources in the Benchmarking Report

By Ken Mcleod | May 21, 2025
Posted in

In December 2024 the League of American Bicyclists released its 2024 Bicycle Friendly State ranking. Bicycle Friendly State rankings are based on self-reported survey data from state Departments of Transportation and publicly available data or information, which include state bicycle and pedestrian plans and complete streets policies. The League periodically reviews these sources to inform…

Read More →

New Resource: Setting Speed Limits for Health and Safety

By Ken Mcleod | April 8, 2024
Posted in

[this was originally posted on the League of American Bicyclists blog during National Public Health Week, April 1-7, 2024] It’s National Public Health Week and the League of American Bicyclists is proud to celebrate with a new resource, “Setting Speed Limits for Health and Safety.“ Public health is the science of protecting and improving the health…

Read More →

New data and competing narratives: A look at Census and Streetlight data

By Ken Mcleod | October 19, 2023
Posted in , ,

A recent article by Outside magazine highlighted the different data and competing narratives in recent coverage about how much biking is happening. Data from the Census Bureau was typically covered negatively, whether it was Bloomberg lamenting that “Biking to Work Isn’t Gaining Any Ground in the US” or Jalopnik writing “Turns Out A Lot Of…

Read More →

Census Data shows Biking and Walking to Work Bouncing Back

By Ken Mcleod | September 27, 2023
Posted in , ,

Earlier this month the Census Bureau released its 2022 1-year estimates for the American Community Survey (ACS). The ACS is the only annual nationwide dataset that includes estimates of how many people are biking and walking. It provides estimates for only one type of trip and only counts one mode per person, so its estimates…

Read More →

New Data On Shared Micromobility Shows Growth Of E-Scooters, Success Of Large Cities

By Ken Mcleod | August 14, 2023
Posted in

Shared Micromobility has grown and changed significantly in the last decade. According to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, fewer than 80 cities in the United States had a shared micromobility system in 2015 and all systems included docked bikes. Now, their recently released data shows more than 200 cities with a shared micromobility…

Read More →

Preliminary Data On Automated Driving Systems Shows Majority Of Incidents With Non-Motorized Users Are With Bicyclists

By Ken Mcleod | August 4, 2023
Posted in

In June 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a Standing General Order (SGO) requiring identified manufacturers and operators of Automated Driving Systems (ADS) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) to report certain crashes involving vehicles equipped with those systems. With two years of reporting, 31 incidents with non-motorists have been reported and…

Read More →

Uneven Start For Safety Funding

By Ken Mcleod | June 9, 2023
Posted in , ,

In 2021 the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) created a new rule for the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP), the largest dedicated source of safety funding in the United States.  The new rule – called the Vulnerable Road User Special Rule (VRU rule) – requires states where 15% or more of traffic deaths are deaths of…

Read More →

NHTSA Data Bonus – Roadway Ownership Data Shows State Owned Roads Have Increasing Share Of Traffic Deaths

By Ken Mcleod | June 2, 2023
Posted in ,

This is bonus part four in a series on new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data. Parts one, two, and three looked at driver-related, vehicle-related, and speed limit-related data elements. Roadway ownership data is not new in the NHTSA Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool (FIRST), but it is worthy of being featured. Roadway…

Read More →

New NHTSA Data – Speed Data Shows Lethal Legal Speed Limits Involved In Most Pedestrian And Bicyclist Deaths

By Ken Mcleod | May 25, 2023
Posted in ,

This is part three in a series on new National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) data. Parts one and two looked at driver-related and vehicle-related data elements. In total, 17 data elements were added to the query fields available in the Fatality and Injury Reporting System Tool (FIRST). This post looks at two data elements…

Read More →

Categories