Georgia recently came in nineteenth in a ranking of bike-friendliness out of all fifty states, according to Atlanta.curbed.com. The improvements are mainly thanks to efforts made in Atlanta to increase safety for cyclists in the city.*
Renovations carried out by the city included expanded bike-related infrastructure. Current efforts appear to be primarily at the municipal level. The State has not enacted a plan yet to address cycling safety throughout Georgia.
The State earned 55.8 points out of a total of 100. This score may appear rather low, but the highest-scoring State only received a total of 71.9 points. The leading bike-friendly state is Washington and the least bike-friendly state is Wyoming.
The rating organization, the League of American Bicyclists, lists actions that states can take to make roads more conducive to safe biking. The list includes enacting laws that require drivers to give cyclists a minimum of three feet of space when passing, adopting a statewide bike plan within the last decade and also spending two percent or more of federal transportation funds on bike and/or pedestrian-friendly projects.
The State can even look within itself to the City of Dunwoody for some tips on how to enact cyclist safety laws. Dunwoody recently took the issue into its own hands and city legislatures signed a cyclist safety law into effect. The law is the first of its kind in Georgia. Hopefully, other cities and the State will work together to protect vulnerable people on the roadway.
Source:https://atlanta.curbed.com/2019/11/26/20983831/georgia-atlanta-most-bike-friendly-states
Source: https://www.ajc.com/news/local/metro-city-passes-strictest-law-protecting-cyclists-walkers/PQHf3djcDD28QU9z6K2u6K/ and https://www.heraldnet.com/nation-world/more-americans-keep-dying-while-walking/
