The League of American Bicyclists (LAB) released their 2009 rankings and Michigan fell 3 spots to 15th.

According to Josh DeBruyn, our MDOT Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator, it appears the drop was primarily due to other states improving their scores.

These overall rankings are based on scores in six different areas. Here is how Michigan ranked within those areas:

• Legislative: tie 43rd
• Policies and Programs: tie 7th
• Infrastructure: tie 8th
• Education: tie 9th
• Evaluations: tie 16th
• Enforcement: tie 19th

Obviously Michigan scored most poorly in the legislative area. According to DeBruyn, this is perhaps due to other states having passed Complete Streets Policies; banning cell phones and texting while driving; having 3′ passing laws; and allowing photo enforcement of moving violations.

We did notice the state ranking application asked about mandatory helmet laws. We contacted the LAB and those answers are only for data collection and are not used in the rankings.

Here is the complete state ranking list:

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