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Cycling in Maryland easy to do, survey finds

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Published on Wednesday, 20 June 2012 20:00

Written by Intern

Maryland is one of the best places in the nation to take a bike ride, and No. 2 on the East Coast, a new survey shows.

For the second year in a row, the League of American Bicyclists rated Maryland as one of the nation’s top ten most friendly states for bicyclists.

The survey ranks states in five different areas: legislation, programs that support bicycling, infrastructure and funding, education and encouragement, and evaluation and planning. Each state’s bicycle coordinator answers the survey and the results are confirmed by other league members. The league suggests states look at the results as a way to learn about “best practices” performed by other states.

Based on the survey results, Maryland is the eighth most friendly state in the nation for bicyclists, and took second for the entire East Coast. Of the five areas surveyed, Maryland scored a four (out of five) in every area except infrastructure and funding, which was given a three. Maryland has six of the league's Top 10 Signs of Success:

1. Safe passing/vunerable road user law
2. Complete streets policy
3. Dedicated state funding
4. An active state advocacy group
5. A state bicycle plan adoped no earlier than in 2002
6. A share the road campaign

To find out where to go biking in Maryland, read Top picks for hiking and biking in Maryland.

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