It's hard to believe that just 10 years ago there was a gaping void in data related to bicycling and walking on a state and city level. In 2007, the Alliance helped to change that with its first Benchmarking Report. Now, nearly a decade later, that comprehensive resource propels advocates and stakeholders at every level.

As we prepare for the 2016 Benchmarking Report launch next month, I spoke with two top researchers who've been involved since the beginning to explore the critical value — and evolution — of the report.

But first things first: What is the Benchmarking Report? In conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Alliance publishes the biennial Benchmarking Report to collect and analyze data on bicycling and walking in all 50 states, the 52 largest U.S. cities, and a select number of midsized cities. The Report combines original research with over 20 government data sources to compile data on bicycling and walking levels and demographics, safety, funding, policies, infrastructure, education, public health indicators, and economic impacts. 

A professor and researcher at Rutgers for more than 30 years, John Pucher (pictured below) recalls a very different landscape when he got the call from the Alliance about the nascent Benchmarking Project more than a decade ago. When asked to be an academic advisor for the new initiative, Pucher agreed — with enthusiasm.

"We had used some of that preliminary data from the 2003 Thunderhead [now the Alliance] pilot project for some of the analyses we were doing, because there was almost nothing out there," Pucher recalls. "There was no comprehensive source of information on walking and cycling levels, let alone cycling and walking policies for all the individual states, and for all these individual cities."

To assist in the effort, Pucher called on his long-time research partner — Ralph Buehler, a professor at Virginia Tech. Buehler also saw the emerging Benchmarking Project as a significant addition to the data landscape, most notably through the custom surveys sent to all 50 states and 50 most populous cities to gather information that had never been compiled before.

"Everyone can access the ACS [American Community Survey] and download that data, but they don’t have the data that comes out of the city and state surveys," Buehler says. "The great thing about the Benchmarking Report is that, through Alliance member organizations, it includes all that information on, for instance, infrastructure and policies, that is just not available anywhere else. It couldn’t be compiled without a survey. So this report is unique in filling that data void. Researchers always want data, as do advocates, to find out what’s really going on."

To better understand what's going on, the Alliance has expanded it's scope of research with each edition, lifting up new areas of interest and gathering information from a wider array of communities.

"For each additional year, there’s been some additional indicators," Pucher explains. "In 2014 and the current report, we have these 17 mid-sized and smaller cities, so it’s expanded in terms of the information it provides and also in its sample size. And, as I look through the reports, I see less and less missing information. There had been a lot of asterixs for cities or towns that didn’t provide a certain category of information, but, over time, those gaps are getting filled in more and more and more."

As those gaps have closed, the report has become a powerful tool to benchmark progress and identify areas of challenge, Buehler (pictured below) says.

"If we’re not measuring, it’s hard for state and local policymakers and advocates to point to what they have to improve and where the community is lacking," Buehler notes. "The report provides those measurements of cycling and walking levels, health outcomes and other data, so you can see how you compare to other states and communities and identify strengths and weaknesses. You can’t improve what you’re not tracking... And that tracking over time is critical. With each edition, we’re getting more unique as a database."

Just as the Alliance has expanded the scope of its surveys, the wider landscape of biking and walking research has grown astronomically, Pucher says — perhaps 10 or 20 fold just over the past 15 years. And the Benchmarking Report helps to highlight and provide a compendium of that growing body of work.

"For the TRB [Transportation Research Board] bike committee, in the 1990s we had maybe two or three papers for the annual meetings," Buehler recalls. "In 2010 it was 24; this year it was 112. Bicycling research is booming. And the pedestrian committee has had similar numbers and similar trends. Both of our committees are part of the Centennial Club — committees that get more than 100 papers — and they’re aren’t that many."

The 2016 Benchmarking Report includes insight from dozens of studies, helping advocates and professionals understand key trends and begin to explore important intersections in areas of health, economic development and social equity. And adding to the quantitative analysis, the 2016 edition also includes a wealth of personal stories that reveal how diverse stakeholders are working in their unique communities and positions to increase and improve walking and biking.

"I know for a fact that a lot of academics and professionals — planners, NGO [non-governmental organizations] folks, advocates — use these reports all the time," Pucher says. "And not just once; they go through it again and again and again."

Be among the first to see the 2016 Benchmarking Report by registering for our free release webinar on March 2!