Florida has made significant strides in recent years to update and upgrade its bicycling network. This effort comes after years of being among the most dangerous states for bicycling and walking in the United States.

The Bicycle Friendly State report cards, annual rankings authored by the League of American Bicyclists, validate Florida’s progress. The Sunshine State ranks 15th in 2017, continuing the rise from 24th in 2015 and 28th in 2014.

One innovation that’s improving Florida’s bicycle and pedestrian safety is the TransPed Initiative, which FDOT District 5 established with our planning professionals and geospatial application developers. TransPed is an interactive geographic information system-based tool designed to assist in the planning and analysis of pedestrian and bicycle transportation. The objective of TransPed is to combine a comprehensive bank of data with applicable analysis features to create a holistic tool accessible to users of all abilities.

The GIS tool includes a breadth of traditional transportation data such as existing infrastructure, available routes, traffic counts, forecasts and crashes, as well as information about land use and socioeconomic characteristics pertinent to travel by alternative modes. There are three main components:

• Data Bank. Featuring more than 70 data layers, the TransPed tool contains a wealth of bicycle and pedestrian data.
• Data Visualization. TransPed allows the user to visualize the data and print maps.
• Analysis and Prioritization. Various analysis features of the tool provide the capability to conduct spatial and nonspatial analysis and ultimately prioritize bicycle and pedestrian projects.

The launch of TransPed marks a new paradigm in bicycle and pedestrian planning in Central Florida.