Active transportation




Active transportation describes human-scaled and often person-powered ways of getting around, such as walking, bicycling or rolling a wheelchair. The Active Transportation Plan provides a foundation for policies, procedures, investments, and improvements to the Washington state active transportation system.

Bicycling plays a key role in Washington's transportation system. Washington state has been named the nation's number one "Bicycle Friendly State" by the League of American Bicyclists more times than any other state in the nation. For more information refer to Bicycling in Washington.

All Washingtonians are pedestrians at one time or another—to get to work, for recreation, as part of events and tours, and our children may walk to school. In fact, over a quarter of daily trips are short enough to be accomplished by foot or using a mobility assistance device such as a wheelchair. For more information, refer to, Walking in Washington.

The Washington State Active Transportation Plan released in 2021 provides more information on data sources and limitations. The information in the plan doesn't match this dashboard exactly due to the use of different data sources, which were not available when the plan was developed.

Multi-year trends

Bicycling & walking:

  • The percentage of people commuting by bicycle decreased in Washington from 0.9% in 2019 to 0.7% in 2023
  • The percentage of people walking to work decreased in Washington from 3.5% in 2019 to 3.1% in 2023

Multimodal connections:

  • The number of people boarding with bicycles on Amtrak Cascades trains increased 4.1% from 7,300 in 2019 to 7,600 in 2023
  • The number of Washington State Ferries walk-on passenger ridership decreased by 43.8%, from 6,961,490 walk-on passengers in 2019 to 3,912,899 in 2023

Fatalities & serious injuries:

  • Traffic crashes resulting in bicyclist fatalities increased by 80.0%, from 10 fatalities in 2019 to 18 in 2023
  • Traffic crashes resulting in pedestrian fatalities increased 40.0%, from 110 fatalities in 2019 to 154 in 2023
  • Traffic crashes resulting in serious injuries to bicyclists increased 52.4%, from 103 in 2019 to 157 in 2023
  • Traffic crashes resulting in serious injuries to pedestrians increased 33.1%, from 356 in 2019 to 474 in 2023