Blog
Congratulations to New and Renewed Bicycle Friendly Communities!
Kicking off National Bike to Work Week, today the League announced the largest round of Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFC) in the program’s history. While communities from California to Connecticut joined the ranks of BFCs, the Mountain West rose above the rest, including two new Gold Level BFCs in Durango, Colo., and Missoula, Mont.
- BFA Program Director Bill Nesper taking a ride in Missoula, Mont. — a Gold BFC
“We aren’t surprised that this was the largest number of new and renewing applicants that we’ve ever had,” said League President Andy Clarke. “The popularity of this program is clear evidence that simple steps to make bicycling safe and comfortable pay huge dividends in civic, community and economic development.”
With this impressive round, there are now 214 BFCs in 47 states. By evaluating and recognizing investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies, the BFC program is revolutionizing the way communities evaluate their quality of life.
A long history of strong advocates working with visionary policymakers to create a comprehensive bicycle network boosted Missoula to the Gold standard — a distinction reserved for just 16 communities nationwide. With the recent additions of protected bike lanes, path system signage and new bike parking, more than 7 percent of local residents commute by bike, making this city a model for the state and region.
“The City of Missoula, together with numerous citizen advocates, have worked hard for more than 30 years to integrate and promote bicycle commuting, and we’re proud that our extensive off-street bike/ped trail system, together with our miles of bike lanes, and bike education and encouragement programs, reflect that,” said Missoula Mayor John Engen. “It’s an honor to achieve the Gold standard.”
Durango, Colo., also joined the elite group of Gold BFCs. With 300 miles of mountain bike trails and a growing network of city bike lanes, bicycling has become integral to the town’s culture and identity. “The City has worked hard to expand the bicycle footprint in our community,” said Durango City Manager Ron LeBlanc. “We want everyone to know that people on bikes are given special status in our community.”
Also in Colorado, Aspen earned a Silver award on its very first application. Aspen’s network of bike paths, recent Comprehensive Bike Survey and increased enforcement of its Share the Road program have made cycling safe and comfortable. In Aspen, people choose to bike commute at roughly 10 times the national average — and the next generation of cyclists are offered bicycling safety education in all of Aspen’s schools.
“Obtaining this designation was a team effort,” said Aspen Mayor Michael Ireland. “Everyone rose to the challenge because establishing the proper bike infrastructure, safety mechanisms and education are efforts we all embrace. Getting the Silver award allows us to celebrate our accomplishments, continue to grow in our bike friendliness and achieve even more as a community.”
Click here for a list of the new and renewing awards, and honorable mentions, from the Spring 2012 round. Learn more about the program and view the full list of Bicycle Friendly Communities at www.bikeleague.org/bfa.
Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director
Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.
Subscribe
May 14th, 2012 at 11:16 am
A big WHOOOO! for Cincinnati for attaining Bronze. This recognizes initiatives in implementing the 2009 Bicycle Transportation Plan and the growing bike culture and advocacy with Queen City Bike.
May 14th, 2012 at 11:34 am
[...] League President Andy Clarke is quoted: [...]
May 14th, 2012 at 2:25 pm
The only consolation to living in #48 AR is my community of North Little Rock is still Bronze.
May 14th, 2012 at 3:25 pm
[...] to their blog post, “While communities from California to Connecticut joined the ranks of BFCs, the Mountain [...]
May 14th, 2012 at 5:00 pm
I sure would like for the League to explain why Richardson, TX and Plano, TX are not in this list at all. I ride in both daily and can’t understand the League’s position here…
May 14th, 2012 at 5:17 pm
I was hoping not to see a community that encourages poor riding by painting door zone bike lanes obtain as high as Gold (Durango, CO). Seems we lose the opportunity to wield a stick as well as a carrot.
I would agree that Durango deserves very high praise and recognition. If it simply erased the DZBL stripes (which it had not as of the end of March, when we last visited) and continued its otherwise good works–which are obvious in the community, Gold might be more credible.
Did the lousy bike lanes come up in the application review? Are they still in place on roads such as Third Avenue? We will see soon enough, as a tandem based vacation in Durango is beckoning again…but I’ll be damned if I’ll put my wife or our Co-Motion in the path of an opened car door.
May 14th, 2012 at 7:10 pm
[...] Monday’s national announcement to kick off National Bike to Work Week, Sitka maintained its bronze level designation in the [...]
May 15th, 2012 at 12:46 am
Yes, please post your reasoning on Plano and Richardson, TX. I am a big supporter of LAB, and a very active LCI, but the process here is deeply flawed. In Plano our bike share numbers fell 500% from 2005 to 2010. Everyone, including the League, knows that these numbers are erroneous, but they used this as a rational anyway.
I anxiously await !
Am I correct that we can now publish the communications related to the selection process?
May 15th, 2012 at 9:39 am
[...] spoke to Mary Monroe of Trails 2000 to understand how cycling advocacy helped Durango become a Gold BFC. Here’s her [...]
May 15th, 2012 at 10:11 am
Mike and Warren: Over the past ten years we’ve reviewed almost 550 community applications; 214 communities have been given bronze or higher recognition. We don’t publish the names of communities that applied and didn’t get an award – although we do give every community that applies a report containing feedback on how they might do better. Our goal has never been to punish or embarrass communities; it has always been to encourage them to do more.
One of the two Texas communities in question has a 0.1% mode share – that’s five year ACS average through 2010 – with a margin of error that could easily mean that less than 100 people ride to work (and at most 220 might do so). This same community reports having one bike rack for every 2,900 residents and was still one month away from completing a bike route signing project approved in 1985, that’s 27 years ago. The other community was relatively better – a 0.4% mode share for bikes and one bike rack for every 1,724 residents; but that’s still rather low. Neither community has a bike advisory committee; one has 10% of a staff person in public works; the other has a full time person in the Parks and Rec program, no-one in public works. There is little or no consistent bike education reported as being offered in either community…I could go on.
On the plus side, one of the communities has a new bike plan; the other has a trail system on the ground with huge potential. Richardson Bike Mart is arguably the best bike shop in the country and does a huge amount to support cycling; the Plano Bicycle Association is a very active and successful club; BikeDFW is working hard with both communities; there are some good local ordinances on the books. But with the best will in the world, if you are barely reaching the “strong and fearless” riders in the community, what hope do the “interested but concerned” rides have?!
There is a lot of potential to move the needle on cycling in the Dallas area, and relative to other parts of the metroplex, Plano and Richardson may be doing some good things but our reviewers clearly felt that neither should yet be designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community. We look forward to the day when you prove us wrong and the first sign goes up.
May 15th, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Thanks, Andy –
In 2005 Plano had a .5% share. In 2010 it dropped to .1% — a 500% change. Obviously one number is wrong. Richardson has a .4% share, which would indicate that the .1% number is erroneous. This was brought up to Bill Nesper in 2010. Plano & Richardson are, functionally, the same community, and thus the numbers cannot vary between the two by 400%.
Under BikeDFW, both cities have a Task Force which functions as a Bicycle Advisory Committee. Frankly, they are more effective than many City sponsored ones — more proactive, meet more often, etc. If the Cities set these up, which they will probably do now, then we will likely have two groups doing the same thing less effectively.
May 16th, 2012 at 10:00 am
[...] week, Lincoln, Neb., was among the 24 new Bike Friendly Communities, winning the bronze designation. The city now joins more than 200 other Bike Friendly Communities [...]
May 16th, 2012 at 10:18 am
[...] State Rankings Released NEXT Week ShareWith the announcement of the latest Bicycle Friendly Communities on Monday, we debuted a new map on our website this [...]
May 16th, 2012 at 11:00 am
[...] Score Launches Bike Score ShareIn addition to the League’s announcement of new Bicycle Friendly Communities, Monday marked the launch of a new resource for cyclists: Bike [...]
May 16th, 2012 at 7:39 pm
Cyclists here in the City of Alameda, a new bronze-level BFC, has been working hard since the city developed its first bike plan in 1999 to make our island community a safer and more convenient place to ride for all.
Many thanks to BikeAlameda co-founders Lucy Gigli and Dan Wood, and to all the other activists who helped push the City of Alameda to install bike lanes, bike parking, the Estuary Crossing Shuttle, and other improvements.
We have a long way to go but city officials are very supportive and we are on our way.
http://www.cityofalamedaca.gov/
http://www.bikealameda.org
http://www.ebbc.org
May 17th, 2012 at 10:00 am
[...] Monday, Morgantown added another state to the Bicycle Friendly America map, becoming the first Bicycle Friendly Community in West Virginia. Having applied several years earlier, Morgantown used the League’s advice to guide its efforts [...]
May 18th, 2012 at 11:15 am
[...] Beach Aims to Become Nation’s Most Bike-Friendly City ShareOn Monday, Long Beach attained Silver Bicycle Friendly Community status. In this guest post, Allan Crawford, Bicycle Coordinator for Bike Long Beach, describes his [...]
May 21st, 2012 at 2:50 pm
[...] the city’s long tradition of cycling culture, the city of Gunnison, Colo., attained Silver Bicycle Friendly Community designation last week. Gunnison City Manager, Ken Coleman, shares his community’s enthusiasm for biking and was proud [...]