BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA
W
hether you live in a small town, suburb or large city, bicycling makes life better. Whether you work at a multinational corporation or manage the corner coffee shop, bicycling boosts your bottom line. And whether you’re getting a degree at a big state school or a liberal arts college, bicycling is the perfect fit for university life. The beauty of the Bicycle Friendly America program is that it recognizes the differences among communities, businesses and universities, and helps to guide different types of participants toward their shared goal of creating better places to live, work and learn — through bicycling. To showcase the power of the program, we went straight to the source, asking representatives from each area to share how they became bicycle friendly — and what key steps they would recommend to others.
Green bike lanes in San Francisco, California (Photo by Matt Roth)
BICYCLE FRIENDLY COMMUNITIES »
Making riding a bicycle safer, more comfortable, and convenient is a key priority as our city’s transportation network evolves — and there are many factors that helped us to increase bicycle ridership and become a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community. These 10 factors in particular stand out as notable dynamics that helped us reach Gold and will aide us in our work towards Platinum.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIF.
1» POLICYMAKERS ON BIKES
How the City on the Bay has become a BFC leader BY EDWARD REISKIN
San Francisco is changing in ways that are requiring us to think more broadly about how we travel in our city. By following through on our city’s vision of a people-centered place that prioritizes bicycling, walking, and transit, we can ensure that our residents, workers, and visitors continue to have their transportation needs met while simultaneously enhancing connections among neighborhoods, jobs, and social activities.
Political leadership and collaboration is crucial. We’re especially grateful for our elected and appointed officials that make it a point to voice their support for bike-friendly projects and initiatives. Just as important, many of our public officials are part of the action, riding their bikes to work and around town, showing people that bicycling is something they can incorporate into their everyday lives as well.
2» COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS
Working closely with community stakeholders has been essential in not only
designing our projects, but securing the support needed to make them a reality. Knowing that residents and small businesses are supportive of a bike project in their area and vocal about their desire to get it implemented helps our projects, not only in that specific community, but across the city as well.
3» EFFECTIVE ADVOCACY GROUPS
San Francisco’s transportation advocacy groups, like the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, bring a wealth of knowledge, passion, and diversity to the discussion on how to improve bicycling in San Francisco. They also help hold the decision-makers on our projects accountable and follow our projects through to completion.
4» PASSIONATE STAFF
Having dedicated and passionate staff working to plan, design and implement our bike projects also makes a huge difference. Our staff make these projects possible in not only the technical sense, but also ensure work is being done in the realm of community, government, management and administration. AMERICAN BICYCLIST 11