Boston Gets A Silvah

Written by Boston Biker on May 02

The League of American Cyclists has deemed Boston a silver level city in terms of bike goodness, today the silver, tomorrow the gold! (and then several years later, the platinum).

 

From their website.

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The League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) designations today to kick off May as National Bike Month.

 

East Coast Cities Earn Silver Designations and Race to Gold

To date the Eastern United states has had very few silver-level Bicycle Friendly Communities and no gold-level BFCs. That’s beginning to change. Today, the League of American Bicyclists gave Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C. silver- BFC designations. The cities are now competing to be the first to earn gold.

Since Mayor Thomas Menino launched Boston Bikes in 2007, the city has added 38 miles of facilities and has seen a spike in bicycle ridership. Bicycle commuting grew by 125 percent between 2005 and 2009 – and is at a level four times the national average. In 2010 alone, Boston installed 20 miles of bike lanes, incorporating numerous best-practices like cycle-tracks, bike boxes, colored bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, and special treatments over trolley tracks and at high-crash intersections. With 29 pre-existing miles of multi-use paths, the network now totals nearly 67 miles. All this helped Boston earn silver in its very first BFC application.

 

2011 Spring Bicycle Friendly Community Winners

 

21 communities are awarded the BFC designation for the first time:

Silver Level

• Boston, Mass.
• Sisters, Ore.
• Hilton head Island, S.C.

Bronze level

 

• Athens & Clarke County, Ga.
• Cupertino, Calif.
• Des Moines, Iowa
• Eau Claire, Wis.
• Fresno, Calif.
• Harrisonburg, Va.
• City & County of Juneau, Alaska
• Kansas City, Mo.
• Keene, N.H.
• Las Cruces, N.M.
• Los Altos, Calif.
• Norman, Okla.
• Northampton, Mass.
• Raleigh, N.C.
• Sedona, Ariz.
• Somerville, Mass.
• Tybee Island, Ga.
• Wilmington, N.C

*Ten communities successfully renewed their designation and three moved up to higher designations

 

Gold

• Minneapolis, Minn.*

Silver

• New York, N.Y.*
• Washington, D.C.

Bronze

• Beaverton, Ore.
• Carmel, Ind.
• Lexington & Fayette County, Ky.
• Mesa, Ariz.
• Roswell, Ga.
• Shawnee, Ks.
• South Sioux City, Neb.

Spring 2011 Honorable Mentions

• Apple Valley, Minn.
• Carson City, Nev.
• Chula Vista, Calif.
• Cottonwood, Ariz.
• Elmhurst, Ill.
• Fernandina Beach, Fla.
• Frederick, Md.
• Gahanna, Ohio
• Huntsville, Ala.
• Mankato / North Mankato, Minn.
• Onalaska, Wis.
• Peachtree City, Ga.
• Rosemount, Minn.
• Troy, Ohio
• Tuscaloosa, Ala.
• Warrenville, Ill.
• Wilmington, Del.
• South Windsor, Conn.
• Windsor, Calif.

Tags: boston, league of american cyclists, silver
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