Monday, June 01, 2009

Bicycle Friendly Community Award Press Conference

It's official, we are are the first Bicycle Friendly Community in Pennsylvania! (YEAH!!! High 5!)

On Thursday June 4th League of American Bicyclists President Andy Clarke will present the Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community Award to Mayor Michael Nutter at 11AM at City Hall.

The League's Bicycle Friendly Community press release had this to say:
Philadelphia is back on track after doing a lot in the late 1990s with its on-street network. They have hired a bike coordinator, Bike Philly is growing apace, there are unique urban mountain biking opportunities and industry and advocates are working effectively with Philadelphia to move things forward.

So how do we get to Silver, Gold or (gasp) Platinum?

Let's set our first goal for Silver in 2013. To do this the pending bicycle and pedestrian plan needs to be expanded to cover the entire city. And implementation of the first part of the plan should be well underway, beginning with a network of Center City bicycle facilities. Innovative designs such as physically separated bike lanes and bicycle boulevards have yet to be tested here. On the encouragement side the already effective Bicycle Ambassadors program needs a dedicated source of funding so it can continue into the future.

I believe enforcement will be our toughest challenge in the years ahead. But in the end a bicycle friendly city and indeed a livable city needs it police force as partners in traffic safety by evenly enforcing all traffic laws.

2 comments:

erok said...

Congratulations Yinz!!

Michele said...

CONGRATULATIONS!

Will this help PA move up the list from ~gulp~ #40? I hope so!