Photo: Dan Chabanov
The City of Philadelphia was named a ‘Silver’ Bicycle-Friendly Community by the League of Bicyclists’ Bicycle-Friendly Community program today, citing the city’s Bike Month and Bike to Work Events, our bike plan, bicycling culture, and other issues.
This year’s award was part of the largest application round in the Bicycle Friendly Community program’s 13 year history, according to the League’s press release. There are 404 communities recognized for their efforts to make bicycling better throughout the United States.
“We applaud these communities for making bicycling a safe and convenient option for transportation and recreation,” said Bill Nesper, Vice President of Programs at the League of American Bicyclists. “We are encouraged by the growing number of leaders who see bicycling as a way to build more vibrant, healthy, sustainable and connected communities and be a part of the solution to many complex challenges faced at both the community and national levels. We look forward to continuing to work with these communities as we move closer to our mission of creating a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.”
The Bicycle Friendly Community program looks at a number of issues when deciding whether to give a community the Bicycle-Friendly designation—and the level of designation. Among them: total bicycle network mileage compared to total miles; enforcement, bicycle-friendly laws and ordinances; bicycle program staff compared to the overall population; a bike plan; and others.
You can see the full list of our scores here.
The Bike League suggests that Philadelphia should strengthen our Complete Streets policy, and increase the amount of staff time spent on improving conditions for people who walk and bike — both points of which were included in the Bicycle Coalition’s 2015 Safer Streets report, and which the Vision Zero Alliance is working on.