The Blog Page

News, commentary and humor about bicycling and other topics of the day

 

So, how did St. Louis become bicycle friendly?

You may be wondering how St. Louis earned its designation as a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community? Of course, there's the barebones explanation LAB provided: the city's education and enforcement efforts.

There's, of course, more to the story. St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. Thursday at City Hall to tout the city's honor. On a flier inviting people to the news conference, here's how city officials described how it earned the designation:

"The Leagued recognized the City of St. Louis as a standout community for its initiative and progress to become more bicycle-friendly. The BFC's reviewer were impressed with the city's accomplishments. These included creating more than 70 miles of on-streets designated bicycle lanes throughout the city and expanding connections to Illinois by developing a 3,000-foot long cantilevered bicycle land separated from vehicular traffic with the McKinley Bridge Bikeway and Trestle."

There's more to the story than that. I obtained a copy of a printed version of the city's application -- the official application was filed online with LAB -- and here's some highlights:

Engineering:

• While the city doesn't have a written policy on accommodating bicycle on city streets, the city incorporates "Complete Streets" principles into public road projects.
• The city has 89 miles of designated bike routes.
• The city has worked with Great River Greenway to develop Bike St. Louis, which consists of 77 of the city's 89 miles of bike routes.
  

Education:

• Trailnet, Green Rivers and the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation have issued public service announcements educating motorists to share the road with cyclists.
• Advocacy groups and bike shops offer educational opportunities for adults.
• Some schools participate in a bicycle safety program.

Encouragement:

•  The city supported Trailnet with its Bike to Work Day festivities in an effort to promote commuting by bicycle.
• The city's role as a host city in the Tour of Missouri.
• Activities at the Penrose Park Veldrome.

Enforcement:

• The city give training to its bicycle officers.
• The city has a liason for planned cycling events.

Evaluation and Planning:

• The city had no bicycle/motor vehicle fatalities from 2004 to 2008, and it averaged about 130 cyclists/motor vehicle crashes a year during that same span.
• The city soon will be in the process of drafting a comprehensive bicycle plan.
• The city is developing several greenways as part of a bike trail network.

The Bicycle Federation, along with Trailnet, Great Rivers Greenway, Bike St. Louis and the Grace Hill Settlement House, assisted the city with its application.

Labels: League of American Bicyclists, St. Louis

Roger 1 comments links to this post 10:44 PM

St. Louis earns the Bronze

Kudos to the city of St. Louis! The League of American Bicyclists has designated St. Louis as a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community!

St. Louis earned its bronze for the city's bicycle education and enforcement efforts.

Two St. Louis-area businesses also earned honors. REI-St. Louis earned Gold as a Bicycle Friendly Business, while Velocity Cafe and Cyclery earned a Bronze.

Overall, Missouri ranks 17th among Bicycle Friendly States. Columbia once again is a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community.

Illinois ranks 11th among the Bicycle Friendly States. Chicago was named a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community, while two of its suburbs, Naperville and Schaumburg, earned Bronze.

The Land of Lincoln had four Bicycle Friendly Businesses. REI-Lincoln Park and REI-Northbrook earned Silver designations, while Spin Doctor Cyclewerks in Barlett and the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District earned Bronze.

While I'm sure the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District is deserving of its award, it's my view that the Madison County Transit District has done more. Most cyclists in the St. Louis area know about MCT's extensive network of bicycle trails. In addition, MCT has bicycle racks on all its buses, and the district estimates it carries an average of 800 bikes each month.

Perhaps someone at MCT can be persuaded to fill out an application to earn a Bicycle Friendly Business designation.

Labels: Chicago, Illinois, League of American Bicyclists, Missouri, St. Louis

Roger 0 comments links to this post 1:34 AM

Friday, May 01, 2009

Missouri now has a Bicycle Friendly Community

The League of American Bicyclists today released its Bicycle Friendly Communities for 2009. For the first time, a Missouri city made the list.

Columbia, the home of the University of Missouri, earned a Silver designation on the strength of the city's engineering of bicycle routes and encouragement of bicycling. As the Missouri Bicycle Federation has noted, bicycle trips in Columbia more than doubled--increasing from 3.4% to 8.7% of all work/school trips. The GetAbout Columbia program has succeeded in increasing the number of bike trails and bike lanes.

Three Illinois cities also made the list. Chicago earned a Silver designation, while the suburbs of Schaumburg and Naperville received Bronze.

What are this year's most Bicycle Friendly Communities? Davis, Calif; Boulder, Colo; and Portland, Ore. All three communities received the Platinum designation.

Earning Gold are Corvallis, Calif.; Fort Collins, Colo.; Jackson and Teton County, Wyo.; Madison, Wis.; Palo Alto, Calif.; Tuscon, Ariz.; San Francisco, Seattle and Stanford University.

As far as Bicycle Friendly States are concerned, Illinois ranked 12th, while Missouri ranked 17th.

Illinois earned its rating because the state "passed a complete streets law in 2007 and has a statewide bike map with suitability ratings. However, there are no performance measures or project lists in the state bike plan."

Missouri's status was because "Missouri has a bike route map with suitability ratings, but no bike master plan and no cell phone use restrictions."

Wisconsin took second place, trailing only Washington state. Other nearby Midwestern/Southern states and their rankings include Iowa (6), Michigan (15), Indiana (28), Kentucky (27), Kansas (33), Arkansas (38) and Tennessee (43).

What state is at the bottom of the list? Alabama. Here's that LAB has to say about Alabama: "Alabama promotes bicycling through its tourism board, yet lacks a state-wide bike route network and still has dated, discriminatory mandatory sidepath laws on the books. The state also falls behind the majority of the country in Safe Routes to School programming."

Labels: advocacy, League of American Bicyclists, Missouri

Roger 0 comments links to this post 6:47 PM

Saturday, September 06, 2008

Illinois 8th, Missouri 28th among Bicycle Freindly States

The League of American Bicyclists just released its list of Bicycle Friendly States, and I was somewhat surprised to see Illinois ranked 8th.

I wasn't quite as surprised that Missouri ranked 28th.

Illinois earned its 8th-place ranking because "Illinois passed a Complete Streets law in 2007 and has a statewide bike map with suitability ratings. However, there are no performance measures or project lists in the state bike plan."

Missouri's was ranked 28th because "Missouri has a bike route map with suitability ratings, but no bike master plan and no cell-phone use restrictions."

I'm sure Illinois, in part, earned high marks because of Chicago and one of its suburbs, Schaumburg. Chicago placed in the Silver Level of Bicycle Friendly Communities, while Schaumburg placed in the Bronze Level. No Missouri communities were cited among the nation's Bicycle Friendly Communities.

As for neighboring states, Wisconsin did the best, placing second. Michigan came in 12th, Iowa was 21st, Indiana was 22nd, Kansas was 25th, Kentucky was 29th, Nebraska was 33rd, Tennessee was 36th, Arkansas was 39th and Oklahoma was 43rd.

Washington was named the nation's most Bicycle Friendly State, followed by Wisconsin, Arizona, Oregon and Minnesota. West Virginia was named the nation's least Bicycle Friendly State. Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and North Dakota also were in the bottom five.

LAB scored the states on responses to a questionnaire evaluating their commitment to bicycling and covering six key areas: legislation, policies and programs, infrastructure, education and encouragement, evaluation and planning, and enforcement.

Labels: advocacy, League of American Bicyclists

Roger 1 comments links to this post 1:15 AM