The combined efforts of bicycle advocates and city staffs to encourage bicycling has paid off in 18 cities this fall as the League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Communities.
Two of them — Baltimore and Knoxville — must be given credit for hanging in there to earn the award on their third attempt.
All the cities — there are representatives from north, south, east and west — earned their entrance at the lowest bronze level. Now they can work toward the goal of a silver, gold or platinum level designation. Only Portland, Ore., Davis, Calif., and Boulder, Colo., are at the highest level.
The League also renewed the designations of eight cities — three at the silver level and five at the bronze level.
The awards were announced at the Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference going on this week in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The 18 new cities added to the Bicycle Friendly Communities list are:
Baltimore, Md.
Carbondale, Colo.
Chapel Hill, N.C.
Charleston, S.C.
Concord, N.H.
Durham, N.C.
Fayetteville, Ark.
Golden, Colorado
Gresham, Ore.
Houghton, Mich.
Huntington Beach, Calif.
Knoxville, Tenn.
Menlo Park, Calif.
Oakland, Calif.
San Antonio, Texas
Sanibel, Fla.
Santa Clara, Calif.
South Bend, Ind.
8 communities that renewed their designations
Silver
Bloomington, Ind.
Carrboro, N.C.
Denver, Colo.
Bronze
Ada County, Idaho
Brentwood, Calif.
Louisville, Ky.
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Honorable Mentions
In addition, 15 communities were recognized for their efforts but just fell a little short to receiving bronze status. They are Cincinnati; Conway, Ark.; Erie, Colo.; Gunnison, Colo.; Hattiesburg, Miss.; Hernando, Miss.; Hoboken, N.J.; Inverness, Fla.; Jacksonville, Fla.; Lee's Summit, Mo.; Merced, Calif.; New Orleans, La.; Rockville, Md.; Santa Fe, N.M.; Winona, Minn.
Five E's
To receive a designation, cities fill out paperwork that is reviewed by the Bicycle Friendly Communities staff. Essentially, they're looking for how well the cities adhere to the “5 E's”: Engineering, education, enforcement, encouragement and evaluation and planning.
Baltimore and Knoxville both came up short twice in earlier reviews, according to a League press release, before earning their designations this fall.
In all, there are 158 Bicycle Friendly Communities in 43 states. You can check out the Bicycle Friendly Community master list here, or follow this link to the interactive map.
Bike friendly universities
In making the announcements this week, the League also said it was launching the Bicycle Friendly University program. The League said it would recognize the way universities encourage and improve campus sustainability, connectivity, quality of life and personal health.
Colleges interested in making their campuses more friendly for students, staff and visitors can check the Bicycle Friendly University website.
Photo above: Sign in Folsom, California, along the American River bike trail in 2008.
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