Thanks to the bike advocates and city officials in places as different as Honolulu and Fargo, there are now bicycle friendly communities in all 50 states.
The League of American Bicyclists announced its newest round of 23 communities that earned bike-friendly status last week. That makes a grand total of 325 communities across the US that achieved a level of platinum, gold, silver or bronze.
Hawaii and North Dakota were the last two states devoid of bike friendly communities. That all changed last week when the League issued bronze-level awards to Honolulu, Hawaii, and Fargo-Moorhead and Greater Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Because Fargo and Grand Forks are spread across the state border, Minnesota also claims some credit to those cities.
Fargo was named as one of the top 50 bike friendly cities by Bicycling magazine in 2010, but that didn’t cut it with the League. Applicants must score on five different categories: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation and Planning.
Grand Forks had applied on two previous occasions, but didn’t make the grade. This time the city scored “excellent” for education and public outreach,” according to the Grand Forks Herald.
HawaiiNewsNow.com reported that a “complete streets” ordinance, the 2012 Oahu bike plan and bike education for 4th graders contributed to Honolulu’s award.
Closer to home, the Wenatchee, WA, metropolitan area received its first bronze level bicycle friendly award.
Here’s the list of new bike-friendly communties:
Nantucket, Mass. — Gold
Arroyo Grande, Calif. — Bronze
Battle Creek, Mich. — Bronze
Carson City, Nev. — Bronze
Fargo-Moorhead, ND/Minn. — Bronze
Flint, Mich. — Bronze
Frazee, Minn. — Bronze
Greater Grand Forks, ND/Minn. — Bronze
Greater Wenatchee MPO, Wash. — Bronze
Hagerstown, Md. — Bronze
Honolulu City and County, HI — Bronze
Hutchinson, Minn. — Bronze
Milton, Mass. — Bronze
Morro Bay, Cal. — Bronze
New Britain, Conn. — Bronze
New Haven, Conn. — Bronze
Normal, Ill. — Bronze
Peachtree City, GA — Bronze
Phoenix, Ariz. — Bronze
Pleasanton, Callif. — Bronze
Riverdale City, Utah — Bronze
South Lake County, Fla. — Bronze
South San Francisco, Calif. — — Bronze
The full list of bicycle-friendly communities is available at the League website.
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