Yesterday, the League of American Bicyclists announced their updated list of Bicycle Friendly Communities. The closest town to Boston is Brunswick, Maine…and, in the past, Burlington, Vermont has been a winner. Both communities won the Bronze designation.
Despite some recent improvements, the City of Boston is not on the list yet. I would argue that their recent efforts make them a strong candidate, but the reality is cycling in Boston is still perceived as a life-and-death adventure and an award, at this point in time, would stretch the credibility of the League.
To win designation as a Bike Friendly Community, a community of any size (award winners range from Chicago and New York City down to Sitka, Alaska and Oxford, Mississippi) submits an application to report what has been done to make their community more bike friendly. It can be both a recognition of efforts and a promotion to encourage more residents to consider cycling.
The 28-page application is, itself, something of a roadmap for change. As communities review the application, they will quickly self-select whether or not they should be applying yet–and gather ideas for steps to take towards making an application credible.
We should be putting Massachusetts on this map. If Sitka and Oxford can be bike-friendly, then, with a bit of work, so can Westwood. Other towns like Brookline, Newton, Milton, Concord and Lexington are probably farther along, but all share significant cycling and cycling advocate populations and official town advisory boards. I would love to see one of these signs posted at the entrance to our town…of course, I’d love to see some bike lanes first!
Of course it would not be fair to just post signs without having made things any safer or friendlier. But as we deploy bike racks, involve our advisory committee in the repaving of roads (a small project next week on Gay Street is taking into account our committee’s recommendations), promote our schools participation in Safe Routes to Schools, and look for more and more ways to support and encourage cycling, I believe we should make these efforts as visible as possible–not to “claim credit” but to send a message that bicycles are a welcome part of our community.