Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017 - 12

MARTYNA GRIFFIN

BICYCLE FRIENDLY BUSINESS

18 miles in length, the Carrollton Greenbelt is more than something defined by
cyclists, but is defined by all who use it
and by the many ways they use it.
To talk about the Carrollton Greenbelt as a trail - a familiar loop encompassing the city, an echo of Atlanta's
beltline, or an oasis of safe bicycling in a
city, county, or multi-state region where
such infrastructure is often lacking - is
both worthwhile and missing the point.
Without the trail, and its promises of
separated, safe and stress-free bicycling,
there would not be the same culture
that permeates the conversation about
bicycling in Carrollton. In building the
Greenbelt, the city of Carrollton has also
built its bicycling culture.
One of the great struggles of the Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) program is to account for "soft" factors that
make bicycling in a certain place great.
It is fairly easy to look at a map, to look
12 BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA

at data on bicycle commuting, bicycle
safety or bicycle events and form some
metric-backed opinion on whether a
community deserves an award and what
level it should be. If you have some time,
I wholeheartedly recommend looking
at the well-organized Bicycle Friendly
Community site created by Martyna
Griffin and the Friends of the Carrollton
Greenbelt. It does a great job of illustrating developments in the community
through pictures and words, using the
BFC process as a guideline for a broader
exploration of biking in Carrollton.
There is no way for me to describe the
entirety of the effort that is enthusiastically explored in the 72-page guide to
the Carrollton Greenbelt. The level of
detail provided by Carrollton begs the
absurdity of ascribing precious metal
grades to communities and hints at the
value of this external motivation. It conveys the celebration of Carrollton's as-

tounding community accomplishment
- building an 18-mile loop trail in five
years thanks to over $1 million in private
grant funding and broad community collaboration that has driven changes in the
local culture for recreation and bicycling.
Carrollton's BFC application was an
unexpected pleasure. One of the great
parts of the BFC program is providing
an opportunity for each participating
community to reflect on its actions and
compare themselves to others. As the
program continues to involve, most recently to include an online-discussion
forum for further facilitate best practices,
I look forward to more communities like
Carrollton who bring energy and unique
stories about how bicycling developed in
their community.
Ken McLeod is the League's Policy Director.

http://www.bikecarrollton.org/bfc-application/ http://www.bikecarrollton.org/bfc-application/ https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfCGB/ https://www.facebook.com/FriendsOfCGB/ https://www.issuu.com/times-georgian/docs/wgl_greenbelt_special_edition http://www.bikeleague.org/community http://www.bikeleague.org/community https://www.issuu.com/times-georgian/docs/wgl_greenbelt_special_edition

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017