Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017 - 16

BICYCLE FRIENDLY BUSINESS

Christopher Jarrett @SlimWonder
proving walking and bicycling across the
region:
* Focus investments in communities, where the built environment
and local policies support walking
and biking.
* Address safety and equity issues
in parts of the region with urgent
needs.
* Work closely with transit providers so that walking and bicycling
can be easily combined with transit
for longer regional trips.
* Pursue a strategy of relentless
incrementalism to increase the
walkability and bikeability of the
region's lower-density residential
neighborhoods and auto-oriented
corridors.
* Develop a regional trail system in
partnership with government agencies and nonprofit organizations.
* We are working to integrate each
16 BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA

of these strategies into our agency's
policies, programs, and decisionmaking to help ensure that we are
allocating grants, funds, resources,
and assistance in a way that improves transportation for all of our
region's residents and visitors.
* From Principles to Practice
But regional success is only built with
help from local partners. As our regional
strategies emerged, "Walk. Bike. Thrive!"
needed a system to incorporate the diverse actions necessary for local success.
The Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC)
program run by the League (along with
the Walk Friendly Community (WFC)
program run by the Pedestrian & Bicycle
Information Center) was tailor-made for
this effort as it has helped hundreds of
communities improve conditions for bicycling.
The BFC and WFC designations provide actionable frameworks and clear

goals that encompass many of the pieces
needed for building walk- and bikefriendly communities. Both programs
support community-scale planning and
emphasize the need for diverse, comprehensive approaches. And, critically for
our plan, multiple local efforts cumulatively and efficiently support a more livable region.
Our team directly incorporated the
5E's - Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation - as well as adding a sixth category
for Equity, as a toolkit for guiding community-scale efforts. With these pieces,
fostering Bike-Friendly Communities
has become a cornerstone of our regional
vision for creating a more bikeable metropolitan area.
NEXT STEPS
The frameworks developed in "Walk.
Bike. Thrive!" will guide regional deci-

http://www.bikeleague.org/content/5-es http://www.bikeleague.org/community http://www.walkfriendly.org/ http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/ http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/ http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/

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