The League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Communities and the City of Tacoma has been awarded the Bronze Level. The Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community award recognizes Tacoma’s commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, bikeways infrastructure and active transportions policies. There are four levels of the Bicycle Friendly award – bronze, silver, gold and platinum – which provides a clear incentive for Tacoma to continuously improve. Next time, let’s go to the gold!
In 2010 – 2011 the City of Tacoma’s achievements included:
- Installation of 96 bike racks on-street and the City partnered with Downtown On the Go on Tacoma’s first public bike cage
- A Safe Routes to School grant for Sheridan Elementary School and development of the Stadium High School bike club
- A “Drive Better” safety campaign in partnership with the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department to remind motorists to look out for bicyclists and pedestrians.
- Design and preliminary engineering for 14.5 miles of new bikeways which are scheduled to be constructed this summer in an arc across Tacoma
- Completion of engineering for the Water Ditch Trail which will be constructed this summer with full signals and ped actuated flashers at crossings
- Well-attended Bike Month events in May including the Tacoma Bike Swap and the Bicycle Commuter Challenge with our partners from Pierce Transit and Pierce County
- Bicycle and pedestrian counts at 15 locations across the city to measure annual progress
Summer has begun and Tacoma residents have been bicycling for their work commutes, to run errands and for recreation. On nicer days, we’re seeing a wide variety of people on all styles of bicycles riding the city’s streets for their daily trips. Bicyclists in Tacoma have made a commitment to sustainable, healthy transportation and they are being supported by the efforts of the Tacoma City Council and the mission, policies and goals of the Mobility Master Plan.