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Bicycle Friendly Community

As we continue to celebrate National Bike to Work Week, the League of American Bicyclists has announced its latest round of Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) awards.  The city of Akron is among this year’s recipients earning a “Bronze” BFC award.  With nearly 40 million Americans bicycling in 2012, and U.S. bike commuting increasing more than 61 percent from 2000 to 2012, there’s growing consensus that making biking better is a key component of a competitive, livable community.

The BFC Program is revolutionizing the way communities evaluate their quality of life, sustainability and transportation networks, while allowing them to benchmark their progress toward improving their bicycle-friendliness.  With this impressive round of 18 new BFCs, there are now 303 BFCs in 48 states.

The Bronze BFC award recognizes Akron’s commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies.  Akron is the only Ohio city to receive a Bronze award this year, thereby becoming the ninth Ohio city to achieve this honorable award.

The Akron Metropolitan Area Transportation Study (AMATS) and the City of Akron partnered together in preparing the city’s application to the BFC Program.  In addition to providing federal funds to Akron for bicycle infrastructure, AMATS has worked on a number of bicycle planning and advocacy initiatives, including a Bike User Map, bicycle information and education website – Switching-Gears.org -, a Bike-N-Brainstorm program and a 2012 Bike Plan for the region.

AMATS Transportation Planner Phyllis Jividen says that, in the last several years, Akron has almost doubled its number of miles of new bike infrastructure from 12 miles of bike lanes and shared lane markings to 23 miles of bike lanes, shared lane markings and contraflow lanes throughout the city.

For additional information, please contact Phyllis Jividen at 330-375-2436 or by email at PJividen@AkronOhio.gov.