Bicycle Friendly.

Now that's something I didn't know ...

Recently the folks from Trek were in Kansas City to help promote
becoming a Bicycle Friendly Community. I had a chance to meet Rebecca
Anderson, Trek's Director of Advocacy who was hired to lead the One
World, Two Wheels effort. She brought along a group of folks from Omaha
... what an amazing group! The folks from Omaha told me how they had
raised $600,000 in private donations to get the city started on creating
a better bicycling environment in Omaha. That is quite impressive ...
way to go Omaha! With employees like that being active in the community
Trek can certainly be proud of their accomplishment.

The same night I met Rebecca and the gang from Nebraska, we also heard
from the League of American Bicyclists about their awards program that
recognizes communities that actively support bicycling
http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/. As they went through the
presentation, they talked about how the awards program had changed since
it's inception. For a community to be recognized (at either the Bronze,
Silver, Gold or Platinum levels), various criteria are evaluated
covering the five "E's" ... engineering, education, encouragement,
evaluation and enforcement. There are only two cities at the platinum
level ... Davis, CA and Portland, OR. Something I saw that evening got
me to thinking (which some say is when I am most dangerous). It was a
sign from the early days of the program. I remembered seeing one
recently and it was actually in my city (Overland Park, KS). A few days
later I stopped by that location and sure enough it was one of the
original signs (installed in 1995). Once upon a time we were also
recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community. Now it's time we see where
we stand in 2008 so later this year we will submit our info. If anyone
has any advice, drop me a note.