Anchorage is Alaska’s second Bicycle Friendly Community, joiningSitka which earned a bronze level award in May 2008.The League of American Bicyclists noted that education is at the core of creating a bicycle-friendly Anchorage. The League identified several efforts including Anchorage’s education efforts with local schools, Alaska Injury Prevention Center’s spring bicycle rodeos for children andBCA’‘s Safe Riding Techniques 101 clinics and its hosting of the Alaska Bike Summit in April 2009, which brought bicycle leaders from across the country to Anchorage to discuss a variety of bicycle transportation issues. Additionally, the League acknowledged several of BCA’s current activities that support bicycling.
In order to earn a Bicycle Friendly Community honor, communities have to prepare a lengthy application that shows the city’s efforts in the Five E’s — Engineering, Education, Education, Enforcement and Evaluation. Communities can earn BFC honors at four levels — Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze — and there is an Honorable Mention award for those communities that aren’t quite there yet. Of the 318 communities to submit an application in recent years, only 124 have earned the BFC honor, which lasts for three years. Congratulations go out to the Muni and especially Lori Schanche for putting the application together.
The League of American Bicyclists also recently awarded the Bicycle Friendly Businessaward to two Alaska businesses: the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium at the gold level and Green Star Inc. at the bronze level. The League of American Bicyclists also has aBicycle Friendly State ranking (click the Alaska map for details), and Alaska ranks 47th out of 50.
While this is very exciting news for Anchorage, there is much work to be done to continue to make Anchorage more bicycle-friendly. If you think this is an important achievement consider supporting BCA.
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