Active People, Healthy NationSM Sparking Change In Communities Across America

East Side Bike Club does weekly rides every Saturday from Buffalo’s Martin Luther King Jr. Park

BFA IN ACTION

SPARKING CHANGE IN COMMUNITIES ACROSS AMERICA

BY RAVEN WELLS

MEET OUR 2022 COMMUNITY SPARK GRANT RECIPIENTS

Over the past two years, America has seen a boom in biking. This can be seen on your neighborhood streets, your regional trails, and at the community level. To help build on this moment, we launched the League of American Bicyclists’ Community Spark Grant program—each mini-grant serving as a catalyst for empowering your community through bike-related projects—and now 11 hand-picked organizations will each receive $1,500 towards their goal of building thriving Bicycle Friendly Communities. “From border towns and rural communities to urban areas, we are very excited to support the projects and programs proposed by each of the Spark Grant recipients and share our love for grassroots bicycle advocacy efforts in our communities,” said Anna Tang, the League’s Bicycle Friendly America (BFA) program specialist and lead on the Community Spark Grant program. “Our hope is that other communities across the country can look to these recipients and their work as examples of what they can do to make improvements that benefit everyone, but especially those who need safer and easier bicycling the most. These small sparks will ignite a bigger movement towards building a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone.” Out of 89 applications, the 11 recipients chosen demonstrated a robust ability to catalyze change as well as strengthen and build a Bicycle Friendly Community that is truly for everyone. Many of the projects funded through the grants will serve people facing racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities, as well as address gaps in resources to make bicycling a more feasible option for the community. The funding for these grants came from the generous support of General Motors and from the Active People, Healthy NationSM Initiative, an effort by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity to help 27 million Americans become more physically active by 2027. Whether measured in increased levels of physical activity, higher rates of bike commuting, or just more people choosing to get to everyday destinations by bike, the League is proud to be able to help recipients make a long-lasting impact on their communities through the Community Spark Grant program. We hope to see the benefits of these projects break down barriers within communities and transcend generations.

ALTADENA TOWN COUNCIL ALTADENA, CA

Altadena Parkways Multi-benefit Project Single occupancy vehicles fill the streets of Altadena while a lack of connected walkways and bicycle infrastructure, plus reduced transit service, have resulted in higher rates of pedestrian and bicycle-related traffic collisions and often below-average health scores. A community-led demonstration project will build awareness about the need for safe routes to parks and schools, traffic calming, and green street multi-use path solutions.

BICYCLE OVEN COMPANY CHARLOTTE, NC

Seniors: Cycle That Pain Away Bicycle Oven Company plans to initiate discussions, as well as sponsor webinars and lunch and learn events, with physicians in the area about promoting the health benefit of bicycling as a low-impact sport to their patients. “Ultimately, we will offer Smart Cycling courses for seniors in consultation with their physicians. With this project, we hope that ridership over the age of 50 will increase in Charlotte neighborhoods,” they wrote in their application.

BRIGHT COALITION BOWLING GREEN, KY

Make BG’s Biking BRIGHTer The BRIGHT Coalition is supporting BikeWalk BG in a collaborative effort to promote bicycle and pedestrian safety and education in an area with a large number of non-English speaking families and residents who face issues like physical inactivity at a disproportionate rate. The project includes supplying low-income families with bike safety equipment, including enhanced visibility bicycle and shoe lights, reflective gear, and helmets.

CITY OF LANSING • LANSING, MI

Wheel Change: Lansing Bike Repair Station With the installation of a fully-equipped bike repair station, the City of Lansing’s Public Service Department aims to increase the number of bicyclists who utilize the Lansing River Trail and enhance multi-modal transit options for the significant population of refugees and long-time Lansing residents who garden at Webster Farms.

EAST SIDE BIKE CLUB BUFFALO, NY

Amplifying and Enhancing the East Side Bike Club Community Workshop and E-Bike Library There are very few facilities for those who commute by bike in Buffalo’s East Side despite the fact that 1 in 3 households in the area do not own a personal vehicle. This project involves implementing a bicycle and pedestrian refuge for those passing by or stopping at the club’s shop and the installation of bicycle racks and benches on the street where the shop is located, which is at the heart of Buffalo’s densest Black commercial district.

FREE BIKES 4 KIDZ MORGANTOWN, WV

Free Bikes 4 Kidz Morgantown Free Bikes 4 Kidz (FB4K) Morgantown needs a large capacity bike rack to be able to more efficiently collect and distribute donated bikes to low-income families. “We have 35 bikes coming soon from Chicago. Long-term, we hope to keep on hand a fleet of ready-togive-away bikes, in a range of sizes, so kids can keep bikes instead of borrowing them. We feel that kids should have the opportunity to bond with their bicycles as we have,” they wrote in their application.

GIRLS IN GEAR • NEWARK, NJ

Girls in Gear Newark

Girls in Gear will use the grant to provide bikes and helmets for two teams of 15 girls in Newark with an eight-week season of Girls in Gear this fall. In addition, first aid and CPR certification as well as comprehensive safety training will be administered to volunteer coaches who will lead the curriculum. “By providing bikes, and helmets to any rider who needs one, we are breaking down the barriers to entry for cycling, which can frequently seem daunting for a working-class family,” stated Girls in Gear in their application.

“Our hope is that other communities across the country can look to these recipients and their work as examples of what they can do to make improvements that benefit everyone...”

Thrive Allen County riding with the Humboldt community

LAREDO MAIN STREET LAREDO, TX

RECYCLE

Laredo Main Street hosts the Laredo Main Street Farmers Market, which includes seasonal produce and locally made goods, as well as entertainment. As Laredo is a food desert, the event is essential to the residents of Laredo, a predominantly Hispanic population. RECYCLE is a project that will give the community an opportunity to develop the knowledge and skills associated with bicycle maintenance at Laredo Main Street’s Farmers Market.

THRIVE ALLEN COUNTY IOLA, KS

Allen Community College Fixit Service Station Thrive Allen County, a rural health advocacy organization, runs a free bike share program, an earn-a-bike program, and bike repair classes to make bicycling in Allen County more convenient. Allen County has a poverty rate of 14.5% and 20% of residents do not have access to reliable transportation. This project will install a fix-it station for a rural community that relies on bicycles as a main source of transportation.

FIND OUT MORE

Get more indepth profiles on our recipients

TULSA GLOBAL DISTRICT TULSA, OK

Global District Open Streets Tulsa Global District is a 501(c)3 organization committed to the commercial revitalization of the 21st St & S Garnett Road commercial corridor, which their application described as “the most diverse community in Tulsa, with 54% of residents identifying as Black, Indigenous and People of Color including significant Latinx and Asian communities represented.” This project will host an open streets event in the Global District, as an implementation effort of the NACTO Streets for Kids Design Workshop.

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON • ARLINGTON, TX

UTA Bike Library (lights & locks) The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) is a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly University. The UTA Bike Library is an emerging campus partnership that circulates bicycles checked out from the campus libraries on a semesterly basis at no cost to members of the UTA community. This grant will support the purchase of lights and locks for the UTA Bike Library.

BFA IN ACTION

RAISING THE BFC STANDARDS AROUND SLOW ROADS & STRONG BIKE NETWORKS

BY AMELIA NEPTUNE

IN SEPTEMBER, THE LEAGUE UNVEILED a newly updated 2022 Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) application. Thanks to the input of over 200 local practitioners and advocates who participated in interviews, listening sessions, surveys, and focus groups over the past year, we were able to make some big changes to the BFC application to reflect higher standards for what it means to be a Bicycle Friendly Community for Everyone.

These updates include a new ‘Equity & Accessibility’ section of the application to reflect the new 5th E of the BFC Program’s “5 E” criteria, as well as new and updated questions across all 5 E’s. If you’d like to dive deeper into all of the recent BFC updates, you can learn more on our blog, but here are just some of the ‘Engineering’ updates we are most excited about that we think League members will be excited about too.

YOU CAN LEARN MORE ON OUR BLOG

Sharrow outside door zone in Richmond, Virginia

FROM PIECEMEAL BIKE LANES TO COHESIVE BIKE NETWORKS

Historically, the BFC application asked communities to report miles of on- and offstreet bike facilities, but these piecemeal numbers missed many aspects of what makes a good bike network. There was no consideration of the distribution, quality, or connectivity of these facilities, beyond basic standards like minimum widths. We now require applicants to provide a map of their bike network to show the layout of their bike facilities, and communities will be evaluated on how well-connected and how equitably-distributed their bike network is. We also ask applicants about any assessments they’ve done on the bike network, such as evaluating the quality or completeness, quantifying access to destinations or equity impacts, or analyzing safety data to identify problematic high-crash areas. We know that many communities are not yet doing these types of analyses, but that is precisely the point: the BFC program has raised its standards because we want communities to raise their standards, to make your ride better.

Stay tuned for our first BFC awards announcement and new report cards reflecting these updates in December. If your community is up for renewal or would like to participate in the BFC program for the first time, our 2023 submission deadlines are February 15 and August 30. Find the full BFC application and learn more at bikeleague.org/community.

Protected bike lane from University of Washington’s Bicycle Friendly University application

LOW-STRESS, HIGH-QUALITY BIKE FACILITIES FOR ALL

Behind the scenes, the BFC application has always given more points to lowerstress facilities—facilities that riders of all ages and skill levels are more likely to feel comfortable riding on, such as protected bike lanes or paved off-street pathways, as opposed to paint-only bike lanes or onstreet shared lane markings (“sharrows”). However, the old BFC application and report card presented all bike facilities as equal, giving the false impression that they were all weighed equally in our evaluation process. The updated BFC application gives immediate feedback to communities on which facilities count as “low-stress” and spotlights what percentage of a community’s bikeway network meets the criteria for “low-stress”. To reflect the League’s new priorities around slowing down roads and car traffic, the revised application also helps applicants see how appropriate their road network’s speed limits are, which will also be emphasized in future BFC report cards. One of the biggest shifts in the BFC bike network questions is that sharrows are no longer counted as bike facilities. Applicants are still asked to report how many miles of sharrows exist in their community, but only under the category of “other features and markings” rather than under “bike facilities”. While sharrows have their place in helping to reinforce the legitimacy of bicycle traffic on the street, there is consensus in national bikeway design guidance and standards that shared lane markings are not bike facilities, and the BFC application and award criteria will now reflect this. For some BFCs with many miles of sharrows, this means their total bike network mileage will appear to decrease on their next BFC renewal, but again—these higher standards are precisely the point: our goal is to help every community create a cohesive, connected, low-stress bike network that feels welcoming and safe to all kinds of riders.