award

St. Louis has been designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community (Bronze Level) by the League of American Bicyclists. The designation recognizes work done over the past several years by Bike St. Louis, a community partnership managed by Great Rivers Greenway (GRG). The other partners include the City of St. Louis, St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation, Trailnet, and Grace Hill Settlement House. The national announcement recognized the City of St. Louis as one of 15 new Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFC) across the United States.

"The League is proud to present this award the City of St. Louis for its work to promote bicycle safety and education while encouraging bicycling in the community. We congratulates the City of St. Louis and its partnering organizations, as well as all of our BFC winners for implementing successful, long-term bicycle plans that provide quality of life improvements for their citizens, " said League President Andy Clarke. . . .

The League recognized the City of St. Louis as a stand-out community for its initiative and progress to become more bicycle-friendly. The BFC’s reviewers were impressed with the city’s accomplishments. These included more than 70 miles of on-street designated bicycle lanes throughout the city created by Bike St. Louis and the new McKinley Bridge Bikeway & Trestle, a 3,000 ft. long cantilevered bicycle lane spanning the Mississippi River from Missouri to Illinois that was developed by GRG. The City of St. Louis was a partner on both projects.

"This is a great recognition for four years of hard work by the City and our partners," said St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. . . .

"St. Louis' designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community is very exciting. This award demonstrates the City’s commitment to making improvements in the bicycling environment and to providing an ever better quality of life for our people," said Patty Vinyard, Executive Director of the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation. "At the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation we work every day to make the entire St. Louis region a better place to ride a bike. We would like to congratulate the City of St. Louis as a leader in the region and we look forward to working together toward more improvements in our transportation network that benefit everyone."

Bike St. Louis, initiated by Lewis Reed, President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen, and U.S. Congressman Russ Carnahan, is managed by GRG. GRG is the public organization leading the development of a region-wide system of approximately 640-miles of interconnected greenways, parks and trails, known as "The River Ring." More information is available at bikestlouis.org and www.greatrivers.info.

St. Louis, Mo., for example, is one of the 70 largest cities surveyed in the ACS and a new BFC.

The community nearly doubled their number of bicycle commuters from 2000 to 2008. The city has completed several noteworthy projects within the past year, including 53 new miles of on-street additions to the bikeway system, a $10 million investment, and an expansion of bicycling education offerings for children and adults. "St. Louis like cities across the country, is making smart investments in building a welcoming community for biking that will inevitably lead to more, healthier and sustainable transportation options and increased recreational opportunities." stated Bill Nesper, League Director of the Bicycle Friendly America program.

The BFC program is revolutionizing the way states and communities evaluate their quality of life,
sustainability and transportation networks, while allowing them to benchmark their progress and work toward improving their bicycle-friendliness. The application process to become a BFC is rigorous; currently only 124 of the 318 total applicants have a BFC four-year designation. The renewal process and four levels of the award – platinum, gold, silver and bronze – provide a clear incentive for communities to continuously improve.