Bicycle Friendly Workshop held in Kansas City

Over 50 bicyclists, staff, city officials, and other interested citizens attended the Bicycle Friendly Evening and Bicycle Friendly Workshop organized by the cities of Kansas City, Missouri, and Shawnee, KS, Wednesday and Thursday.

Kansas City, Missouri, Mayor Mark Funkhouser recently announced that Kansas City's goal is to reach platinum level Bicycle Friendly Community status by 2020.

Shawnee is currently a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community and is interested in moving up to a higher level.

Participants from communities as far away as Omaha, Maryville, and St. Louis attended the workshop.

Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists, outlined the Bicycle Friendly Communities program and what communities need to do to be recognized as Bicycle Friendly Communities.

Rebecca Anderson of Trek Bicycle talked about Trek's work to incorporate bicycle advocacy into the company's philosophy and make it part of standard industry practice. Anderson talked about Trek's 1 World 2 Wheels campaign, and the Go By Bike Challenge. Most important, Trek has committed to provide $1 million in support for the Bicycle Friendly Communities program--support the program needed to reach out to the many communities around the country interested in participating.

Officials and staff from several cities around the Kansas City area have indicated they are interested in working together to have a group of cities to support each other and work together towards Bicycle Friendly Community status.

Clarke and other BikeLeague staff are willing to come to different communities around Missouri to help them work towards Bicycle Friendly Community status. Discussion are already underway for Bicycle Friendly Workshop in other communities around Missouri. The recent support from Trek allows the League to give much greater amount of technical support to communities interested in pursuing Bicycle Friendly Community status. Contact info for BikeLeague staff is here.

Clarke also indicated that the BikeLeague will soon release rating programs and programs similar to Bicycle Friendly Communities for states and businesses.

One outcome will be to issue a rating and ranking comparing all 50 states/DOTs on issues related to bicycling.

Stay tuned!

Greatly increasing the number of Missouri communities working towards Bicycle Friendly Community status is one of the most important goals in MoBikeFed's Vision of Active Transportation in Missouri.