Continuing the city’s aggressive efforts to become the most bike-friendly urban city in the nation, Long Beach has been recognized as a Bike Friendly Community (BFC) by the American League of Bicyclists. Part of this effort includes the appointment of a new City Mobility Coordinator, Charles Gandy, a recognized bicycling authority, to spearhead community efforts.
The City of Long Beach was awarded a Bronze-Level Bicycle-Friendly Community Award from the League and is one of 13 communities throughout the United States that has been newly recognized this month for providing safe accommodations and facilities for bicyclists and encouraging residents to bike for transportation and recreation.
“The League is delighted to recognize the City of Long Beach for its efforts to welcome bicyclists and make bicycling safer and more enjoyable,” said League President Andy Clarke. “We applaud the City of Long Beach and our other BFC winners for their willingness to invest over the long-term in creating a better, more livable environment for their citizens.”
Applicant communities are judged in five categories: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation & Planning. A community must demonstrate significant achievements in each of the five categories in order to be considered for an award. The 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.
“Being awarded this prestigious distinction is exciting and will help us plan how we are going to take cycling in Long Beach to the next level,“ said Mayor Bob Foster. “We see nothing short of a platinum-level designation in our future.”
The Bike Friendly Community’s reviewers were impressed with Long Beach’s efforts to experiment with multiple types of bicycle street treatments to improve bicycle access, safety and convenience. Specifically, the city plans to:
• Install dedicated bike lanes on Broadway and 3rd Street in downtown Long Beach to encourage residents, families, and visitors to participate in a more bike-friendly downtown
• Enhance Vista Avenue to become a bike boulevard to provide a safe route to school for students at Lowell Elementary and Rogers Middle School on the east and Horace Mann Elementary on the west end of Vista
• Install green-painted bike lanes with sharrows on 2nd Street to encourage cyclists to use the streets instead of the sidewalks in this busy shopping district and neighborhood.
These bicycle street treatments will provide the city with an opportunity to evaluate their effectiveness and through community feedback, determine whether they should be replicated in other neighborhoods, and incorporated into the Bicycle Master Plan.
