Missoula is one of 14 cities in the nation designated as a Bicycle-Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.

Phil Smith gets a lot of contest notices, and Missoula’s bicycle-pedestrian program manager ignores many of them.

By VINCE DEVLIN of the Missoulian

"Truthfully, there are a lot of these things around," Smith said, "and a lot of the time, they don’t mean a lot."

But when he saw the rigorous application process the League of American Bicyclists wanted cities to go through to be designated a Bicycle-Friendly Community, Smith figured it would be worth the effort.

"They wanted fairly detailed information," Smith said. "Seeing that led me to believe that any community that would go through that process and was recognized would deserve the recognition."

Now, Missoula is one of 14 cities in the nation designated as a Bicycle-Friendly Community.

Smith said he understands about 40 cities applied, and said he had talked to several of his peers who hadn’t bothered because they didn’t think they had a chance, given the type of information the league was seeking.

The League of American Bicyclists will make a formal announcement and present the award in the next couple of months, according to Anthony Yoder, a senior program manager with the 123-year-old Washington, D.C.,-based organization.

Corvallis, Ore., and Palo Alto, Calif., were the league’s top cities, and awarded gold-level status. Missoula was one of six silver award winners, along with Denver; Fort Collins, Colo.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Stanford, Calif.; and Tempe, Ariz.

Bronze-level winners were Cary, N.C.; the Presidio of San Francisco; Redmond, Wash.; Schaumburg, Ill.; Shawnee, Kan.; and Beaverton, Ore.

No community received the league’s top honor, a platinum-level designation.

The league was impressed by U.S. Census data that suggested 5.64 percent of all trips to work in Missoula are made by bicycle, Yoder said.

That’s actually higher than one of the gold-level winners, Palo Alto, which had 4.4 percent.

Yoder said five areas were examined to determine winners: engineering, encouragement, education, enforcement, and evaluation and planning.

"Missoula was right close to the top," Yoder said. "I can’t say because of any one thing they aren’t gold level. I’d have to do some research to say why they’re not gold. But silver is great; gold-level cities are just doing a bit more."

In addition to the percentage of trips made to work by bike, Yoder said Missoula scored points with its Bike Walk Bus Week, its bike-to-work guide, and the Missoula In Motion and Way to Go Club promotions.

"Truthfully, I think a good share of it is because Missoula is Missoula," Smith said. "It’s because we’ve worked hard at it over many years. Before there were bike lanes, part of the culture of the community was that bicycles belonged on our streets."

Corvallis, Ore., was selected because the city provides extensive covered bike parking for its rainy climate, because more than 95 percent of arterial and collector streets in Corvallis have striped bike lanes, with the rest of the arterials scheduled for completion in 2003, and because it boasts one of the highest rates in the nation for trips to work by bike, 7.5 percent.

Palo Alto offers city employees an extra $20 a month if they bike to work, provides bike lockers at transit hubs and in its business district, supports a staffed bike parking facility, and employs a part-time coordinator who teaches a bicycle curriculum to children in the third, fifth and sixth grades.

"A bicycling magazine used to name us one of the five or 10 best cities in America for bicyclists," Smith said. "Everybody was thrilled, but no one was sure how we were selected. There was no criteria for it that we knew of; I guess it was just by reputation. This, we know the criteria, we know how we performed, which makes it all the more meaningful."

The league started its Bicycle-Friendly Community designation in 1995, according to Yoder. Previously, cities were either designated as bike friendly or not, and 59 cities had been so named when the league significantly revamped its application process and instituted the different award levels for this year.

Ten other cities were given honorable mentions: Auburn, Ala.; Blacksburg, Va.; Hennepin County, Minn.; Lawrence, Kan.; Orlando, Fla.; Rockville, Md.; Newark, Del.; Pittsburg, Calif.; Oakdale, Minn.; and Salinas, Calif.

Reporter Vince Devlin can be reached at 523-5260 or at [email protected]

http://missoulian.com/articles/2003/05/20/news/local/news03.txt