Cycling advocates want bike-friendly Bentonville
Posted on Thursday, May 29, 2008
BENTONVILLE - As gas prices edge near $ 4 a gallon and Americans look for more ways to be sustainable, some are looking at how to reduce transportation costs and their carbon footprint by promoting cycling in communities.
A couple dozen cyclists gathered at Compton Gardens on Wednesday to help make and promote Bentonville as a place where cycling is not just seen as a way to exercise, but also an alternative form of transportation.
Andy Clark, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists, made a presentation on how Bentonville can be certified as a Bicycle-Friendly City by the League.
"Americans have a love affair with their car; a love affair that has an incredible cost," Clark said. "We can't imagine life without a motor vehicle. We are so dependent on a car. … It's so reliant that we're not really prepared for holding ourselves accountable for using it wisely. That love affair is with the quickest, most convenient, most effective way to get around - but if we make it something else, or give people a real choice, I believe they'll take it," he said.
The 128-year-old League began as the League of American Wheelmen, working toward construction of paved roads and to advocate the rights of cycling communities. Although the League has not had much presence until recent years, now it works as a lobbying organization in Washington, D. C. - and works with communities looking to increase quality of life and to promote cycling tourism.
Since 1996, the League's Bicycle-Friendly Communities program has made cities such as Portland, Ore.; San Francisco, Calif.; and Madison, Wis. into cities that see bicycling as a solution to a number of problems -including gas prices, traffic congestion and poor health.
According to the Bicycle-Friendly Community Yearbook, the Bicycle-Friendly Community program provides a road map for communities to become great places for bicyclists.
The League receives more than 200 applications from cities across the country each year -and rates communities based on criteria it refers to as The "five E's":
• Engineering: Communities are asked about what infrastructure has been built to promote cycling in the community. This could include a bicycle master plan, the accommodation of cyclists on public roads and the implementation of bike lanes and multiuse paths in the community.
• Education: A Bicycle-Friendly Community educates cyclists on how to ride safely, but also educates motorists on how to share the road.
• Encouragement: This category concentrates on how the community promotes and encourages bicycling - through Bike Month and Bike-to-Work Week events, as well as community bike maps, route-finding signage and having a Safe Routes to School program.
• Enforcement: This measures the connections between the cycling and lawenforcement communities. Questions include whether the law enforcement community has a liaison with the cycling community, if law enforcement encourages cyclists and motorists to share the road safely, and the existence of bicycling-related laws such as those requiring helmets or the use of side paths.
• Evaluation and Planning: This is where communities are judged on what is in place to evaluate current programs and plan for the future. This includes ways to measure the amount of cycling in the community, the crash and fatality rates, and ways the community works to improve these numbers.
There are currently no League-certified Bicycle-Friendly Communities in Arkansas.
Tim Robinson, co-owner of the Phat Tire Bike Shop in downtown Bentonville, said he has met with Mayor Bob McCaslin and Planning Services Manager Shelli Rushing to hit the ground running on making Bentonville officially Bicycle-Friendly.
Robinson said the city has had plans to place route-finding signage in the community but has not determined where to place the signs.
Robinson is asking local cyclists in the community to contribute to what will become a route map that will be available in the next two months to residents.
Cyclists may stop by the Phat Tire Bike Shop, at 106 E. Central Ave., call (479 ) 715-6170 or e-mail info @ phattirebicycles. com.
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
