Cedar Falls Named "Bike Friendly"

The League of American Bicyclists awarded Cedar Falls the prestigious “Bicycle Friendly Community” distinction in May 2009, making it the first Iowa community ever to receive this recognition.

Kim Burger, Manger of the Cedar Falls Tourism and Visitors Bureau said, “It’s a big deal to us because we really are a bicycling community. We have 106 miles of hard surface trails in the metropolitan area and our population really values bicycling. It was the people’s advocacy and encouragement that helped build our trail system.”

Cities applying for the “Bicycle Friendly” distinction are judged on five different factors: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation. A Bicycle Task Force was appointed by the mayor to help push a strategic plan forward to meet all the standards. Burger noted that bike lanes, Share the Road signs, sharrows (or, shared lane arrows), and new bike racks were installed throughout the city, and key cycling routes were identified.

After a city has received the “Bicycle Friendly” distinction, they are re-evaluated every four years. Since there are four levels of recognition (platinum, gold, silver and bronze), cities are encouraged to improve their standings at each evaluation. Cedar Falls was awarded the bronze, and the Bicycle Task Force hopes to achieve gold status in the future.

The Bicycle Task Force in Cedar Falls has been working toward the “Bicycle Friendly” distinction for several years, but their work is far from over since the City of Cedar Falls recently adopted a Complete Streets Policy. The task force has worked with the Active Transportation Alliance (formerly the Chicago Bicycle Federation) and the Iowa Bicycle Coalition to develop their plans.

About 30 volunteers from all over the community comprise the Bicycle Task Force. Burger says the task force will soon be set up as its own city commission, which will lend legitimacy to the group, as well as allow it to have an on-going influence in the community.