Delaware County Review

The League of American Bicyclists is honoring the efforts of the City of Dublin to build better places for people to bike with a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) award. This is the first time Dublin has achieved Silver status and is the only city in Ohio to be recognized at the Silver level in the 2022 ranking. The City has been a bronze-level community since 2016. The silver-level BFC award recognizes Dublin’s commitment to improving bicycling conditions through investments in bike education programs, regular bike events that promote and encourage people to choose biking, pro-bike policies and bike infrastructure.

“With more than 150 miles of shared use paths, Dublin makes it clear that connectivity through bicycling is a community priority. We’ve partnered with the Dublin Police, Dublin City Schools, our Dublin Bicycle Ambassadors and various civic groups to ensure we have a safe, bike-friendly community that offers accessibility and recreation for our residents, workforce and visitors,” says Director of Transportation & Mobility Jeannie Willis.

The League of American Bicyclists’ BFC program sets the standard for how communities build and benchmark progress toward making biking better.  The five levels of the BFC award – diamond, platinum, gold, silver and bronze, plus an honorable mention category – provide a clear incentive for communities to continuously improve. Awarded communities must renew their status every four years to ensure that they maintain existing efforts and keep up with changing technology, national safety standards and community-driven best practices.

By earning silver-level honors, the League recognized Dublin for the City’s partnership with Dublin City Schools to increase bicycle safety education, expansion of the City’s shared use path network, working with businesses and developers to increase high-quality bike parking throughout the City and a commitment to comprehensive road safety with the City’s Speed Management Study currently underway, which will lead to a formal Vision Zero action plan in 2023.

While the award process considers very visible elements such as bike infrastructure, other essential elements include efforts around adult and youth bike education, encouragement through events like Bike to Workday, evaluation mechanisms and enforcement all through the lens of equity. The application process includes an opportunity for local bicyclists and active transportation advocates to provide input on their experiences and perceptions of bicycling in their community.

More than 860 communities applied for recognition by the Bicycle Friendly Community program this year. This round of awards includes 32 new and renewing awardees, joining a total of 501 current Bicycle Friendly Communities in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Dublin continues to progress in its commitment to creating transportation and recreational resources that benefit residents of all ages and abilities with safer streets, better bicycling amenities and healthier, more sustainable transportation choices. The City will launch a bike-share program in the spring with traditional and electric bikes available to rent. Learn more about bicycling in Dublin at https://dublinohiousa.gov/recreation-services/parks/biking/.

To learn more about the BFC program, visit bikeleague.org/community.

Original source can be found here.