Saturday, May 1, 2010

Pittsburgh: "Bicycle Friendly"

The League of American Bicyclists for the first time has designated Pittsburgh and 15 other cities as "bicycle friendly." Pittsburgh received "bronze status" in terms of friendliness toward bike riders. There are now 140 municipalities in the nation to be awarded "friendly" status.
Stephen Patchan is Pittsburgh's bicycle-pedestrian coordinator. He says since 2007 the number of bike-lane or share lane roads has doubled to 12 miles and 200 bicycle racks are being installed in neighborhood business districts and parks. All new major developments in the city are required to have bike racks.
Scott Bricker, executive director of Bike Pittsburgh, says it's inspiring how far Pittsburgh has come since 1990 when Bicycling Magazine named the city one of the three worst in the U.S. for biking...... “This award recognizes all the hard work of the bicycling and trail communities, and the strong partnerships we have built with the City of Pittsburgh and our funders in beginning to implement our vision of a bike friendly Pittsburgh. But this is only the beginning and we look forward to working with the City to follow the League's prescription to get us to gold, or who knows, maybe even one day platinum.”

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