The League of American Bicyclists just announced their Spring 2012 honorees for Bicycle Friendly Communities program, and Kansas has just earned its third award!
Manhattan, Kansas earned the bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community award, joining Lawrence and Shawnee (both at bronze level as well) as bicycle-friendly communities in the state of Kansas, along with Leawood on the “Honorable Mention” list.
There have been so many great bicycling things happening in Manhattan recently, and to have the good news capped off with the Bicycle Friendly Community designation is quite exciting. Congratulations to the Little Apple!
Momentum has been building in Manhattan over the last few years, leading to this designation. Some of the great things happening in the area include:
- A new bike club, the Flint Hills Area Bike Club, which provides social rides, training rides, and bike event throughout the year.
- Bicycle racing teams, including Bad Goat Racing, the Kansas State University Cycling Team, and the Tallgrass Cycling Team.
- Two bike shops: Big Poppi Bicycle Co. and The Pathfinder
- A growing collection of trails, including Fancy Creek State Park, the Manhattan Linear Trail, and the Manhattan River Trails.
- Ongoing bike events, including Cycle CASA, the Dirty Little Secret mountain bike race, the Tallgrass Stage Race, the Wildcat Race Weekend, and the monthly Critical Mass Manhattan, as well as nearby events such as the Cabin Fever Challenge and Yellow Brick Road Ride out of Wamego, the Santa Fe Trail Spring Ride and Santa Fe Trail Bike Ride out of Alta Vista, the Gravel Ride for Maisie’s Pride in Eskridge, and the Pasta 58 Road & Gravel Ride out of Junction City.
- On the advocacy front, the Manhattan Bicycle Advisory Committee is working to make the city a better place to ride a bike, and BikeManhattan.info covers news and events in the city and surrounding area.
- Manhattan has proposed a Five-Year Strategic Plan for Bicycling.
- Manhattan Bike Week festivities were held two weeks ago, April 29th to May 5th, and featured a ride with Manhattan Mayor Pro Tem Loren Pepperd and other city commissioners, as well as a ribbon-cutting and dedication of the city’s first Bicycle Boulevard.
Elsewhere Around The Region
Manhattan is not the only community in the state or region to receive good news.
The bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community designation for Lawrence, Kansas was renewed, as was the same award for Arvada CO. Colorado Springs CO stayed at silver, Durango CO moved up from silver to gold, and Longmont CO moved up from bronze to silver.
New to the list of Bicycle Friendly Communities are Aspen and Gunnison Colorado, both rated at silver, and Cedar Rapids IA, Lincoln NE, Summit City CO, and University Heights IA at bronze.
West Des Moines IA and Pueblo CO earned Honorable Mentions.
Read more from the League of American Bicyclists: Congratulations to New and Renewed Bicycle Friendly Communities! and see the full Spring 2012 list.
Post tags: Bicycle Friendly, Manhattan, NewsBlog
Wow, I live in Manhattan and love it here. I truly appreciate how the city is making efforts to make it a more bicycle and pedestrian friendly community. However to claim we are in the same league as Lawrence or Shawnee or even better yet Lincoln, NE just seems wrong. I truly hope we get there but intentions alone shouldn’t be what this is based on but rather the end results.
Well, if this gets us motivated to actually work on our infrastructure for bicycle riding here in Manhattan. I’m an avid rider (and live in Manhattan) and I don’t ride through town because it is too dangerous. There aren’t enough safe routes in Manhattan to ride. If this sparks more interest in working on the cycling infrastructure that would be great! We have a plan, now if we can actually work on it, now that would be sweet.
Now that we’ve been recognized by the number of people who cycle, maybe that will get our town leaders to recognize and put some money forward to get that infrastructure worked on so we have a safe community to ride in.
This announcement came out after the Chamber’s Get 2 It event occurred in early May. Public comments were collected from one of the event booths that asked “what do you like about Manhattan” and “what would you like improved in Manhattan”. Many said Manhattan needed to improve their bike routes. As a resident of Manhattan, I agree. Main travel routes do not have bike lanes or the streets are too narrow to accommodate bike lanes.