A Bicycle Friendly Community…

Bike Bentonville

I was privileged to attend the recent ceremony at the Little Rock City Hall where Ken Gould presented the award of an Honorable Mention as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists to Mayor Stodola. Below are the specifics from a release by Ron Rizzardi of Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas (BACA) and a photo from the ceremony (sorry, all I had was the cell phone camera).

The award to Little Rock was achieved through the hard work of the Little Rock Bicycle Friendly Community Committee, which includes BACA representatives to the committee Jess Askew, Coreen Frasier, Ken Gould, French Hill, Ed Levy and Claibanne Williamson. Quoting from the recent notification of the award from the League, “honorable mention status is accorded only communities on the cusp of achieving full BFC status.” Achieving Honorable Mention status requires showing significant tangible progress toward a city becoming bicycle friendly. Of the 24 applications considered, 7 were newly recognized bronze or silver BFC cities, 8 received honorable mention, and 9 were given no recognition. Little Rock’s achievement has come in a relatively short period of time: compare the BFC honorable mention recognition with the posting on a bicycling website late in 2000 that asked respondents to name the worst places internationally and in the U.S to ride a bicycle – answer – “Cairo, Egypt and Little Rock, Arkansas.” Come help us celebrate the Honorable Mention achievement and show the Board of Directors that there is significant community support for continuing the progress. If you are a BACA member, please wear your yellow BACA shirt. BACA shirts will be available at the Board meeting.

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Ron Rizzardi, President, Bicycle Advocacy of Central Arkansas

More information can be found on the League Web site.

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