In case you missed it, I’m reporting from Florida until school starts. I’m in Naples and will be visiting Orlando. Tomorrow (Sunday) I’m planning to ride much of the downtown area to get a feel for the zeitgeist of Naples. I’ll post photos, video, and comments soon (unclear because my internet connection here is ratty).
The Naples Daily News reports this morning that the League of American Bicyclists has turned down Naples’ application for bicycle friendly status. The city does not plan to re-apply.
Springfield has been denied twice that I know of, but we’re not giving up. Committment to earn at least a bronze level remains keen on the STAR Team and among key city officials. We’re planning to re-apply in March.
Comments 7
Why is Springfield keen on this?
Posted 02 Jan 2010 at 8:38 am ¶Perhaps it’s the cynic in me, but is there some reason you believe that earning that award is worth the expenditure of additional tax dollars? Clearly, Naples has concluded that there is a lot of expense involved and they have other things that accrue greater benefits for their taxpayers. From what I’ve seen, I don’t know that “Bicycle Friendly” equates to “cyclist friendly.”
Posted 02 Jan 2010 at 9:53 am ¶Steve… From what I can tell from the article, our two situations are very different. Springfield has a significant number of volunteers and supporting organizations involved in this. The cost to the city is actually minimal. The city improvements necessary to earn the rating have been a part of our 2020 progress plan for 10 years, i.e. seen as important long before anyone thought to apply to the LAB.
Earning BF status becomes an “achievement” that may earn political dividends. We’ll see.
BTW, your comments were marked as SPAM. No clue why. Need to check this. It’s happening to at least one other commenter.
Posted 02 Jan 2010 at 10:09 am ¶I’m looking forward to your videos and thoughts on riding in downtown Naples. I haven’t been there in years and have never ridden a bike there.
Based on the demographic of southwest FL, I don’t see much political benefit to going for a BFC award.
I agree with Steve that the award itself doesn’t mean a city is cyclist friendly. However, if you make improvements on your own terms that really do benefit cyclists (and avoid the pressure to do symbolic and unhelpful stuff, like converting wide lanes to BLs) and happen to get a BFC award for your efforts, then no harm in that.
Posted 02 Jan 2010 at 11:07 am ¶Keri… I think the work we’re doing really does benefit bicyclists. We’re not wanting to paint stripes. The next big projects in the works works add sharrows to existing bicycle routes and create a route numbering system with signs and clear connections for navigating Springfield on the streets.
I hit the streets of downtown Naples tomorrow!
Posted 02 Jan 2010 at 12:53 pm ¶Andy@ “I think the work we’re doing really does benefit bicyclists. We’re not wanting to paint stripes.”
Sadly, you will not achieve BF status until you do so (paint stripes). It is an unstated (publicly) prerequisite.
Posted 02 Jan 2010 at 2:39 pm ¶P.M…. We’ll keep doing what we’re doing regardless.
Posted 03 Jan 2010 at 11:01 am ¶