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After seven years of effort, Madison has joined an elite group of cities recognized for their friendliness to bicycling.
This November, Madison joined just four other cities designated “platinum” communities in the League of American Bicyclists’ annual Bicycle Friendly Communities report.
And every one of the four other cities on the list is west of the Mississippi and in less harsh climates: Portland, Ore.; Boulder and Fort Collins, Colo.; and Davis, Calif. While Boulder and Fort Collins get snow, it’s often gone by noon. Portland gets a little rain, and Davis? Please. They don’t have January in Davis the way we experience January in the Upper Midwest.
This is good news even if you never get on a bike, or don’t even like bikes. That’s because this is a great way to sell our city to the young makers and entrepreneurs who will continue to build our economy and make the city a fun and interesting place to live. It will help us retain more of the young talent that comes here to go to school. And, more importantly, it’s confirmation that we’re doing something right to improve our community’s quality of life for the folks who already live here.
Bikes are like canaries in a coal mine. A place that’s fun and safe to cycle in is one that is going to be pleasant to just live in on a whole variety of levels. Young, unattached (or lightly attached) and talented people are nothing if not mobile. They tend to choose the community before they find the job. And one thing many of them look at are these LAB rankings. There are a couple hundred communities on that list at the bronze, silver and gold ratings. But to be one of only five at the top platinum level is something very special. It calls us out in a very positive way.
And it gets better because it wasn’t just Madison. Here’s what the League wrote about Wisconsin as a whole:
“Earlier today, we announced 55 new and renewing Bicycle Friendly Communities (BFC), and Wisconsin dominated the list. Madison becomes one of only 5 Platinum level BFCs; Fitchburg and Shorewood moved from Bronze to Silver; and Middleton, Monona, the Wausau Metropolitan Area all entered the list at Bronze. La Crosse (Silver) and Sheboygan County (Bronze) renewed their designations.”
Coming on top of Wisconsin’s second straight win in the National Bike Challenge, where 12,000 Wisconsinites logged 4 million miles, this puts us where we belong: in the company of elite states for cycling. After the Legislature made us the first state to repeal a complete streets law and cut funding for bike and pedestrian projects, this just shows how much can still be accomplished at the local level, not just in Madison but all across Wisconsin.
And if we can do it for cycling, maybe we can make progress on the local level on other things, despite our state government.
So, sure, Madison has every right to be proud, but so do 17 other communities in our state. Here’s the whole list:
Appleton (Bronze)
Eau Claire (Bronze)
Fitchburg (Silver)
La Crosse (Silver)
Madison (Platinum)
Menomonie (Bronze)
Middleton (Bronze)
Milwaukee (Bronze)
Monona (Bronze)
Onalaska (Bronze)
River Falls (Bronze)
Sheboygan County (Bronze)
Shorewood (Silver)
Stevens Point (Bronze)
Sturgeon Bay (Bronze)
Wausau Metropolitan Area (Bronze)
Full disclosure: Dave Cieslewicz is executive director of the Wisconsin Bike Federation.
