Coronado Earns National Bike-Friendly Award

An increasing number of city leaders in communities across the country, including Coronado, are embracing the environmental, financial and quality of life benefits that come with a Bicycle Friendly Community. They are recognizing that bicycling can be the solution to many community challenges. On Tuesday, the League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Community awards and Coronado has been named a Silver Bicycle Friendly Community. 

"Coronado is playing a critical part in creating a truly Bicycle Friendly America," said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. "We know Coronado’s investment in bicycling will be returned many times over in the health, environmental, and quality of life benefits of a thriving community.” 

The Bicycle Friendly Community program is transforming the way communities evaluate their quality of life, sustainability and transportation networks, while allowing them to benchmark their progress toward improving their bicycle-friendliness. With this impressive round, there are now 291 Bicycle Friendly Community’s in 48 states across America. The Silver Bicycle Friendly Community award recognizes Coronado’s commitment to improving conditions for bicycling through investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies. 

“Coronado’s most significant achievement for bicycling was the recent incorporation of a long-awaited Bicycle Master Plan into the City’s General Plan,” said City Manager Blair King. “It has been the impetus for so many other great and exciting bicycle-friendly accomplishments in Coronado, including the creation of our first Bicycle Advisory Committee; the installation of forward-thinking bike corral parking spaces; several grants awarded to create new Class 2 bike lanes around the city; but, most especially, an inclusive planning document that considers bicyclists in all future development.” 

The Bicycle Friendly Community program provides a roadmap to building a Bicycle Friendly Community and the application itself has become a rigorous and an educational tool in itself. Since its inception, more then 500 distinct communities have applied and the five levels of the award – diamond, platinum, gold, silver and bronze – provide a clear incentive for communities to continuously improve.