Spartanburg, SC "Bike Town"

Spartanburg, SC, US

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Type: Program

Status: Initiated in 2005

Source File: http://biketownspartanburg.org/index.php?action=website-view&WebSiteID=462&WebPageID=13739

Description:

What is Bike Town?

Mission Statement:
Bike Town is a community-wide, collaborative initiative dedicated to sustaining and improving Spartanburg’s national designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.

Learn more about the national program by following these links:

• League of American Bicyclists
• Bicycle-Friendly Community Program

The History of Bike Town:
Bike Town is an initiative that was launched in early 2005 with a $106,000 three-year grant from the Mary Black Foundation. The program’s original, overarching goal was to earn the national designation as a Bicycle Friendly Community from the League of American Bicyclists by 2007.

Four nonprofit groups - Palmetto Conservation Foundation, Palmetto Cycling Coalition, Freewheelers of Spartanburg, and Partners for Active Living - joined forces to implement the program, which is housed with Partners for Active Living.

In September 2006, the City of Spartanburg earned an Honorable Mention as a bike-friendly community. In September 2007, Spartanburg reached its stated goal, earning a Bronze Level Bicycle Friendly Community designation and becoming the first bike friendly community in the state of South Carolina.

How is the designation earned?
The bike friendly designation is determined based on a community’s efforts and successes in five key areas: Education, Encouragement, Engineering, Enforcement, and Evaluation.

Lead organizers of the Bike Town initiative, work to ensure that significant steps are being made in EACH of those focus areas. Though events like the annual professional cycling race, Bike Month, etc are most well-known, the Bike Town partners constantly works behind-the-scenes to:

• improve and increase bike safety education opportunities;
• improve the number and types of people reached through our encouragement programs and events
• improve engineering of bike facilities and increase bike infrastructure;
• improve enforcement of local and state laws related to bicyclists
• improve evaluation of bicycling needs and future needs among all of our local governing bodies.

Bike Town Today:
The Bronze Level designation will be held by Spartanburg for four years, at which point the community will be reassessed and may earn the right to retain the title or may be demoted.

Or even better yet... can Spartanburg reach the Silver or Gold level status before we even hit the four year mark?