Now hear this... Sitka has been awash in Public Service announcements to make our town more bicycle friendly. These PSAs run regularly on our radio stations. Take a listen:
		PSA - Wrong Way Riding		PSA - Ride Predictably and Share the Road		TPSA - Same Road, Same Rules, Same Rights
		Great PSA from our local "Traffic Watch" helicopter.		Another helicopter PSA - Bike takes a lane!

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The application is in!

That's right folks, all that hard work has resulted in a true work of beauty - the application to the League of American Bicyclist to be recognized as a Bicycle Friendly Community. If you want, you can read/download the application here (it is a large file). We should hear if our application is successful sometime in April.

Bicycle Friendly Community application

Assembly Proclaims: "Sitka is Bicycle Friendly"

The City and Borough of Sitka signed a proclaimation today that committed to city to "an ongoing process of improvement upon the existing standards of cycling transportation infrastructure, education, encouragement, and
enforcement."

Read the full proclamation here.

Bicycle Friendly Community gets Official

There has been a need to establish this bicycle group into something official in order to be recognized by other official organizations. There is now contact information on the left-hand bar, and a mission statement up top.

International Bike/Walk to School Day comes to Sitka

(picture and text taken directly from the October 4 Sitka Sentinel article) Sitka biking advocates gather outside Keet Gooshi Heen Elementary School Wednesday for International Bike and Walk to School Day events. The group handed out coupons for discounts at Yellow Jersey Cycle Shop for safety lights to those who walked or biked to school. Some parents, who lived too far from school to bike or walked, actually drove their child closer to school then walked with them from there. 35 bikers and 58 walkers participated, and reflective/safety gear out to approximately 25 students.

Community Bike Ride Huge Success

read all about it....

Who has time to read? Listen to the scoop from a June 20 Raven Radio report. Go there.

The City of Sitka has been awarded $9739.00 for their application to the SEARHC Steps to a Healthier Southeast Alaska program for funds to coordinate becoming a Bicycle Friendly Community. This funding brings in some powerful technical assistance from the League of American Bicyclists as well as providing some coordinator time to make this happen. Read the application.

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The Bicycle Friendly Community Campaign, coordinated through the League of American Bicyclists in Washington, D.C., recognizes and promotes municipalities that actively support bicycling. A Bicycle Friendly Community provides safe accommodation for cycling and encourages its residents to bike for transportation, recreation, and physical activity.

This project will support the steps necessary to help Sitka meet the Bicycle Friendly Community standards and be awarded this recognition. Within one year, Sitka will have met or be actively engaged in meeting the required standards in the following action areas:  Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation, and Planning. Meeting the required standards and submitting a successful application will make Sitka the first Bicycle Friendly Community in Alaska.

Becoming a Bicycle Friendly Community requires the completion of an application that asks specific questions under each of the action focus areas. The process creates a  detailed audit of the engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation efforts for the community. This comprehensive inquiry is designed to yield a holistic picture of a community's work to promote bicycling. Steps needed to complete the application and meet the standards range from creating a detailed inventory of existing and needed bicycling infrastructure, to working with the police department on enforcement of helmet laws, to creating more incentives for people to ride their bikes.

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This is the fun part. We are counting on YOU to be a part of the action.

The League of American Bicyclists has an application that asks a total of 58 questions about our community. They range from detailed information on the total number of miles of bike trails to the kinds of education provided to motorists about sharing the road.

All these questions have been placed on a bulletin board for anyone (that means you) to read and respond to. If you know the answer to a question, post it. If you know how to get the answer, tell the bulletin board that you will go get it. If you have an idea to better meet a standard (like, how to get more businesses to provide covered bike racks outside of their stores) then post that, and better yet, tell us how you are going to make it happen!

Do you see how this works? The more people who take actions related to the application, the better our application will be, and the closer we will be to truly being a bicycle friendly community. The key is to TELL US WHAT YOU ARE DOING! That way, when the application is sent to the League of American Bicyclists, we are showing all that is happening in our community.

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The City and Borough of Sitka has applied for funding to pursue this project from the SEARHC Steps to a Healthier Community grant. We'll know soon if it is funded. (Read the Application).

If that funding goes through, then we will be bringing in the League of American Bicyclists for two workshops. One workshop is for city engineers, planners and developers, and community leaders. This workshop is focused on the technical design details of how to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians and includes an interactive, hands-on application of nationally recognized design solutions. Another is a more general public information meeting about Bicycle Friendly communities that will reach a wider audience. Action steps will be developed at the conclusion of these meetings.

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Why is it important for communities to be designated as bicycle-friendly? Citizens in communities across America want to improve their quality of life. They want a less-stressful lifestyle, a cleaner environment, affordable transportation and better health for themselves and their children. Bicycling is part of the solution. Bicycle-friendly communities experience reduced traffic, better air, and improved public health. Bicycle-friendly towns, like those with good schools and vibrant downtowns, are communities that offer a good quality of life for families, further leading to higher property values, business growth and increased tourism.

Using bicycles for transportation increases physical activity even while doing mundane things like going to work. And, as a community offers more bicycling opportunities (like bike paths and trails) it provides a great way to be physically active just for fun.

Encouraging bicycle riding, improving safety, and increasing access runs throughout Sitka's Comprehensive Plan. Some highlights:

To provide education and public information and encouragement for bike safety, including:

• Work toward implementing the goals established in the 2003 Sitka Non-Motorized Transportation Plan, a Sitka Bicycle Safety Plan, to include a danger assessment and identify and make recommendations to resolve bicycle safety concerns.
• Work with the police and fire commission to…support and encourage safety and education programs for the benefit of motorized and non-motorized users of Sitka’s transportation system. Encourage the involvement of service organizations and health care organizations in pursuit of these goals. Develop a bicycle safety programs, a comprehensive bike education program aimed at both youth and adults.
• Develop and implement bicycle safety ordinances and encourage safe riding practices.

Identify and implement development and improvement of bicycle facilities, including:

• Urge the State of Alaska Department of Transportation to develop bike paths, multi-use pathways, on both sides of major roads…keeping them separated by curbs or green space wherever feasible.
• Improve winter maintenance on bikeways and multi-use pathways to permit use by cyclists throughout the year.
• Correct or, at a minimum, post signs in high priority problem areas warning of danger to bicyclists, as identified in the Sitka Bicycle Plan.
• Seek funding to develop alternate bike routes around congested or dangerous areas.
• Develop a long-range Comprehensive Sitka Bicycle Plan to plan for and implement future bicycle facilities for Sitka

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