FBC working with Frederick to be Bicycle Friendly

The Frederick Bicycle Coalition is working with the city government to obtain a Bicycle Friendly Community designation from the League of American Bicyclists.

Tim Davis, a Frederick city transportation planner, said that he has been working with the coalition, which formed in late 2009, to pursue the award.

He said every year the League of American Bicyclists sends counties and municipalities the application for the bicycle-friendly community award. A key question is whether the community has dedicated bike lanes on it roads. If you have to mark the answer "no," you can go no further with the application, Davis said. "We, at this point, unfortunately have to check ‘no,'" Davis said.

However, he said the city is planning to create those lanes as early as this summer.

Until the traffic engineering was complete and the locations finalized, he said he could not determine what the cost of these bicycle lanes would be, except that it would be "minimal."

Comments

[Contrarian]

I've criticized the whole "Bicycle Friendly Community" notion as being driven by process rather than outcomes, and I have to do it again. So a community can't be "bicycle friendly" if it doesn't have bike lanes? That's just nonsense.

[washcycle]

Well, I happen to believe in process (it is, after all, what I do for a living) but I see your point. If a town had 10% bicycle mode share and no bike lanes is it then bicycle unfriendly? Still, that isn't the case here. I think the process can lead you to bicycle friendliness. Is it perfect? no. But it's good and getting better - a lot like LEED in my opinion.

And to contradict myself again (it makes me complicated and thus sexy) I'll share a story.

My friend applied to Harvard Business School and they accepted him of course because he was smart. But his father needed him to stay and help with his machining business so he delayed his admission to Harvard by a year. The next year, he found his father still needed him and he called Harvard for another deferral.
Harvard: "How many employees did you have when you started helping your father?"
Friend: "50"
Harvard: "How many employees do you have now a year later?"
Friend: "About 900."
Harvard: "It doesn't seem that you need Harvard Business School!"

So results are what matter, but process is the way you get to the results...