Dear Bill,
Thank you for the advance notice. A wonderful kick off to Bike Month!
Thank you also for directly sending the message below to City Council and the City Manager. We are meeting tonight for the Mayor to issue the Bike Month proclamation and to work on budgeting for our Bicycle Plan. Thanks to you and LAB, I think my job just got a bit easier:)
Can you tell me how many communities applied and how many were awarded in this round?
Also, is there a standard package describing benefits communities realize as BFCs? (I expect tonight, certain Councilors may ask, "OK. Now we have this recognition. So what?) In our Bicycle Plan, we reference, Flusche, Darren, The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments, League of American Bicyclists, June 2009,
http://www.bikeleague.org/resources/reports/report_economics.php . A concise quantitative summary of benefits that BFCs have realized would be quite helpful.
We look forward to receiving the feedback and adjusting our plan accordingly as we move forward. We also look forward to receiving the press release template as we are already working on one. We've also started working on the photos and community profile. When do you need these?
Concerning the award ceremony, what's involved? I expect we would like to do one but knowing who does what would be helpful in deciding.
As you know, WV is the lowest ranked Bicycle Friendly State. Also, most of the roads in Morgantown are controlled by the State. Over the years, I have been working with several people in the WVDOT. It gave me great pleasure to share your message below with them. So far, I've received one response that indicates that this may also leverage WV to become a more bicycle friendly state.
Frank D. Gmeindl
Chairman, Morgantown Municipal Bicycle Board
LCI #1703
491 WilsonAvenue
Morgantown, WV 26501
304-376-0446
Cyclists fare best when they act and are treated as drivers of vehicles
On Apr 27, 2012, at 5:47 PM, Bill Nesper wrote:
Dear Frank,
Congratulations! The League of American Bicyclists has decided to designate Morgantown as a Bicycle Friendly Community at the Bronze level. This decision involved careful review of your application and consultation with local cyclists.
As you know, this award is presented only to communities with remarkable commitments to bicycling. You should be very proud of this accomplishment. Please share this with your partners in the city and advocacy community. The League will be publicizing this nationally Monday, May 14th to coincide with National Bike to Work Week. We look to working with you to help promote this accomplishment and will be sending you a template for a local press release next week. We encourage you to create your own for local & regional media. Please hold your announcement of the award until May 14th.
You will also be receiving an award certificate, BFC road sign and feedback on what you can do to make Morgantown more bicycle-friendly in the next two weeks.
Your designation will be due for renewal in February 2016. At that point your community will be reevaluated so we urge you to make as many improvements as possible in the meantime! Of course, if you wish to renew sooner than that please do. We look forward to seeing the community’s progress.
If you would like to do an award ceremony, please let us know. We would love to work together to promote this great achievement. Also, we would like to promote the community on our website. We are asking you to provide a few new photographs that we can use to produce your community profile page onwww.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org. Please email those to nicole@bikeleague.org
Once again, accept our congratulations on your tremendous efforts to create a truly Bicycle Friendly Community.
Sincerely,
Bill Nesper
VP, Programs
League of American Bicyclists
P: 202-822-1333
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