Bike corrals, like this one on E Carson St, are a newer feature to Pittsburgh’s growing bike-friendliness

Pittsburgh maintains “Bronze” bike-friendly community status

Four years ago, we beat the odds and surprised locals when the League of American Bicyclists awarded Pittsburgh a Bronze Bicycle-Friendly Community status. It was an underdog story of going from the worst city in the country to ride a bike, to achieving a status that caught up and even surpassed many other peer cities.

The Bronze status is good for four years, and it was time for the City to reapply to see if we got better, stayed the same, or got worse. There is no doubt that much has been accomplished in the past four years, but it seems that it just wasn’t enough to move Pittsburgh up the rankings to achieve Silver.

The application is quite extensive, and assesses the 5 E’s of bike friendliness: Engineering, Encouragement, Education, Enforcement, and Evaluation/Planning.

While we do well on some of these E’s, there are others that we’re a bit behind on. Spurred on by the friendly competition of the program, other cities are catching up and surpassing each other in “bike-friendliness.” There are now 303 Bike Friendly Communities in 48 states. Of course the outcomes of the competition are what really matter; yielding safer streets, creating more choices for residents, and building more marketable city to outsiders looking to visit or relocate.

Below is a small sampling of factors that the League looks at to make their determination, to give an idea of how we stack up.

We’ll have a more comprehensive assessment once we get a hold of Pittsburgh’s full report.

The Bicycle Friendly America program provides incentives, hands-on assistance, and award recognition for communities, universities and businesses that actively support bicycling, and ranks states annually based on their level of bike-friendliness. The program is generously supported by Trek Bicycle.

Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bikepgh.org/membership