The Bicycle Friendly Community Awards go national!

by Jamie Stuckless, Executive Director, Share the Road Cycling Coalition

This week we were pleased to announce that the Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) Awards program is expanding beyond Ontario. Share the Road has partnered with the Canadian Automobile Association National Office and CAA Clubs across Canada to launch the program from Newfoundland & Labrador to British Columbia.

The BFC Program was developed by the League of American Bicyclists and they have generously granted permission for us to run the program here. The program will be run in coordination with our partners at Velo Quebec, who currently coordinate the BFC Awards in Quebec.

As part if the program we engage directly with municipalities to conduct an audit of everything they are doing to encourage cycling under the Five Es of being bicycle friendly: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation & Planning. Every municipality that applies receives an action-oriented feedback report and municipalities that qualify are recognized with awards of Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond.

Since we launched the program in Ontario in 2010, we have engaged directly with over 100 municipalities and recognized 42 municipalities as Bronze, Silver or Gold. Ontario does not yet have a Platinum or Diamond community.

Awards are valid for 4 years, after which municipalities need to reapply. That being said, municipalities don’t have to wait 4 years to re-submit, they are invited to apply to the program as frequently as they like. The online application is available free of charge in Ontario thanks to our ongoing partnership with the CAA South Central Ontario. Our new partnership with CAA National and local clubs across Canada will ensure that the program continues to be complimentary for municipalities.

The BFC program has been at the heart of our advocacy work in Ontario. Through the program we are able to develop a strong network of municipal contacts, collect valuable data about what’s happening with cycling and facilitate the sharing of best practices across jurisdictions. We have also seen the BFC feedback reports debated at the council table and incorporated into important planning documents like Transportation Master Plans. In addition to celebrating progress on cycling, the BFC program builds capacity for real change.

We were grateful to have the opportunity to announce this expansion at the 3rd National Bike Summit hosted by Velo Canada Bikes in Ottawa. We look forward to working with new and existing partners to grow this program across Canada.

We will be hiring a new BFC Program Coordinator and then the first application round for municipalities outside of Ontario will open in the Fall of 2019. Stay tuned for more details! We look forward to working with you.

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