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FF applying to become bike-friendly community
Published 11:07am Thursday, January 3, 2013The Central Lakes Trail connects Fergus Falls to miles of cycling opportunities, but now Fergus Falls officials may soon make biking a little more friendly within the city as well.
Fergus Falls may become the sixth official “Bicycle Friendly Community” in Minnesota and the 216th nationwide.
“The purpose is to promote cycling as something that is safe and can help communities,” said local certified cycling instructor David Sanderson. “As a former physician, I see a lot of health benefits in cycling.”
Sanderson has been working closely with the project, and he said he hopes the city can have an application ready to send to the League of American Bicyclists by late February. It may be weeks or even months until results come back, but this is a good start.
The extensive application process digs deep into five basic criteria, known as the “five Es” – Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement and Evaluation.
Engineering refers to the structure of the cycling routes within the city. Each Bicycle Friendly Community must have a comprehensive and well-maintained cycling network. This might mean that the city will add bike lanes or designated routes through town for cyclists to follow.
Bicycle Friendly Communities also must have opportunities for cycling education. Instructional classes should be offered, and a “safe routes to school” program should be in place. Fergus Falls is in the process of getting these things in order.
The third E, encouragement, means there needs to be events and activities that make cycling visible in the community. A bicycle rodeo was held in the spring, and Sanderson said he hopes to make it an annual event.
Proper cycling enforcement is necessary in all Bicycle Friendly Communities, and police officers will need to be well educated on cycling laws.
Evaluation refers to the process of constantly looking at ways to modify and improve cycling in the community to create a better experience for riders.
The Fergus Falls City Council recently approved the application process to move forward, and Sanderson along with city officials and several others will work on the project.
“It has been shown in other communities that people look at things like this when they move to a community,” Sanderson said. “Those little things add up, and it helps to attract people. It really does make a difference.”
This is a great idea! I would love it if they would add bike lanes. I ride a lot in the summer, but rarely take my toddler with me on errands because I don’t feel like the downtown area is particularly safe for bikes with trailers. Fergus should study how Amsterdam has incorporated bikes in their city. It’s very cool.
I doubt that there is enough room on the streets downtown for bike lanes. This isn’t Amsterdam. Plus people in this town already have a hard enough time driving around other cars and motorcycles. If you throw in bike lanes, there would be carnage.
And here I though I’d been born and raised in the Netherlands. I wondered why I didn’t know Dutch…
I’m not saying they have to copy the plan of a huge city, just that it’s a place to start towards making Fergus even better for bikers. Although I do agree with the drivers in town probably being thrown by the presence of bike lanes if the surprise and alarm over the new roundabout is any indication of how they react to new and enterprising ideas.
“thought” (whoops)
The roundabout is the best thing in Fergus. I want to get a house out there so I can watch the idiots fail at navigating it.
lol mark didnt i see you driving on it the other day for 30 minutes until you figured out how to get off of it
Stephanie, if you’re interested in working on developing some on-street confidence with (or without!) a trailer in tow, get in touch with me (a Google search or phone book will suffice). I ride around with my kid in tow year-round, and would be happy to work with you and others to share some tips on how to improve your city biking experience.
I would love to have access to more bicycle friendly routes around Fergus falls, and the roundabout is a great advancement for this community as well. it does take a few milliseconds to adapt into this modern and more efficient concept or traffic being able to continue moving while still accomplishing the goal that stop signs and unregulated 4 ways previously were used for but the growth and increased efficiency is well worth it. I’d like to see more of this kind of thinking involved in future infrastructure modernization projects.
Bike lines are fine. However, has the city considered the cost of retrofitting the streets? Will the downtown and other areas lose parking? Will some intersections lose right-turn lanes? How will they assess the additional costs for construction, repairs, and maintenance? I hope the city considers all facts before moving ahead.