Wisconsin Hearts Bikes
As if The City of Eau Claire receiving a bronze medal for being a “Bike Friendly Community” wasn’t enough, the superhero-ish sounding “League of American Bicyclists” (a non-profit organization) has recognized Wisconsin as the third most bike-friendly state of the Union, according to JSOnline. If you and your bike buddies didn’t have enough to gloat about, it’s worth mentioning that Wisconsin actually placed second the previous year. Who knew?
The State of Main now holds the second spot, with Washington pedaling into first. JSOnline explains ...
To come up with the rankings, the League gives each state a grade (A through F) in six categories: Legislation, Policies & Programs, Infrastructure, Education & Encouragement, Evaluation & Planning, and Enforcement.
As JSOnline clarifies, Wisconsin received Ds in infrastructure and enforcement, a C in legislation, yet scored As in policies and encouragement and planning. Kevin Hardman, executive director of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin, told JSOnline, “It underscores me, [sic] we have a lot of work ahead of us. We’re working every day to get to number one.”
Also, in case you didn’t have enough reasons to save some gas, the Eau Claire City Council just named Friday, June 10 as “Bike to Work Day” (National Bike to Work Week runs June 6–10), so dust off those seats and pump up those tires. I know I’ll be flying down the sidewalks, er, bike paths on my 10-speed a lot more often, swelling with pride the entire time.
