No one can accuse Mike Ridgeway and Lauri Ahlskog of thinking small.
In two weeks they intend to announce a big goal and start what they hope is a communitywide conversation about how to get there: making Lancaster “bike friendly.”
Ridgeway, the local bicycling advocate and founder of the Dream Ride Projects bike tours, and Ahlskog, the Lancaster County Planning Commission’s bicycle and pedestrian transportation planner, have invited nearly 2,000 Lancaster County’s municipal and county elected officials and administrators, members of planning commissions, bicycle shop owners and other interested people to hear presentations on how to make Lancaster County a better place to ride a bicycle.
The featured speaker at the workshop is League of American Bicyclists Executive Director Andy Clarke and Bill Nesper, director of the League’s Bicycle Friendly Communities program. They will talk about steps Lancaster officials could take to improve and encourage bicycling. They will also give examples of changes other cities have made to earn the League’s coveted ”Bicycle Friendly” designation.
The workshop will be held Friday, Nov. 7, at the Lancaster Farm & Home Center, 1383 Arcadia Road, from 7:30 a.m. to noon.
The League stresses that being “bicycling friendly” has far-reaching positive effects. Getting more people on bikes can help reduce traffic congestion and air pollution, reduce obesity of residents thereby improving community health, and help attract residents and businesses by improving the community’s quality of life.
If Lancaster were to be named “Bicycle Friendly,” it could be the first in the state to receive the designation. Since the program began in 2003, more than 213 communities have applied for the Bicycling Friendly Community designation. Eighty-four have made the grade. None are in Pennsylvania.
Typically, the communities which have received the designation have made physical improvements, such as the multi-use pathways along connector roads or the striping of bike lanes on streets. Just as important, according to the League of American Bicyclists, is education programs that teach bicyclists to follow the rules of the road and ride safely, and police enforcement of traffic laws on both bicyclists and motorists. Planning that includes cycling in future transportation projects is stressed.
“We’d be interested in it. We’d certainly be interested in ways to make the city more bike friendly,” Lancaster Mayor Rick Gray said.
Increasing mobility through alternative transportation, such as use of bicycles is included in the strategic plan adopted by the city last year, Gray noted. And, city officials would be attending looking for answers about how to do that.
Gray rattled off the questions: should the city add bike lanes; where should they be placed; how should they be connected; should bicyclists be prohibited from riding on sidewalks, ride with traffic on one-way streets, or obey all other traffic laws?
“It’s a goal, but how to reach that goal is always far more complicated than it first appears,” he said of encouraging bicycling.
Answers, and maybe coffee and bagels, will be available at the workshop. Anyone interested in attending is asked to contact Aklskog, at 299-8333, or ahlskogl@co.lancaster.pa.us, by Nov. 3, to reserve a spot.
