The City of Santa Rosa's commitment to provide comfortable and enjoyable places to bike for all ages and skill levels has been nationally recognized. Today, the League of American Bicyclists is honoring the efforts of the City of Santa Rosa to build better places to bike with a Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) award, joining a select group of 488 communities across the country in the movement for more accessible and better bicycling. The award recognizes Santa Rosa for its dedication to developing transportation and recreational resources that benefit residents of all ages and abilities while encouraging healthier and more sustainable transportation choices. Santa Rosa was first recognized by the League in 2015 as a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community.

“We applaud communities like the City of Santa Rosa for making bicycling a comfortable,
convenient, and enjoyable option for transportation and recreation,” said Bill Nesper,
Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists. “We are inspired by leaders who
see bicycling as a way to build more vibrant, healthy, sustainable and connected communities.
Our nation and globe are facing complex public health and road safety challenges, and
we’re proud that Santa Rosa and communities like it are embracing bicycling.”

The League of American Bicyclists’ BFC program sets the standard for how communities evaluate their quality of life, sustainability, and accessibility, while allowing them to benchmark progress toward making biking better. The Silver level award recognizes Santa Rosa’s commitment to improving conditions for all people who bike through investments in bike infrastructure, education programs, and bike events that promote and encourage people to choose bicycling with pro-bike policies.

The City of Santa Rosa has a bicycle network of approximately 115 miles of bikeways, and has grown by 40% since the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan Update in 2010. This growing infrastructure network reflects priorities expressed by the community, and is implemented through policies and goals established in the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan update 2018 with the guidance of the City’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board.

More than 850 communities have applied for recognition by the Bicycle Friendly Community program, which provides a road map to making biking better for communities of all shapes and sizes. While the award process considers very visible elements such as bike infrastructure, other essential elements include efforts around education, encouragement, evaluation, and enforcement all through the lens of equity. The rigorous application process is an educational tool in itself, and includes an opportunity for local bicyclists and active transportation advocates to provide input on their experiences and perceptions of bicycling in their community.

Individuals from various City of Santa Rosa Departments, City of Santa Rosa Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Board, Sonoma County Transportation Authority, Sonoma County Department of Health Services, SMART, and Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition contributed to the application process.

Visit www.bikeleague.org to learn more.