HONOLULU – The City and County of Honolulu’s Department of Transportation Services (DTS) is excited to announce The League of American Bicyclists has recently designated the City as a “Bicycle Friendly Community” at the silver level.
Honolulu is one of 91 communities across the United States that received the Bicycle Friendly Community designation. Honolulu has moved up in the rankings since the last review cycle, which took place in 2018-2022 and during which we obtained a bronze ranking. Applications and review cycles occur every 4 years.
The full list of Bicycle Friendly Communities can be found here. Honolulu joins the ranks of other silver-rated cities, including San Jose, CA; Colorado Springs, CO; Miami Beach, FL; New Orleans, LA; Boston, MA; Minneapolis, MN; Bend, OR; and Pittsburgh, PA.
To determine if a community merits a Bicycle Friendly Community award, judges use the following criteria to evaluate each application:
- Equity and Accessibility
- Engineering
- Education
- Encouragement
- Evaluation and Planning
Each application is assessed holistically, as every community must approach making biking better based on the unique needs of the people who live, work, and play there.
The award criteria can also be found here.
Utilizing these criteria, judges award levels ranging from platinum, gold, silver, and bronze. Applications that do not meet standards receive Honorable Mention or no award. All applicants are provided tailored feedback on how to improve biking in their communities.
The League of American Bicyclists leads the movement to create a bicycle friendly America for everyone. Since 2002, the League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly America program has accepted over 2,100 applications for recognition and awarded Bicycle Friendly Communities status to 460 jurisdictions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Bicycle Friendly Community program asks each community to evaluate its state of bicycling and identify ways to keep improving quality of life, sustainability and transportation options for more people.
With Honolulu’s ever-expanding bicycle infrastructure, including new protected bike lanes throughout urban Honolulu, the South Shore Trail, and the City’s acquisition of Biki bikeshare, DTS aims to promote bicycling as a healthy, affordable, and sustainable method of transportation.
For more information on Honolulu Complete Streets and other bicycle related projects, please visit: www.honolulu.gov/completestreets/.
For more information on DTS’ Bicycle Program, please visit: www.honolulu.gov/dts/bicycle/.
For more information on Biki, please visit: www.gobiki.org.
—PAU—