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City pushes to upgrade League of American Bicyclists application; committee readies evidence
Summary
Flagstaff City staff told the Bicycle Advisory Committee May 15 they are preparing an updated League of American Bicyclists Bicycle Friendly Community application and are gathering interagency and community evidence to seek a higher rating than the 2018 silver/honorable mention.
City transportation staff and Bicycle Advisory Committee members reviewed Flagstaff’s ongoing effort to update its League of American Bicyclists (LAB) Bicycle Friendly Community application during the May 15 meeting. The city’s previous application date was 2018 (award: silver/honorable mention); staff said they are assembling evidence and collaborators across city departments and outside partners to pursue a stronger rating.
"We are well underway with submitting a new application to the League of American Bicyclists bike friendly community program," the presenter told the committee, noting the LAB program evaluates communities using the "Five E's" (equity and accessibility, engineering, education, encouragement, and evolution/planning). Staff described the current application as almost 70 pages of narrative and attachments and said workgroups involving Metroplan, police, NAU, Mountain Line, recreation groups and advocates have met multiple times to gather information.
Committee discussion reviewed the city’s 2018 LAB report card and where Flagstaff scored below average: bike education in schools, share of transportation budget spent on cycling, and staffing ratios for bike program staff. Staff noted progress made since 2018 — examples cited included the Active Transportation Master Plan amendment, new bike parking projects, improved programming and law enforcement trainings — and asked committee members to help assemble contacts for local cycling organizations, schools and event organizers to document recreational and youth cycling activity.
Staff mentioned a $250,000 city budget allocation to create a Vision Zero plan and the Safe Streets master plan work that will feed into the LAB submission. The group discussed collecting crash/fatality data (the LAB application typically uses about a five‑year window), methods for demonstrating bike parking and infrastructure gains, and the option to simply renew Flagstaff’s existing level. Committee members encouraged pursuing gold or higher: "Go for platinum," one member said. Staff noted the application timeline is tight and that only one committee meeting remains before the submission deadline in late May.
No formal committee vote was recorded; staff said the next steps are continuing the interagency data collection, soliciting contacts from committee members for recreation and school programs, and finalizing narrative responses and bonus essays in the application.
