Bicycle Friendly Community

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Latest News
Purpose
Project Background
BFC Application
Bronze Level Award
Overview of Naperville’s Bicycling Program
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Latest News

On May 1, 2009, the City of Naperville was awarded a bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community designation by the League of American Bicyclists.

The prestigious designation is awarded to communities that actively support bicycling and make bicycling safe and more enjoyable.

Naperville joins the City of Chicago (silver) and Village of Schaumburg (bronze) as one of only three cities in Illinois and one of only 108 cities in the United States to receive this honor. The designation follows a rigorous application process through which communities are judged on five criteria: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and evaluation and planning.

Receiving the designation rewards the city’s recent efforts to improve bicycling in the community and raise awareness of available amenities for bicyclists, including:

• Development and implementation of the Bicycle Implementation Plan, the city’s comprehensive bicycle plan.
• Creation and distribution of the Naperville Biking Map and Guide, the city’s first public bicycle map.
• Implementation of significant capital projects to expand and improve the city’s bicycle network, such as the DuPage River Trail, the Route 59 Pedestrian Bridge, and the Washington and 75th Street Underpasses.
• Celebration of Bike Month through bicycle safety campaigns and rodeos and Bike to Metra events.
  

Purpose

Sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists (LAB), the Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) Program rewards communities that actively encourage people to ride their bikes for transportation and recreation. In addition to having bicycle routes, BFCs also actively support bicycling through safety programs, education, law enforcement and community events.  The BFC designation not only recognizes achievements by the City of Naperville but also provides important feedback for future bicycle projects. 

Naperville pursued the BFC designation to bring recognition to the recent bicycle improvement efforts that include raising awareness of amenities available for bicyclists, emphasizing the importance of bicycling as a contributing factor to the quality of the community, establishing goals for future progress and encouraging travel by bicycle for short trips.

Project Background

The Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) was critical in achieving the BFC status as they helped to document information and provided momentum for the project. BPAC discussed and reviewed past bicycle plans, events and encouragement initiatives and safety campaigns to ensure the application included specific details about the development of bicycle related activities in Naperville.

In August 2008, Part 1 of the application was submitted responding to general questions about the community.  Part 2 of the application involved a more detailed assessment of the community’s bicycling efforts and was submitted in March 2009. 

BFC Application

The BFC application focuses on compiling a comprehensive image of the current and future bicycle options in a community.  Achieving a designation includes the submittal of a two-part application. 

Part 1 establishes that the community meets certain program criteria, including the community demographics and the availability of a bicycle network and bicycle programs. Part 2 of the application involves a detailed audit of the community’s bicycling efforts, including an on-site audit and an evaluation using the 5E's:

• Engineering: A community’s physical environment for bicycling, including on-street facilities, trails, bike parking and more.
• Education: Programs to teach new cyclists how to ride safely and that promote a “share the road” ethic among bicyclists and drivers.
• Encouragement: Promotional initiatives that persuade people to ride, or to ride more often.
• Enforcement: Ensuring that traffic laws are enforced for both motorists and cyclists and that all trail users follow the same rules.
• Evaluation: Benchmarking and evaluation techniques that help communities continue to improve conditions for bicyclists. 

The entire BFC application can be viewed here.  

Bronze Level Award 

The following are a few of the many reasons the League of American Bicyclists recognizes Naperville as a Bicycle Friendly Community:

• LAB was impressed with the Naperville Biking Map and Guide which was produced thanks to the coordination of the city, Naperville Park District, and BPAC. The map is offered free on the city's Web site and more than 7,500 paper copies have been distributed. 
• Naperville works with bike safety and had an effective Bike Month filled with educating both motorists and bicyclists on how to safely share the road.  
• Naperville’s efforts seem to be working at reducing car trips. After a promotional campaign to create a Bike to Metra brochure and increase bicycle parking, there has been a 30 percent increase in the number of bicycles parked at the Metra stations for the months of June, July, and August since 2002. 

Overview of Naperville's Bicycle Program 

The city operates from a comprehensive Bicycle Implementation Plan which was updated in 2006 with assistance from the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) and the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) to solicit public feedback.  The plan identifies priority bicycle routes and creates a spine of off-street facilities as the base of the bicycle network.

The City of Naperville recognizes the benefits of cycling to health, the environment, and pocket books and makes significant investments to the extensive bicycle system each year.  For example, the DuPage River Trail has five proposed phases and in the future will allow travel by bicycle from north Naperville to south Naperville as well as provide connections to other regional trails.  Additional infrastructure projects since 2008 have included a pedestrian bridge over IL Route 59 and two underpass tunnels at the intersection of Washington Street and 75th Street.

Bicycling is promoted as an alternative mode of transportation, especially for trips less than two miles, to access the Metra Station, downtown Naperville, schools, and local parks.  Programs such as Safe Routes to School, bike rodeos, and Bike to Metra events further strengthen the city and community support for cycling.  The city also promotes cycling through the careful installation of amenities, such as bicycle racks to ensure that cyclists have a safe place to lock up.

Sign Up for the Bicycle and Pedestrian Quarterly e-Newsletter 

Sign up to receive the City of Naperville's Bicycle and Pedestrian Quarterly e-Newsletter at  www.naperville.il.us/enews.aspx.