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The Town of Falmouth Bikeways Committee is delighted to announce that Falmouth has been named a Bronze-Level Bicycle Friendly Community by the Bicycle Friendly America program developed by the League of American Bicyclists. Falmouth is the first Cape Cod town to attain the status of Bicycle Friendly. This designation places Falmouth among a select few New England towns that have qualified for this distinction. The League awards bicycle friendly awards at the Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels to states, cities, and towns that have fulfilled a long list of requirements demonstrating a positive and welcoming approach to making bicycling a safe, comfortable and well-integrated mode of transportation. Among the communities recognized this year along with Falmouth are: (in Massachusetts) Nantucket, Northampton, Brookline, and Boston; New York City; Chicago; and Los Angeles. The program also evaluates states, businesses, and universities for bicycle friendliness. Applications are based on a list of required benchmarks. Among them are: a town-approved official acting as liaison between bicyclists and government and the identification and publicizing of a network of preferred routes for cycling that serves to connect most of the popular destinations and helps visitors as well as residents to ride away from concentrated motor traffic wherever possible. Additional criteria include: collaboration with law enforcement to identify and improve unsafe behaviors among both motorists and bicyclists; similar collaboration with engineering departments to improve hazardous conditions; a program for school-age children on safe and confident bicycling for transportation; a similar program for adults; and many other items. The program website has a great deal of additional detail at http://www.bikeleague.org/bfa. When the Bikeways Committee submitted an application back in 2009, Falmouth achieved an Honorable Mention, becoming the first municipality in Massachusetts to get on board with this Bicycle Friendly Communities program. With the Honorable Mention came a detailed, lengthy to-do list based on their findings, which provided guidance for achieving recognition in the future. Over the course of several years, the Bikeways Committee referred to this to-do list, addressed many of the town’s deficiencies, and developed a now-approved Bike Plan for the town – all of which led to this designation. Our award this year is at the Bronze level, and we have a new list of items to guide us toward further improvements leadings to the program’s higher levels, Silver and Gold. We offer special thanks to Ted Rowan, a long-term member of the Falmouth Bikeways Committee, who has spearheaded this effort and kept the Committee focused on earning an award as a Bicycle Friendly Community. All members of the Bikeways Committee followed his lead to make this happen. The Committee encourages Falmouth residents to actively support its efforts by attending meetings, providing feedback, and voicing support for changes that will build on this honor and raise our designation to even higher levels. Connect with the committee at the Town of Falmouth website under the Bikeways Committee, attend a meeting for public comment time, follow us on Facebook, or write to bikeways@falmouthmass.us or falmouthbikewayscomm@gmail.com.