Sugar Land Council member, Jacqueline Baly Chaumette recently presented and discussed the Bicycle Friendly Community program with fellow council members. The Bicycle Friendly Communities Campaign is an awards program that recognizes municipalities that actively support bicycling. A Bicycle Friendly Community provides safe accommodation for cycling and encourages its residents to bike for transportation and recreation. From more details visit:
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/
http://www.bikeleague.org/programs/bicyclefriendlyamerica/communities/
Encouraging bicycling is a simple way towards improving public health. With more people bicycling, communities experience reduced traffic demands, improved air quality and greater physical fitness. In addition, bicycle-friendly towns are often seen as places with a high quality of life. This can translate into increased property values, business growth and increased tourism. In other words, this can be a great fit for Sugar Land.
Members of the following cycling and wellness organizations were present at the City Council meeting to show their support:
Texas Instruments Cycling Team
Sugar Cycles
Houston Cycling
Bike Houston
Greater Houston Off Road Bike Association
Fort Bend TriPsyclones Triathlon Club
Schlumberger Cycling Club
Bayou City Riders
Shape Up Sugar Land
Fort Bend Fit
The City of Sugar Land’s Vision 2025 documents guiding principles City Council should consider when crafting policy and making decisions that will affect the City’s future. In particular, this document does support a Bicycle Friendly Community campaign by outlining a pursuit in both inter- and intra-city transportation options.
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I am very pleased to see that the Mayor and the Sugar Land City Council have shown interest in this issue. Here are some of the bike friendly ideas we want to continue to discuss with the city and the community(other ideas are definitely welcome):
ReplyDelete* At Oyster Creek, Sugar Land has a 3-mile hike and bike trail (actually 2.75 miles I believe). Even an average cyclist like me can blow through this in about 12 minutes and it can get a little boring to keep repeating the same small stretch. More paved bike trails are needed.
* There are a few other nice but short trails around Sugar Land (riding with the automobile traffic), but I don't believe the are linked/connected into any type of continuous route.
* Linking them together and marking them with signs (mile markers) would have a big impact on creating a "bike friendly" culture in Sugar Land. In my opinion, we would need at least 40 miles of linked trails to have any credibility as a "bike friendly" community. For example, Davis, California, a comparable small city of 65,000 people has over 100 miles of bike lanes and bike paths.
* I would love to see at least a 10 mile (minimum) bike trail at Sugar Land Memorial Park at the Brazos River, that would also be linked to the bike trails on the roads with the auto traffic (e.g. University Boulevard near UH-Sugar Land). My suggested 10-mile trail should have parallel lanes (paved for bikes, matted dirt for runners).
* An in-depth local bike map to be published by the city
* Is there a national cycling month that can be heavily promoted in Sugar Land? Or the city can declare its own cycling celebration at some designated time each year?
* We should try to encourage more K-12 students to ride bikes to school. More bike racks at the schools? Other enablers?
Looking forward to the continued conversation and hearing/seeing more ideas...
Thomas Brooks