City's pursuit of cool, bicycle-friendly status needs you: Thursday evening event will help define where future bike routes should go

There is a reason that no city in Iowa currently holds the standing with the American League of Bicyclists as a bicycle-friendly city.

It's hard to accomplish.

The City Council here, though, wants to try to achieve the bicycle-friendly status just as cities like Madison, Wis., Ann Arbor, Mich., Eugene, Ore., and Fort Collins, Colo., have achieved it.

In that effort, the city's Bicycle Advisory Committee is holding a workshop/open house on Thursday evening to work on a plan of action to secure bike-friendly status.

Thursday's event will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. at the African American Museum of Iowa, 55 12th Ave. SE.

Those who attend will help the committee identify desired bicycle routes and amenities along the routes.

Participants also will address the five “E's that are part of being bicycle friendly: engineering, education, encouragement, evaluation and planning and enforcement.

For more information, contact Ron Griffith, a city traffic engineer and the city's bicycle coordinator, at 286-5154 or r.griffith@cedar-rapids.org.