Spokane maintains bronze rating for bike-friendliness

When it comes to commuting on two wheels, Spokane is no Portland or Minneapolis, but it has maintained its status among their vaunted ranks.

The city announced Tuesday that it has retained its bronze-level bicycle-friendly designation from the League of American Bicyclists, reflecting its growing numbers of bike commuters, bike lanes and efforts to educate the public about cycling’s health benefits. But city officials say there’s more work to be done.

City Councilman Jon Snyder, who travels primarily by bike, said he was “disappointed” with the low ranking and the city’s stalled efforts at promoting bikes.

“I think we can do better than that. We need to show more progress in implementing the Master Bike Plan,” he said. “We’re still struggling with how we handle bike and pedestrian planning.”

Snyder pointed to the success of SpokeFest and Bike to Work Week Spokane as signs that the city’s cycling community is healthy.

The standing of Spokane as a bronze-level bicycle-friendly community continues the status it earned in 2010, but it keeps Spokane at the lowest rank of the league’s 326 recognized cities, below silver, gold, platinum and diamond, the highest rank that has yet to be handed to any community.

The league ranks Washington as the best state for cyclists, ahead of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Donald Gibson, who co-owns MonkeyBoy Bicycles in West Central and sits on the city’s Bicycle Advisory Board, said the bronze award “shows that our efforts are yielding fruit.”

Gibson commutes three times a week from his home in the Indian Trail neighborhood. When he moved to Spokane from Seattle eight years ago, he feared the city would be “auto-centric.”

“I have to say I was pleasantly surprised,” he said.

As a commuter, he’s a bit lonely. Only 1.2 percent of people in Spokane bike to work. That puts the city ahead of Tacoma, with just 0.7 percent, but far behind Boise, where 4 percent of people commute by bike.

Spokane has about 65 miles of bike lanes. Boise has more than 130 miles. Ada County, including Boise, has a silver designation from the league. Tacoma is ranked bronze.

Louis Mueller, the city’s acting planning director, agreed with Snyder that there was work to be done but called on more people to be active in the cycling community. He noted that there was a vacancy on the city’s bike advisory board, which he advises.

“Bronze is worth more than it used to be, but it’s still just a bronze designation,” he said. “Making bicyclists feel safer is probably the biggest factor.”

Mueller said the city’s efforts to complete trail gaps in the Centennial Trail, expand its on- and off-street bike network and promote the Safe Routes to Schools program all contributed to the bronze award.

On top of completed and planned bike network improvements, including anticipated work on East Central’s Ben Burr Trail and the new stretch of separated blacktop in Kendall Yards, Mueller said bike commuters can expect to see more.

“We’re considering putting a bike lane all the way down Main,” he said, connecting the existing lane that begins at Monroe Street but peters out at Howard Street. “Maybe also one on Spokane Falls.”

Snyder welcomed any and all bike improvements.

“We can and need to do better,” he said. “Next time we need to go to a higher status instead of just pedaling in place.”