Welcome to BikeFriendlyville

Or welcome back, anyway. The new issue of American Bicyclist, the house organ of the League of American Bicyclists, arrived today. This issue's theme is the league's Bicycle Friendly Communities program, of which Cary is one at the bronze level. Fifty-eight municipalities throughout the United States have made the cut at some level. The league first recognized Cary in 2003. Town efforts have include a bicycle-education video produced in English and Spanish, the Cary Cycling Celebration, wide outside lanes or striped bike lanes on all collector streets and thoroughfares and a requirement that new developments include bicycle parking facilities. The wide outside lanes are the real deal and allow me to be passed safely when both cars and I are hauling ass.
Living in one of the great 58 is pretty cool but I also know from visiting my mom in Fort Collins, Colo., a silver-level community, that there are more possibilities. Fort Fun practically insists that you pedal and accomodates bicycles on the road so effectively that efforts here seem primitive. Cary has a ways to go to reach those heights.