Bicycle Friendly Community

Houghton, MI | Bronze Level

Community Highlights: At Houghton’s 2010 Bike to Work Day, 250 cyclists registered at the on-route or destination energizer stations set up for the event. Commemorative water bottles were distributed, each containing discount coupons from local bike shops and brochures on bike safety. A week prior, an introductory bike commuting class was offered, and on the afternoon of bike to work day, simple bike maintenance and chain cleaning and lubing was offered by volunteers. The public library promotes a Read to Ride program each summer, with 10 bikes given to winning students. Houghton is one of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's 50 communities nationwide that is leading the way in reversing the epidemic of childhood obesity through the Healthy Kids, Healthy Communities program. With 3,000 students and faculty biking or walking to campus daily, Michigan Tech has a large influence in the development of Houghton as a bike-friendly community. The university supports cycling with its world-class network of mountain bike trails and with 600 bike parking places on campus and new bike lockers.

Recent Accomplishment: Houghton’s Summer 2010 budget for bicycling improvement funded striping and paving repairs to the Waterfront Trail, improving road-shoulder bike lanes, bike route signing, directional signs in downtown to waterfront route, a mountain bike for police department, bike hitching posts to be installed downtown, and bike racks ordered for transit buses.  Bike-parking language was also added to the zoning ordinance and a Bike Friendly Community resolution was passed by the city council.