Bicycle Friendly Community

Long Beach, CA| Silver Level

Recent bicycling investment: Long Beach installed special bike lights downtown on Broadway and Third as part of the federal pilot program Cycle Trax. This has transformed a major downtown corridor into a bike and pedestrian friendly area. In the first 6 months these have resulted in a 10-50% increase in the number of bicyclists using the street.

Bicycling highlights: Long Beach has gone from tolerating bicyclists to welcoming and even "seducing" bicyclists. The embracing of bicycling has become part of the Long Beach narrative, both internally within the City, and publically. And it's the lead story outside of Long Beach, which both City leaders and the community find very positive. The City has taken considerable risks and it's paying off. The bold commitment and follow through has generated $20 million in grants, and has created an environment for 20 new bike-related businesses to blossom and thrive.
The City excelled in installing innovative pilot programs and other very visual infrastructure to garner interest and support. Long Beach has used three federal experiments, miles of bike lanes, hundreds of bike racks, the green sharrow lane of Belmont Shore, the Vista Blvd. bike boulevard and the Broadway and Third separated bike lanes. As a result, Long Beach has not only become an innovative demonstration city, but the local community has really embraced the City's bike-friendly campaign and responded in profound way.
The City's daily paper reports that the bike safety survey that ran in collaboration with Bike Long Beach in 2011 was the most popular survey they've posted.

Percentage of arterial streets with dedicated bicycle facilities: 60%

Bicycling education in 100% elementary schools and 100% middle schools

Signature cycling events: Long Beach's bike festival and tour, which raised over $120,000 for Long Beach's Miller's Children's hospital and cancer center; vintage bike social rides; Parking Day bike tour; Long Beach by Bike Tours; Jingle Bells Los Angeles River Ride; Beach Babe Bicycle Classic; Women On Bikes SoCal; Moving Long Beach: Why Style Matters to Active Living tour & talk; Midcentury Modern Architectural Tour by Bike; Cycle Chic: Dress for the Destination urban bike show;  Annual Anger Management Criterium; Long Beach Bicycle Grand Prix Festival; Ship to Shore; Tour de Cure - American Diabetes Association; Memorial Day Bike Race; Mayor's Ride for Bikefest; Los Angeles River Ride with LACBC; Long Beach Bike Marathon

Some coming bicycling improvements: The City is planning to design 20 miles of bike boulevard to be built out in the next 18 months, add 15 miles of sharrows/bike lanes, put a 160 bike share program in place, host the Pro Walk/Pro Bike conference, Cyclovia and Cycle Chic fashion show, provide bicycle safety education for all children k-8 via Safe Routes, implement bike trains and walking school buses, "know your neighborhood" bike safety tours, complete the revamping of the Bike LB website, implement the multi-media Share Our Streets road safety campaign, and host Traffic 101 + first LCI scholarship program just for women in the U.S.