This morning’s web edition of Bicycle Retailer and Industry News has an interesting story from Madison, Wisconsin.
Bike manufacturing juggernaut Pacific Cycle (distributors of Schwinn, Mongoose and GT bikes) has announced their support of Madison’s Platinum Biking City Planning Committee, a group that is working on a plan to earn the city a “Platinum” Bicycle Friendly Community award from the League of American Bicyclists.
Pacific’s CEO says,
“We’re committed to promoting cycling, and making the Madison community even more healthy and environmentally conscious is a priority for Pacific Cycle.”
Madison is currently one of seven Gold level cities (so is Portland) and currently only the college town of Davis, California has reached the coveted Platinum level.
Madison, which is also a college town, is about half the size of Portland but with Pacific and many other bike-related companies in town it has a real chance at beating us to the Platinum punch.
From the article in Bicycle Retailer, Madison’s Mayor says,
“With the support of community partners like Pacific Cycle, we’re confident that we can make Madison the most bicycle-friendly city in the nation.”
Those should come as fightin’ words to Portland’s efforts.
Portland’s Platinum committee hasn’t met in recent memory and, even though we’re doing tons of exciting bike projects, there doesn’t seem to be a structured, coordinated plan to get us there. Word has it that Commissioner Adams is calling the Bicycle Master Plan — which is currently being updated for the first time in 10 years — the “Platinum Plan.”
I have a feeling Sam will be a bit peeved if Madison gets there before we do. Let the competition begin…
Thanks for reading.
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Unless the mayor can do something about the cold and snow in Madison, they are never going to be the best biking city. I grew up there and let me tell you, it is darn hard to ride a bike through three feet of snow.