History was made at Austin City Hall Thursday evening during the proclamation portion of the weekly city hall meeting.
The League of American Bicyclists, a 130-year old organization with 26,000 members nationwide presented Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell a proclamation making Austin the only city to ever receive the group's Silver Bicycle Friendly Business Award.
"It's a big deal because the thing is it's getting the employees active" said Preston Tyree with a the League of American Bicyclists. "We all know that there's an obesity issue in this country. We all know that there's a pollution issue and cycling fits into all of those," added Tyree.
"Being a bicycle friendly organization really says a lot about the quality of life Austin offers its citizens of working in Austin and living in Austin," added Annick Beaudet with the city of Austin's Public Works department.
Two years ago, Austin city leaders created a task force to make Austin a more bicycle friendly city.
On Thursday evening the current Austin City Council approved a bicycle initiative which came out of that effort called ciclovias, Spanish for bicycle path. The idea is to shut down a three-mile stretch of road or roads to cars so pedestrians, cyclists, rollerbladers, etc. can have the entire street for an entire day.
The city has not decided when or where the ciclovias should go. Staff members are counting on public input.
The City's Public Works department is also working on transforming Nueces Street in the downtown area into a Bicycle Boulevard. The city wants to use $350,000 of bond money approved by voters in 2000 to transform Nueces into a street solely for cyclists. The effort would not get rid of parking on a stretch of Nueces from 3rd to Martin Luther King, Jr.
Construction on the Bicycle Boulevard could begin as early as March 2010.
The city's Public Works department is counting on public input on both the Ciclovias and on the Bicycle Boulevard.
Go here www.cityofaustin.org/publicworks
