BOULDER, Colo. (May 9, 2016) – Today marks the first day of National Protected Bike Lane Week which celebrates the positive change these lanes have brought to cities across the United States. Protected bike lanes separate people on bikes from car-and-truck traffic with physical barriers such as planters or bollards, providing safe cycling options for people of all ages and abilities while spurring economic growth along the lanes.

"Collectively, we've rewritten the book on designing and implementing protected bike lanes," said Martha Roskowski, Vice President of Local Innovation at PeopleForBikes. "They are now the gold standard for safe and comfortable riding on busy streets. This week, we will celebrate the lanes already on the ground. Our next challenge is to get more built, in more places, more quickly."

To help advance the installation of protected lanes nationwide, PeopleForBikes recently released a report titled Quick Builds for Better Streets: A New Project Delivery Model for U.S. Cities which serves as a practical guide for city governments that want to make fast, flexible changes to streets. PeopleForBikes will also release a series of infographics throughout the week showing how neighborhoods can improve when a protected bike lane gets implemented.

Eight cities across the country have been awarded $500 mini-grants from PeopleForBikes to host a local event, demonstration project or celebration. The selected cities are Aurora, Illinois; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Denver, Colorado; Indianapolis, Indiana; Iowa City, Iowa; New Orleans, Louisiana; Portland, Oregon and Tallahassee, Florida.

“Back in 2009, Portland was one of the first U.S. cities to install a protected bike lane,” said Portland Transportation Commissioner Steve Novick. “Last fall, we became first U.S. city to make them the default design for all new bike lane projects. We’re looking forward to joining our transportation and public policy peers from around the country when we celebrate protected bike lanes this week as a way of making streets safer and less stressful for everyone.”

PeopleForBikes looks forward to celebrating with all cities, big and small, rural and urban and invites those hosting an event to send photos to aisling@peopleforbikes.org to share with the PeopleForBikes community.

About PeopleForBikes:

PeopleForBikes is uniting millions of individuals, thousands of businesses and hundreds of communities to make better bike riding for everyone. Because when people ride bikes, great things happen. Join us at PeopleForBikes.org.