Hartford’s receipt of the Bicycle Friendly Community Bronze Award is a sign that the city is finally getting somewhere when it comes to sustainable transportation. In Pope Park on Saturday, Mayor Luke Bronin accepted the award from The League of American Bicyclists on behalf of the city. Bronin applauded organizations like BiCi Co. and CRCOG, while acknowledging that Hartford still has progress to make when it comes to roads with suddenly disappearing bike lanes

A glance at the report card issued by the Bike League shows Hartford excelling in some areas, like having bicycle-friendly laws and ordinances, an active bicycle advisory committee that meets monthly, and zero fatalities per 10,000 bicycle commuters. There remains much room for improvement as Hartford has only 0.7% percent of commuters who go by bike, yet 1278 crashes per 10,000 bicycle commuters. Education –both for motorists and bicyclists — needs improvement.

By receiving this award, Hartford joins seven other

Connecticut towns and cities that have been named Bicycle Friendly Communities: Farmington, Glastonbury, New Britain, New Haven, South Windsor, West Hartford, and Simsbury. Of those, all are at the bronze level except for Simsbury, which is in the silver tier.

Also in attendance at the celebration on: West Hartford Mayor Shari Cantor, BiCi Co., Bike Walk Connecticut, Hartford Complete Streets Action Team, various representatives of the City of Hartford, reps from other Bicycle Friendly Communities in Connecticut, and others.