The City of Davis. The city of Davis is the largest urbanized area located in Yolo County, in California's Central Valley. In 1995 this city won the title of America's Best Cycling City from the Bicycle Federation of America, and the League of American Bicyclists designated the city of Davis as a “Bicycle Friendly Community” in May 2000.

The abundance of bicyclists in the city has its origin in the use of bicycles by the students of the University of California-Davis. Historically, the population and geographic growth of the city has been driven by enrollment in the university. With the growth of number of students from 2,200 in 1958 to its current enrollment of 25,000, the demands for adequate bicycle facilities have continued to rise. The demand was felt decades back – when the primary issue of the April 1966 City Council election was the provision of bicycleways for commuters on public streets. After the pro-bicycleway candidates were elected, a trial system of bicycle lanes was installed and was proved to be very popular. Since then, the city bicycleway system has steadily expanded.
 

Currently, Davis has 48.8 miles of bicycle lanes and 49 miles of bicycle paths –in a city of just over ten square miles in area. More than 80 percent of all collector and arterial streets within the city have bicycle lanes and/or bicycle paths. According to the city's Comprehensive Bicycle Plan, this is the highest such ratio in any US city. Estimates from the most current data available (1990) indicate that 20-25 percent of trips are taken by bicycle. This is a high percentage  —  for most cities, 2-3 percent is considered to be significant. Even with the increases in the city's population and changing demographics, there continues to be a dedicated population of cyclists who utilize bicycles as their primary commute mode. The Davis Comprehensive Bicycle Plan also describes the University of California-Davis, where the majority of students live off campus. Approximately up to 48% (or 15,000) students ride bicycles or walk to class, and up to 20% (or 1800) of faculty and staff walk or ride their bicycles to campus.

Though many of the university-based bicycle commuters live in Davis, some bicycle from as far away as Sacramento or Woodland — both cities are 12 to 14 miles from Davis.
 

For the rest of Davis residents, use of bicycles is also quite high. There are no public school buses in the Davis Joint Unified School District, so many school-aged children walk or ride their bicycles to school. Parents who commute to work on bicycles transport their young children in bicycle trailers and drop them off to school on their way to work. Out of a population of 55,000 residents, it is estimated there are over 50,000 bicycles in the city of Davis.
 

Bicycle policies in the General Plan update of the City of Davis has the following guiding policies:
 

Portland, Oregon. Probably the most common type of bike-friendly policy is a bicycle parking requirement. Many communities, such as Portland, Oregon; Palo Alto, California; and Madison, Wisconsin have adopted government ordinances that require bicycle parking at office buildings, commercial centers, and other areas. If these ordinances were not in place (for instance, it was a part of the bicycle plan recommendations but was never officially adopted) building managers probably wouldn’t install as much, or any parking for bikes.
 

You should check what bicycle parking requirements your own city has, or read more about bicycle parking from the City of Portland’s bicycle parking guide webpage.

 
Seattle, Washington. Sometimes it’s claimed that bicycle projects “divert” or siphon off federal transportation dollars that might otherwise be used for “more important” projects, i.e., those that benefit motor vehicles. The City of Seattle found an elegant way around this barrier. The city developed project evaluation criteria that give credit for the beneficial outcomes of bicycling and motorized transportation. This has allowed bicycle projects and programs to score well against other potential projects and receive higher priority for funding. And, roadway improvements that included bike facilities scored better than other road improvements that did not. TIPs should contain both bike-specific projects and projects that include incidental improvements for bikes.
 

Sample Project Selection Criteria used in Seattle, Washington:
 

The following Project selection criteria awards high scores for transportation capital projects that have a high potential for increasing bicycle use or to solve a safety concern. Typically, projects that score high will be those that provide intermodal links, remove major barriers (e.g. bridge access), are in a neighborhood plan or connect neighborhoods to employment centers, and are identified as "planned" urban trails in the Comprehensive Plan.
10 points:
 

5 points:

0 points:

-5 points:
 

-10 points:
 

Hampton, Virginia. Why get kids involved? Because a high percentage of bicyclists are children and today’s children are tomorrow’s bicycle advocates. One model for getting young people involved in advocating for better bicycling conditions is YBEN, or the Youth Bicycle Education Network. Following the model established by YBEN, one middle school in Hampton, Virginia achieved all of the following in just six months’ time.