The city of Sioux Falls has been named a 2009 Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists.

Sioux Falls received a bronze level distinction and achieved the recognition on its first application for the award. The city is one of 15 new Bicycle Friendly Communities to receive the honor.

Communities are deemed Bicycle Friendly after a detailed evaluation process involving five key areas: engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation/planning. Applications are reviewed by local cyclists, national experts, and staff with the League of American Bicyclists.

Sioux Falls is seeing record interest in bicycling. Between 1998 and 2009, the number of daily trail users doubled, and the city is now seeing 7,000 people a day use the trail for bicycling, running, or other recreation. Numbers are higher on weekdays than on weekends, showing that people are using the trail to commute to work.

In addition, the number of bicycles being transported on City buses has doubled in the last three years. So far this year, more than 5,700 bicycles have been transported on buses.

For more information, contact Sam Trebilcock at 367-8888.