OCEAN CITY – After learning that the town had received an honorable mention for its Bicycle Friendly Community application, a resort committee got to work last week developing action steps for seeking the coveted designation again next year.
Last week, the Ocean City Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee reviewed the town’s report card for its Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) application.
“There were a lot of communities that applied for this designation that don’t actually receive it,” said Paul Mauser, president of the committee. “Ocean City received an honorable mention.”
In August, the town submitted its application to become a Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC), a national designation program spearheaded by the League of American Bicyclists to honor cities and towns taking steps to develop bikeable communities.
Late last month, however, officials in Ocean City learned the town did not secure a Bicycle Friendly Community designation in the Fall 2019 cohort. Instead, the resort earned an honorable mention for its efforts.
Communities that earn an honorable mention are recognized for starting efforts to address the need of bicyclists in their community, according to the League’s website. Over 100 communities that originally earned an honorable mention have gone on to be awarded a bronze designation or better in the BFC program.
To that end, the committee wasted no time last week in identifying areas of improvement in its BFC application. The town plans to submit another application in August.
“I got to tell you I am really, really disappointed we didn’t get it,” Councilman Tony DeLuca, liaison for the committee, said. “And for this year, I’d really like to focus in on what specifically we need to do to get it. What two, or three, or four things do we need to attack to get the award next year?”
For Ocean City, the BFC designation aligns with its efforts to establish a continual bike route along the resort’s side streets and minimize the need for bicycles to interact with vehicles on major roadways throughout town.
Since Mauser first presented the program to resort leaders last year, officials have taken necessary steps to achieve the BFC designation. They argued the designation could enhance the town’s ability to secure grants for bike-friendly projects, as well as benefit tourism and the town’s reputation as a green community.
But gaining entrance into the program is challenging.
Since the creation of the BFC program in 1995, the League has processed more than 1,500 community applications. To date, 488 have been recognized as Bicycle Friendly Communities and nearly 100 have earned an honorable mention.
“That leaves about 1,000 that haven’t received anything,” Mauser said. “So our first time at least we got an honorable mention, and we got some comments we can use to proceed forward and receive that bronze level designation.”
The committee last week reviewed its report card, which provides action steps the town will need to complete to receive a BFC designation. From that report card, the committee identified five areas that needed improvement.
“That’s four or five takeaways we really need to attack,” DeLuca said. “We need to have it all done by next July really.”
Members agreed to identify bike-friendly businesses in Ocean City, research active bicycle advocacy groups, reevaluate what portion of the town’s transportation budget is spent on bicycling, establish Bike Month and Bike to Work events, and create a bicycle master plan.
Nearly two years ago, the town identified the need for a bicycle master plan. But efforts to secure a $80,000 grant to finance the project fell through.
With time to spare until the application deadline in August, Planning and Community Development Director Bill Neville told the committee last week he could help develop a master plan for the town.
“Knowing that our next deadline is now August, I’m happy to work with you to do an in-house master plan,” he said. “If we got six months to work on it, let’s do it … Tell the council we saved $80,000.”
With assignments doled out to various committee members, Mauser said the group would begin working on action steps for next year’s BFC application.
“We’ve already made great progress on this just today,” he said.
