December 16, 2015 – Steve Grimes, Bettendorf Parks and Recreation Director, announced that Bettendorf City Council was presented with a Bronze Level Award as a Bicycle Friendly Community by the League of American Bicyclists in November.  The award recognizes communities that welcome cyclists by providing safe accommodations for cycling and encouragement for people to cycle for transportation as well as recreation.  Bettendorf became the sixth community in Iowa to be awarded Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) status.  The BFC program is centered on the “Five E’s”: engineering, education, enforcement, evaluation, and encouragement.  Communities must show their commitment to these five areas of importance for the bicycling public in order to be considered a Bicycle Friendly Community.  The City of Bettendorf had applied previously in spring 2014 and received an honorable mention, which highlighted the city’s strengths and weaknesses as a cycling community.  That designation was upgraded due to the enhancements to cycling in Bettendorf since then.  Formed as a result of the initial BFC application, the Bettendorf Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BBPAC) was created to further the goals of being a BFC and to highlight areas of improvement that are important to the cycling and pedestrian community.  Also as a result of the initial BFC application, the city hired the Quad Cities’ first city-staffed Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator.  Cycling has the potential to help solve many local, national and global issues that the Quad Cities community must face in years to come.