Simcoe, ON, April 2, 2019 – An area long known for its appeal to bikers of one kind is being recognized for its work encouraging bikes of another.
Norfolk County has been named a Bicycle Friendly Community by the Share the Road Cycling Coalition.
Norfolk took home the bronze level community award during the Ontario Bike Summit in Toronto Monday. The event is known as the premier cycling conference in Ontario.
The Bicycle Friendly Community Award Program provides incentives, hands-on assistance, and award recognition for communities that actively support cycling.
Communities are required to complete a thorough application process and are judged in five categories – engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and evaluation and planning. A community must demonstrate achievements in each of the five categories in order to be considered for recognition.
“Each one of our new 2019 Bicycle Friendly Communities has applied to the program in the past and received an Honourable Mention,” said Jamie Stuckless, Executive Director of Share the Road. “Those communities took the feedback provided by our expert panel of judges, took action on key areas and have now joined the ranks of BFCs in Ontario. Their success is illustrative of the value of the program.”
Norfolk County has become a premiere destination for cyclists in southern Ontario in recent years, many of whom attend the annual Tour de Norfolk each July.
The municipality has also improved area trails, encourages new businesses to install bike racks for patrons and staff, welcomes bikes on board Ride Norfolk buses, and includes “share the road” signage in all planned capital projects.
For more information – including a look at the county’s trail system – visit norfolktourism.ca/cycling.
