By Ed Gulick, High Plains Architects

 

The League of American Bicyclists has created a certification program to recognize businesses and organizations that are doing their part to create a more bicycle friendly environment for their employees, customers, and community in general.  An entity that applies and receives some level of certification is, appropriately enough, a Bicycle Friendly Business^SM, or BFB.

 

Similar to the US Green Building Council’s LEED(r) rating system, there are multiple levels of achievement: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum.  After finding out about the program at bikebillings.com, I thought that my office, High Plains Architects, should also apply.  And here’s what I’ve learned, having gone through the process.

 

I encourage EVERY business and organization to apply!!  It’s only $50 for a 4 year certification, and I think you’ll learn as much and figure out ways to improve the quality of life for employees and customers in much the same way that we did. We got a Silver BFB certification for the things we’re doing right now, and we’re inspired to up our game and go for Gold or Platinum in the future.

 

Things we’re doing now:

• We have covered bike racks next to the employee entrance.
• We have showers at the office in case anyone works up a sweat getting to work.
• We provide $20 per month to any employee that walks or bikes to work for most of their trips, taking advantage of the federal tax credit available to the office.
• We have a relatively high level of active transportation usage by employees: between 33% and 45% of employee trips are by foot or bike each month
• We track our active transportation using the MT Commuter Challenge website that many of you used during Bike to Work Month last May.  It’s super quick and easy, and we just use all year round.  And now we also record the month to month data so that we can set goals.
• We’ve started to spread the word about good bike-oriented design through our blog: highplainsarchitects.com/blog
• We were a sponsor of last year’s bicycle film festival.

 

Some things we plan to do in the future:

 

• Provide bike parking for our clients with a blue staple bike rack in the sidewalk in front of our office downtown.
• Provide a bike pump and patch kit at the office.
• Become a vocal champion as a business (not just as individuals) for better bike access in downtown Billings.
• Offer a company-owned bike to be shared by employees for quick trips during the workday.
• Offer bike safety classes and educational rides.
• Set measurable goals for increasing active transportation at our office.

 

As you may be aware, the League of American Bicyclists also has similar programs for a variety of scales:  Bicycle Friendly University^SM, Bicycle Friendly Community^SM, and Bicycle Friendly State^SM.  The City of Billings is a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community, and our master plan calls for being a Gold Bicycle Friendly Community by the year 2020.  That’s a great, ambitious goal.

 

And we’re not going to get there until both the public and private sector steps up to the plate.  In fact, having more BFBs in Billings actually directly helps us get a higher BFC rating.  Currently, CTA Architects Engineers and High Plains Architects are the only BFBs in Billings.  But I can think of a lot of businesses and organizations that are already doing good work that would be recognized in a certification.

 

High Plains Architects is a proponent of making the streets of downtown as well as the rest of the community more bike friendly not only for the health, economic, and environmental benefits. If we want to be a vibrant community that can attract and retain high quality talent, Billings must provide a quality experience for a variety of different transportation modes.

 

So here’s my call to action: become a BFB!  I can think of a lot of businesses and organizations that have health and sustainability initiatives and/or are already encouraging biking for the health, economic, and environmental benefits.   I’m even going to call out some that come to mind: bike shops, Rockets Wraps, First Interstate Bank, Riverstone Health, St. Vincent Healthcare, Billings Clinic, City of Billings, Northern Plains Resource Council, Billings Trailnet, Yellowstone Naturopathic Clinic, HDR Engineering, myTopo, law offices—you should all become BFBs!  And Rocky Mountain College and MSU-Billings should become BFUs!