The Bicycle Friendly program is taking South Carolina by storm—and we couldn't be more ready! The program in South Carolina consists of bicycle friendly advacements within communities, businesses and universities, as well as the state bicycle friendly ranking. This effort is based upon the League's Bicycle Friendly America (BFA) program. The BFA program is a valuable model to the Coalition as we work with communities, universities and businesses to make a more bicycle friendly South Carolina.

Communities

The Coalition has worked with every designated Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) in South Carolina to aid in achieving their respective status. The first community to receive BFC status was Spartanburg in 2007, when they were awarded bronze. Since then, the following communities have received the following designations:

2008 Columbia, bronze
2009 Greenville, bronze
2010 Charleston, bronze
2011 Hilton Head, silver

The BFC program offers important metrics to ensure that these five communities continue to work to be the best that they can be in bicycling. We are very proud to have five cities in South Carolina be recognized as BFC's, and we look forward to continuing to work with these cities as they improve and grow.

If you are interested in bringing the BFC program to your community, contact Rachael and we'll work towards getting your community headed in the right direction!

Businesses

Since the inception of the Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) program in 2009, seven communities in SC have been awarded a designation. These include:

This list continues to grow as more businesses in South Carolina begin to understand how important their bicycle friendliness is to their employees, to their bottom line, and to the growth and prosperity of their company. Please contact us if you have any questions on how to make your SC business more bicycle friendly, or how to enroll in the program.

University

The League unveiled the Bicycle Friendly University (BFU) program in 2011, and since then three universities in the state have expressed interest in the program: Furman University, Clemson University, and the University of South Carolina. Furman University hosted a Maymester class dedicated to the topic, and Rachael had the opportunity to visit this class last May of 2011 to speak to them about bicycle friendly progress in SC. The class developed their application for the BFU program and will be submitting it very soon.

Rachael also has been working with colleagues at both Clemson and USC-Columbia on their bicycle master plans and progress towards the BFU program.

If you are interested in bringing the BFU program to your university, contact Rachael and she'll be glad to offer assistance.

State ranking

Finally, it goes without saying that we are constantly working to improve our metrics and ranking as a Bicycle Friendly State (BFS).The BFS Program ranks states annually based on their level of bike-friendliness. With each submitted application, states receive feedback, technical assistance, training and further encouragement to improve their bicycling legislation, projects, and programs.

In 2011, South Carolina was ranked 39th for bicycle-friendliness, with an overall grade of F. This marked a decrease from 33rd in 2010 and 26th in 2009. For 2011, South Carolina's progress in these six key areas received the following rankings by category:

C in Legislation
F in Policies & Programs
F in Infrastructure
C in Education & Encouragement
F in Evaluation & Planning
D in Enforcement

Despite the disappointing news, we remain optimistic of our current and ongoing efforts, and look forward to resubmitting the application in March of 2012 with hope that our ranking will improve. This is also a reminder of all of the work that remains to be done—so please continue to support us as we work to make positive progress in South Carolina.