Marquette aims to be more bike-friendly
The City of Marquette is looking to expand and built on its reputation of a bike-friendly city.
At its meeting Monday night, the Marquette City Commission approved sending an award application to the League of American Bicyclists to renew Marquette’s distinction as a bike-friendly community.
Marquette was awarded a bronze ranking four years ago, and the commission is hoping the city will earn a silver or gold this time around.
“The city’s been attentive to biking,” Marquette Mayor Robert Niemi said. “(On some roads) we have, like McClellan, on Wright Street, sharo [shared] lanes where we have little lanes that run along side the curb that bikes can go on. Some of the traffic features we have are to make the road a little more friendly for biking.”
Commissioners said biking is the future, and Marquette has the ability to bring in cyclists year-round.
“We not only have streets and bike paths, but we also have a large community for mountain biking and in the winter we have the big tires you see–the fat tires, about four inch wide tires…we have people that bike actually year-round in Marquette,” Niemi said. “It’s really kind of neat when you see those fat tired bikes.”
A presentation from the Traffic–Parking Advisory Committee also addressed issues to make the city more bike friendly.