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.