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Bessemer, MI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Bikeability
Description: Officials in Bessemer, located on the western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, wanted to promote biking while beautifying their city. To do this, they installed 12 bike racks, each featuring decorative tops made of colored glass. The racks make cycling easier for residents, allowing them to ride their bikes for exercise and to run errands. The project was part of a larger city bike plan that included painting stripes for bike lanes the city's busiest roads. Since installing the bike racks, Bessemer has continued to support biking. In 2020, work began on a 1.5 million upgrade and extension of the Iron Belle Trail, which connects Bessemer with nearby communities.
Henderson, NV
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Bikeability
Description: To encourage people to bike, this project installed thirty artistic bicycle racks downtown, along with other public art. Additionally, the City hosted a bike education class, which included a community ride.
Fort Myers, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Bikeability
Description: Streets Alive partnered with four other organizations to hold a bike rodeo event for children in Fort Myers' Dunbar neighborhood. A dozen volunteers completed a training course on how to teach safe cycling skills. Another volunteer worked with Franklin Park Elementary School to obtain a supply of loaner bikes for the young participants. At the event, children went through a series of stations to be fitted with helmets, have their bikes inspected for safety and receive coaching on how to start, balance and stop their bikes. They learned cycling rules of the road, including hand signals and where to ride on the street. They also received training on how to stay safe as pedestrians when crossing intersections and facing traffic. The organization staged another bike rodeo in 2020.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Las Cruces, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Public art installations
Description: This project will help community members beautify a revitalizing downtown through a participatory paint-by-numbers mural on the wall of a nonprofit makerspace.
Dona Ana County, NM
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public or private transit access
Description: Founded in 2016, the South Central Transit District serves a largely rural area in New Mexico's Mesilla Valley. Before its launch, no public transportation services covered this part of the state. Despite the area's hot summer temperatures, few of the District's bus stops had amenities aimed at helping transit riders wait comfortably. To fix this, the District added two dozen benches and four bus shelters in several communities, including Anthony, Chaparral, Sunland Park and Hatch. District staff constructed concrete pads for the benches, which sit in high traffic areas. The work represents the first phase of improvements to stops -- the District plans to add LED lighting to increase safety for riders. Project organizers say the shelters and benches are popular with students and older adults, who make up a large share of the transit system's ridership.
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