The D.C. area is home to two of the winners from the League of American Bicyclists’ latest round of Bicycle Friendly Business (BFB) awards.  Congrats to our hometown awardees: Revolution Cycles in Arlington and the U.S. EPA headquarters!  Both received silver designation.

The BFB program recognizes employers’ efforts to encourage a more bicycle friendly atmosphere for employees and customers.  The program honors innovative bike-friendly efforts and provides technical assistance to help companies and organizations become even better for bicyclists. This new initiative complements the League’s Bicycle Friendly Community program, which has been recognizing cities and towns for their bicycle friendliness since 2003.

The latest round of winners, 51 in all, were announced this week at the National Bike Summit here in D.C.

Previous Washington-area winners include the National Park Service National Mall and Memorial Parks location (silver), Toole Design Group, LLC in Hyattsville (silver), the National Geographic Society (bronze), the World Bank (bronze) and Community IT Innovators (honorable mention).

It’s great that these employers are taking an active role in encouraging sustainable transportation.  Now, with D.C. becoming more bike-friendly every day, more federal and city government offices and local businesses need to jump on the bandwagon.  If commuters are going to take advantage of the new bike infrastructure being installed, they are going to need secure bike storage, locker rooms and showers once they arrive at the office.  Bicycling incentives and educational efforts would increase the viability of biking even more.

Since encouraging bicycling is a District priority, public agencies can lead the way.  They can do this by example – offering support to their own cycling employees  – and can even take more broad-based action, like passing a Bicycle Access to Office Buildings law similar to the one signed into action in New York City this summer.  The law aims to increase bicycle commuting by providing cyclists with the opportunity to securely park their bicycles in or close to their workplaces.

For those offices that are already supporting cyclists, participation in the BFB program is a great way to show off the company’s commitment to sustainability and employee health, and to develop bike programs even further.  The next round of applications is due July 16, and the program is open to all U.S. businesses, corporations, organizations, or non-profit groups with more than two employees.  Along with good publicity, winners receive technical assistance on how to become more bicycle friendly.