Bike Annapolis Program

Cyclists looking at piece of paper.Bike Annapolis is an initiative of the City of Annapolis to build a partnership between Annapolis citizens, businesses and the City staff to encourage people to bike more often.

Biking is good exercise, it's convenient, inexpensive, good for the environment and business, and it makes for a good community. It is also the most efficient and enjoyable way of getting around.

Benefits

The City of Annapolis recognizes the many environmental, economic and health benefits of walking and bicycling for transportation, recreation, and tourism in our city. Foremost among these benefits are reduced traffic and parking pressure, stronger communities and neighborhoods, and enhanced mobility for all residents and visitors.

Safety

The City of Annapolis invites, welcomes and encourages more bicycling by planning, developing and continually improving safe and accessible streets through programs like Safe Routes to School and off-road networks and amenities such as bicycle storage, signage, education, enforcement and maps.

Reduction of Automobile Congestion & Pollution

As the capital city of Maryland and the heart of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, Annapolis promotes bicycle use in order to reduce automobile congestion as a part of its clean air strategy. Annapolis is in a region that has been determined by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a non-attainment area because of high ozone levels directly related to automobile exhaust, and where highway funding is tied directly to specific actions undertaken by local governments to promote alternative forms of transportation.

Bicycling Master Plan

The City's goals are to procure grants, enlist state support, coordinate bicycle initiatives with the county, build partnerships with bicycle and pedestrian groups, and promote safety and education programs to enhance bicycling. In 2012 the City developed its first bicycling master plan that will assist in Annapolis becoming a Bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community as determined by the League of American Bicyclists and to continue to improve thereafter and become a Silver-level Community. It is the objective to reach Silver level status by 2016.

Trails

As the only municipal hub in the United States where 2 national trails (the East Coast Greenway Trail and the American Discovery Trail) converge, and as the finish line for the Race Across America, and as a key link to international destinations via the B&A Trail, the BWI Trail, BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport, AMTRAK, and Greyhound/Trailways, Annapolis seeks to be a world-renowned bicycle destination where safe bicycling is an accepted form of transportation.