The Tucson area has been upgraded to a gold rating from silver for its friendliness to bicycle riders by the League of American Bicyclists, which rates cities in part on community education and the quality of bicycling paths like the Speedway underpass near Park Avenue. The city's goal was to reach platinum status by this year, a rating held only by Davis, Calif.

David Sanders / Arizona Daily Star

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The Tucson metropolitan area is a golden place for bicycling.

The area was given a gold rating for bicycle-friendliness by the League of American Bicyclists in late April.

That's up from Tucson's previous silver rating in 2004 from the league, which rates cities on how well they encourage bicycling.

"It's real positive reinforcement that we're headed in the right direction in most respects," said Matt Zoll, the bike and pedestrian program manager for Pima County. "We're headed in right direction in education, facilities, and encouragement events like El Tour."

The league rates regions and cities by their efforts in bicycle education, engineering of streets for bicycle use, communitywide encouragement, enforcement of local laws applying to bicyclists and motorists, and road evaluation.

"It probably means a lot more work for us, which is good," said Richard DeBernardis, founder of El Tour de Tucson. "It puts us on a status of very few cities in the United States."

The Tucson/Pima Eastern Region is one of seven communities in the gold ranking from the league. Davis, Calif., is the only community ranked at the platinum level, the highest rating the league awards. Davis got its platinum designation last October.

The Tucson/Pima Eastern Region includes Marana, Oro Valley, Sahuarita, South Tucson, Tucson, the Tohono O'odham Nation, the Pascua Yaqui Reservation and Pima County, Zoll said.

"When they put you at a high level, it means you have to maintain a high level," said DeBernardis, who is also president of the Perimeter Bicycling Association of America. "It makes Tucson look at itself as a bicycling community and put more energy and emphasis in the bicycling community."

The designation, which DeBernardis said is an honor for those who have worked to improve biking conditions and relations with the community, may also improve the overall health of those who live here.

"What's neat about this region versus others is that all jurisdictions (here) have restrictions in place requiring paved shoulders," Zoll said.

One of the reasons the region may have been bumped up to gold is the local governments' commitment to bicyclists, said Melissa Antol, the city Department of Transportation's bicycle and pedestrian program coordinator.

"Anytime we do a new road, or upgrades, we have as a policy that we add bike lanes," Antol said. "I think we've come a long way because we've institutionalized a lot of the things to improve cycling."

The city's goal was to reach the platinum rating by this year. But officials and bicyclists are pleased with the gold rating, and encouraged to keep improving bike access in the area.

"One of the biggest things we're going to work on, from a transportation perspective, is safety and enforcement of bicycling laws," Antol said. "With more bicyclists on the road, there's more potential for accidents."

Zoll said the county also wants to focus on enforcement of local laws, along with educating motorists and bicyclists about the laws that apply to both.