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It's time for a platinum award, say those who have worked to get the Tucson area more bicycle-friendly.

The bicycling community has worked for two years toward that higher goal, after receiving a landmark gold designation for bicycle-friendliness in 2006.

The Tucson/Eastern Pima County region was the only region in the nation to get gold, the second-highest rating for bicycle friendliness from the League of American Bicyclists.

So far, only the city of Davis, Calif., has earned the top platinum rating, and the local Platinum Challenge Committee wants the Tucson metropolitan area to be the first region to be designated the best.

Besides the bragging rights, it can also increase property values and bring in more tourists, said Elizabeth Kiker, spokeswoman for the League of American Bicyclists.

"People have said they would pay more to live in communities that are bike-able and bike-friendly," she said. "(Even) non-cyclists prefer to live in bicycle-friendly communities, to live in a place that's considered much more livable."

Other communities with bicycle-friendly designations have tracked less pollution and fewer crashes involving cyclists, Kiker said.

Here's what the region is doing to meet the evaluation requirements.

The Regional Transportation Plan, approved by voters in 2006, includes several projects to close gaps in the bike-lane system.

About 98 percent of the existing gaps in the system will be addressed by the plan in the next 18 years, said Richard Corbett, chair of the platinum challenge task force.

"We didn't shy away from some of the tough ones," he said, including adding bike lanes to an already developed area of East Speedway from North Rosemont Boulevard to North Alvernon Way.

Expanding bicycle parking throughout the region will also contribute to this category, Corbett said.

The expansion of Safe Routes to School programs in the region has been steady, helping this category for the application.

The programs help educate students on being better, safer walkers and cyclists, in the name of reducing childhood obesity.

The League of American Bicyclists also offers instructor seminars, so more people are able to teach bicycle safety, Corbett said.

Working with the University of Arizona, the city has been expanding ways to encourage more people to bicycle.

Regional efforts include organized mass Bike-to-Work days and the county's bike-ambassador program, which brings in people who will encourage their peers to ride.

Bike events such as El Tour de Tucson also fall in the category of encouraging people to ride.

This is perhaps the most strengthened area of the region's application this year, Corbett said.

The application includes details on targeted enforcement efforts against some of the common mistakes made by bicyclists, to safety classes that have led to fewer bicycle crashes per year, given the region's increasing population.

The communities in the Tucson metropolitan region often include bicyclists on transportation planning committees, and the Tucson/Pima County Bicycle Advisory Committee works on planning also, Corbett said.

"The RTA corridors have bike representatives on them . . . to make sure that bicyclists are involved in planning.

"One of the questions you have to answer is, do you have a bicycle advisory committee? We not only have a BAC, we've had it since 1981," Corbett said. "I think they considered us real strong there because of the history of planning that we had."