To celebrate, and to learn more about bicycling in town, city councilors took a 3 1/2 -mile bike ride Thursday on north Main Avenue, 32nd Street, Florida Road and the Animas River Trail. They saw bike lanes versus no bike lanes, safe intersections versus unsafe intersections, and of course, potholes.

The award - a silver level - was announced Thursday morning during a bike summit at the Durango Community Recreation Center. About 50 bike advocates, including elected officials, attended the summit and shared ideas about how to improve area roads.

"The community is really bringing this to elected officials and saying this is what we need," said Councilor Leigh Meigs. "As an elected official in Durango right now, there is no way you would not support this."

Attendees shared numerous ideas about how to improve bike safety and increase riding opportunities, including better stripes on roads, designating bike lanes and regular street sweeping.

Another suggestion was to install radar speed-limit signs throughout the county. Such signs display drivers' actual speed as they approach. Drivers sometimes don't realize how fast they are traveling, and the signs help bring them back to reality, said Gaige Sippy, director of the Iron Horse Bicycle Classic.

La Plata County already has a couple of radar signs, and it plans to buy more soon, said Commissioner Wally White. The Iron Horse organization also is considering donating money to the county to help purchase more radar signs. The signs cost about $5,000 each, and they could be posted on popular bike routes like East Animas Road (County Road 250) and County Road 203, Sippy said.

The goal, he said, is to make travel safe for everybody, including motorists.

"This isn't a meeting to end cars," Sippy said. "We all win if we work together on this."

The Bicycle Friendly awards are administered by the League of American Bicyclists, based in Washington, D.C. More than 200 communities have applied for the distinction, but only about 80 have received a bronze, silver, gold or platinum award.

Only six cities in Colorado have earned the award: Boulder (gold); Colorado Springs, Durango and Fort Collins (silver); and Denver and Longmont (bronze).

Durango is expected to receive a street sign recognizing it as a Bicycle Friendly Community. But the biggest reward is an improved quality of life for bicyclists and motorists, according to the League of American Bicyclists.

"It's good for the environment. It's good for fuel economy. It's good for your health," said Elizabeth Preston, director of communications for the league, in a previous interview.

Mary Oswald, whose idea it was to become a Bicycle Friendly Community, hopes Durango can improve to a gold level.

Durango needs to ask itself whether it wants to be a town that revolves around the automobile or one that embraces alternative means of transportation, she said.

"This can be a catalyst for moving us in a direction as a community that can define how we want to develop in the future," she said.

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