Waltham is now officially considered a “bicycle-friendly community” by the League of American Bicyclists, after receiving the award of “Bronze” in their 2019 awards, according to a Jan. 14 Patch Waltham article.

The League of American Bicyclists judges communities on their “bicycle-friendly-ness” based on a variety of criteria, including if there is bicycle education in schools, if there is an active bicycle advocacy group, if there is an active bicycle advisory committee and by the ratio of total bicycle network mileage to total road network mileage, according to the League of American Bicyclists’ website.

The same Patch Waltham article also reported that bicycle friendly towns throughout the nation are given rankings of “Platinum,” “Gold,” “Silver” or “Bronze” by the League of American Bicyclists, though some are also given honorable mentions.

The League of American Bicyclists first noticed Waltham in 2016 when the town was awarded an “honorable mention” in the Bicycle Friendly Community awards, according to a Nov. 28, 2016 Patch Waltham article, making Bronze a mark of improvement for the city.

Massachusetts as a whole was recently ranked the fifth-best state in the country in terms of “bicycle-friendly-ness” by the same organization, according to a Nov. 25 Patch Natick article. This is despite the fact that at least five bicyclists were hit and killed on roads in Massachusetts in 2019, as that is an improvement upon previous years.

The League of American Bicyclists’ website notes that there are 488 towns throughout the nation recognized as “Bicycle Friendly Communities,” as well as 100 honorable mentions.

The League of American Bicyclists also has awards for bicycle friendly universities, and though Brandeis has yet to be recognized in any capacity by the organization, fellow Waltham college Bentley University was awarded Bronze in 2016.