The Extraordinary Bicycle Professional Award is given to an employee in the public or private sector who has shown remarkable leadership in encouraging the use of bicycling as a transportation alternative. The award is given once per year and can recognize work in a broad range of activities.

To be a recipient of the award the individual must:

1. Be employed in the fields of engineering, transportation, planning, parks and recreation, advocacy or enforcement within a local government, non-profit, or private firm in the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission’s service area.

2. Have had a consistent, measurable impact on one or more of the Five E’s of being a Bicycle Friendly Community – Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation - as defined by the League of American Bicyclists.

3. Have implemented programs or policies that are visible to the community at large. Encouraging an employer to install a bike rack would not be sufficient; encouraging an employer to establish sufficient programs to apply for and receive the Bicycle Friendly Business designation from the LAB would.

4. Not have been the recipient of an Extraordinary Bicycle Professional award within the past 24 months, nor can projects or programs that led to a previous award be considered for further awards.

Individuals may nominate themselves, but we encourage nomination by third parties. Nominees may not simultaneously be nominated for the Bike Hero award. Nominated individuals do not necessarily have to be bicycle riders, neither for recreation nor transportation, on their own, so long as their work has resulted in significant improvement in bicycle accommodations and encouragement within the greater Roanoke Valley region.

All nominees will be judged by a panel made of up of members of the regional Bicycle Advisory Committee and others by invitation.

Nominations are accepted from April 1 until May 15. Awards will be announced by May 31 as part of Bike Month activities.