Blog
In 2012, nearly one-third of adults and 50% of students were overweight or obese in Fort Worth, Texas. But Mayor Betsy Price is looking to roll back those numbers and use bicycling as a prescription for improved community health. “We’ve watched this growing epidemic of obesity and diabetes among children and adults,” Price says, “and so many people I know, their health has gone down.” So Price has made it her goal to transform Fort Worth into “Fit Worth,” spearheading a citywide initiative focused on promoting active lifestyles and healthy habits.
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Last week, we released our Where We Ride report, analyzing U.S. Census Bureau data on national bike commuting trends. Shortly following our release of the report, we became aware of more comprehensive data that should be included in the report. Today, we’re releasing our revised Where We Ride report, with more communities and data points included. Download it here.
Read More →In this LCI Corner, educator Robert O’Conner of South Windsor, Conn., shares how his community’s efforts are helping to create lifelong bicyclists from an early age, by integrating bicycle education into the public schools’ curriculum. The Town of South Windsor, Conn., a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community, is taking a new approach to bicycle education — working to integrate bike safety instruction into the curriculum of its school system.
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Imagine you’re a safe-streets advocate living in a dreamscape of an expanding bike-lane network, widespread installation of public plazas and innovative government-sponsored programs aimed at improving street life, from summertime street closures to bike share to virtually on-demand public benches. Progress has been swift under the committed leadership of a mayor who understands the economic necessity of these programs and amenities to ensure that his city stays competitive — and his Commissioner of Transportation is unapologetically on the cutting edge of contemporary urban design.
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The 2014 National Bike Challenge saw unprecedented participation from more than 47,000 riders across the country, pedaling more than 23 million miles.The National Bike Challenge, wrapping up its third year with a new award-winning website, saw 36% increase in riders and 25% more miles pedaled over last year. Challenge riders burned a collective 500,000 Ilbs. From May to September, riders logged miles, shared personal triumphs and united around bicycling, whether for fun, for work or for health.
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UPDATE: We’ve released an extensive analysis of the new bike commuting data in a new report called “Where We Ride: An Analysis of Bicycle Commuting in American Cities.” Click here to download it (PDF), or scroll through the report below. This morning, the American Community Survey (ACS) released new data on bicycle commuting in the United States.
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Perhaps the most widely used dataset related to bicycling in the United States is the annual American Community Survey (ACS), the successor to the decennial Census’ so-called “long form.” This survey asks a sub-sample of American households to provide information on a variety of topics such as income, health insurance, disability, housing, and—thankfully—transportation.
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Senator Rodney Ellis may represent thousands of Houston residents when he takes his seat at the Texas capitol in Austin, but when he gets on his bike, he’s an advocate for safe and healthy communities on a much grander scale. A past speaker at the National Bike Summit and bicycle proponent at the annual gathering of the Congressional Black Caucus, Ellis is a leading cycling champion.
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We released our latest round of Bicycle Friendly Business awardees — this biggest round ever for the program — this week. Over the next week, we’re highlighting some of the best stories we heard from the new and renewing honorees. For Phelps, a marketing and communications firm in Santa Monica, Calif., biking to work starts with biking to lunch. This post comes to us from Wesley High, an IT specialist with Phelps, which is a new Silver-level Bicycle Friendly Business.
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This week Advocacy Advance released its latest resource, “Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation” (PDF). This concise primer answers basic questions about public-private partnerships (PPP, or P3) and how bicycling and walking can fit into these projects. Though P3s are becoming an attractive option, our resource goes over some potential benefits and problems with P3s, as well as additional considerations for bicycling and walking advocates.
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