Blog
With more than 3,500 certified League Cycling Instructors nationwide, we have the privilege of working with hundreds of leaders who are delivering our Smart Cycling program and innovating bicycle education in exciting ways. Whether you’re an educator yourself or simply a bicycle enthusiast, our LCIs have so much knowledge and inspiration that we want to share their stories. In this first edition of LCI corner, Molly North, executive director of Bike Denver (and LCI #2669!), gives five helpful tips for marketing bike education.
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Yes, we’ve seen columnist Courtland Milloy’s awful rant against bicyclists in yesterday’s Washington Post and wonder with you how such a dreadful piece of writing could find its way onto the pages of such a respected source of news. As usual, the question is how does one respond to such mindless vitriol? Facts clearly don’t matter. Self-righteous indignation probably isn’t going to make much of an impression, certainly not in the comment section of the paper’s website!
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Joining the League is a way of giving back to cycling, to help others experience the joy and freedom that cycling brings. Neil Walker exemplifies that spirit of giving back. League Member Neil Walker first discovered cycling after a series of knee injuries ended his college basketball career. A specialist recommended cycling as an alternative to surgery. He got on a bike, strengthened his knee, and in the process found a new direction in life. “It has been a blessing to have cycling in my life,” Neil says. “It gave me life, invigorated me.”
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Advocacy Advance recently released its latest report, “How Communities are Paying for Innovative On-Street Bicycle Infrastructure.” The report provides examples of how communities across the country are paying for separated bicycle infrastructure. Just like how communities are paying for other important civic infrastructure, communities are using a combination of federal, state, local/regional, and private sources of funds.
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Out on Main Street, nearly 90 percent of local bike shops in the United States are owned by men. But off Broadway in New York City, “Bike Shop The Musical” is a one-woman show. Inspired by the rich cycling experiences of Liz Barkan — a former bike messenger, bike shop owner and spinning instructor — the fictional play follows the journey of Bobby, a female bike mechanic who works in her grandmother’s shop and is not only fixing flats but piecing her life back together after a tragic accident.
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For this year’s National Bike Summit, I collaborated with New Orleans-based urban planner Naomi Doerner, now the executive director of Bike Easy, to create a historical overview of bicycling and bike advocacy in the United States. The project grew from a discussion we had about how to visualize bike equity for Summit attendees.
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Thank you to the more than 10,000 of you who submitted comments to the Federal Highway Administration asking them to institute a non-motorized safety performance measure. As of this publication, there have been 10,815 comments submitted.
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While “equity” is a more and more common term to hear in bike circles, many people have asked us what it should mean in their work. The simple answer is that a commitment to equitable outcomes takes shape differently depending on the task. For planners, it might mean strengthening a community outreach process, such as what the City of Cambridge has done in creating a Community Engagement Team.
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All eyes were on New York City last year, as they launched the nation’s largest bike sharing system. With strong female ridership in places like Washington, D.C. and Minneapolis, there were high hopes that bikesharing in the Big Apple would boost the number of women biking. So the release of data showing Citi Bike skews heavily male left some folks scratching their heads.
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In May of this year, Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) invited Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard (R) to testify in front of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works (EPW) on the importance of local control over the Transportation Alternatives Program — a program that funds bicycling and walking projects and other local priorities.
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