Blog
Yesterday, I talked about the “WOW” of Bicycle Friendly Communities. Perhaps the most important part of that “WOW” factor, is the “win-over projects.” I call them “win-over projects” because they tend to cause people to turn their heads (maybe even scratch their heads) and get them thinking that maybe bicycling could start working for them. The communities that are really seeing growth in bicycling have done something big and beautiful that people can’t help but notice. I’ve pulled together some of the best “win-over projects” I saw during my trips to Memphis and mutli-city tour of California.
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At some point during nearly every Bicycle Friendly Community visit, I find myself saying, “Wow!” Sometimes it’s late into a visit and might have nothing to do with infrastructure or city policy at all — like seeing a carpenter hauling a load of lumber in a hand-built wooden trailer behind his bike, or witnessing an empowered cyclist take the lane on a high-speed state highway during rush hour.
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Your comments and visits are making a difference on Capitol Hill. At the National Bike Summit this March and throughout the spring, you’ve helped to push the U.S. Department of Transportation to create a national goal to reduce bicyclist fatalities. If you’ve haven’t added your voice to this important campaign, please take action today!
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Our Every Bicyclists Counts report has generated quite a lot of discussion since its release last month, which is good. That’s why we do these things! We’ve heard everything from heartfelt “thanks” for digging into a genuinely difficult topic to the despairing “what am I supposed to teach my students now.” Let me see if I can provide a little more commentary and context to address some of the more frequent questions we’ve been getting.
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With $3,000 in mini-grants in 2014, the League will support new and growing programs to engage young women in bicycling, encourage more moms to ride and advance female leadership in the bike movement. Now in its second year, the League’s Women Bike Mini-Grant Program is advancing local efforts that are creating pathways for women of all background to embrace bicycling as riders, advocates and leaders.
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This guest post comes to us from Brent Buice, executive director of Georgia Bikes! The Peach State has seen tremendous growth and success in just the first month of the 2014 Challenge. Here, Brent lays out the three factors contributing to that success — and shares an inspiring story. The National Bike Challenge is our favorite way to motivate Georgians to ride bikes. The fact that it’s free, easy and fun means the Challenge pretty much sells itself.
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We have wrapped up our first month for the 2014 National Bike Challenge –- and what an incredible 31 days of riding it has been! We finished the month with 36,227 registered riders pedaling nearly 4.6 million miles. Together we pedaled to the moon and back –- 10 times! In a mere 28 days, we surpassed last year’s total of 34,500! We are losing weight, saving money and cleaning our environment together and it’s been amazing.
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Every time I go home to Orange County, California, I go through the same ritual familiar to many of us. People ask me about my work; I tell them about bikes; they respond with a story about how cyclists are a nuisance, and, while they themselves are too enlightened to menace those bike users, they see others doing it. Therefore, bicycling is a bad idea. I sigh mentally and acquiesce, not because I agree with them, but because I know where they’re coming from. I grew up knowing that driving as soon as I could would be best, because car culture reigns supreme.
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We asked the National Bike Challenge riders on Facebook a simple question: In five words or less, describe what riding a bike has done for your life. We were astounded by the hundreds of inspirational responses. From transportation to health to freedom, it’s clear bicycling means a lot of things to a lot of people — and that’s exactly what we’re hoping to foster with the Challenge.
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John Jones III has served as President and CEO of the East Side Riders Bike Club in Los Angeles for more than six years. However, his work around the Watts community goes back much longer than that. Jones has worked very hard to building communities around Los Angeles County through active living and cultural exchange.
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