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You may know Kimberly-Clark Corporation for its iconic products like Kleenex and Huggies, but K-C played a central role in the creation of a new brand known by bicyclists across…
Read More →In the July/August issue of our magazine American Bicyclist, advocates at the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition gave us an inside look at their work with Spanish-speaking day laborers to create a new PSA campaign.
Continuing our effort to share insight and best practices from innovative campaigns nationwide, our latest issue includes an article that delves into the efforts of Local Spokes, a neighborhood-based bicycle coalition in New York City aimed at creating a “new model for inclusive and sustainable bike planning.”
Unfortunately, we had to condense the story to fit the print edition; here’s the full article!
Local Spokes Youth Ambassadors create models of the East River GreenwayNew Leaders
Pedaling the bike advocacy movement toward transformative change
By Pasqualina Azzarello and Caroline Samponaro
Within the national bicycle advocacy movement, we often speak of a desire for diversity without tangible outcomes. This conversation, when paired with the absence of accountability, makes transformative change improbable. To redirect the culture of a national movement requires intention, effort, communication, resources, and a willingness to take an honest, collective look inside. By investing in the development of new leaders on a local level through outreach, education, and empowerment, transformative change becomes possible.
What is Local Spokes?
Local Spokes is a neighborhood-based bicycle coalition comprised of nine community-based organizations that came together in 2010 to create a new model for inclusive and sustainable bike planning. Local Spokes, which focuses solely on the Lower East Side and Chinatown neighborhoods of Manhattan, was founded to focus on bicycling, but is intentionally comprised of both bicycling and non-bicycling groups, as a means to further the goals of inclusive and multi perspective planning around bicycle programming and street designs.
Our primary aim is to engage local residents to envision the future of bicycling in our diverse neighborhoods. We seek to engage and understand the community’s various perspectives through multilingual outreach and a Youth Ambassadors program. This participatory process has led to the in the development of a neighborhood action plan that will result in additional resources to address potential barriers and increase accessibility to bicycling.
Read More →I’m embarrassed to admit that, several months ago, I couldn’t name a single professional female bike racer. (In my defense, I could only name one male racer: Lance Armstrong.) I’m a car-free, all-seasons bicycle commuter who loves a good recreational century ride on the weekend, but, even working at the heart of American bicycle advocacy here at the League, the racing world felt like a parallel but distant universe.
At the National Women’s Bicycling Summit last month we started a conversation to begin closing that gap.
“Our goal for the Women in Bicycle Sports session was to start a dialogue; and recognize the importance of advocates and athletes working together,” explained Liz Carlson, a former pro racer and current ambassador for Liv/Giant. “All too often, the two worlds don’t know enough about each other. There’s so much we can learn from one another and so much we can gain from collaboration.”
(From left) Dotsie Bausch, Krista Carlson, RaeLynn Milley, Jill Gass (photo by Maureen McGinnis)Here’s Carlson’s recap of the key themes and ideas from the Women in Bicycle Sports session:
With the Summit’s goal of increasing the number of women on bikes and encouraging more female leadership in the cycling community, the Women in Bicycle Sports session was the perfect opportunity to showcase accomplished female athletes, many of whom are leaders in their disciplines.
Our job was to focus on the athlete, so we first introduced our amazing panelists to the audience. We had a diverse group of women, with a wide range of talents. From Olympic medalists Dotsie Bausch to Hardcourt Bike Polo maven Krista Carlson, each woman has a unique path to the sport of cycling. What became evident was how many ways you can enter the sport and the variety of ways to compete as a cyclist. You can be a time trial specialist or race alley cat events. There are so many ways to compete, and so many levels. We wanted to explore how many avenues to get involved; each being a path towards growth.
Key themes quickly emerged: Every one of these women started as a beginner. Jenn Tetrick, a professional triathlete, was afraid to go out alone on the road. Dotsie Bausch still can’t believe she rides centimeters from the girl in front of her on a 45-degree banked panel at 40+ miles an hour. Fear of the road and intimidating equipment can be barriers. The point is they sought out people to help them overcome their fears — found ways to keep learning and moving forward.
We asked our panelists to talk about challenges they face as female athletes. It’s been discussed frequently in the media — the disparity between male and female riders. Female cyclists rarely earn a salary or living wage to compete. If they’re talented and not afraid to promote themselves, equipment, travel or race sponsorship can reduce the cost of competition. Except for a few admirable, progressive promoters, equal prize money is nearly always an issue.
Read More →The League is always working hard to create resources to advance advocacy and bicycling in communities nationwide. A recent hot topic is bicycle advisory committees (BACs) and how to create…
Read More →The 2012 National Bike Challenge was a collective journey of more than 12 million miles — and it all started with one man’s vision at the Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Today the…
Read More →After years of advocacy and months of preparation, the new federal transportation bill, MAP-21, goes into effect next week. As we’ve been explaining in our Navigating MAP-21 campaign, states have…
Read More →When talking about the gender gap in American bicycling I often cite the statistic that, in 2009, women accounted for just 24 percent of bike trips in the U.S. But…
Read More →All eyes were on the economy in 2009 when the League released its report on The Economic Benefits of Bicycle Infrastructure Investments. In the three years since there’s been a…
Read More →This is an expanded version of the article that appeared in the September/October 2012 issue of American Bicyclist. We’ve since heard about another insurance package for cyclists, from Markel Insurance. If you have comments on this article or others from the September/October issue, please send your thoughts to our editor, Carolyn Szczepanski for inclusion in the next issue. Not getting American Bicyclist? It’s a membership benefit – join today!
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In my two years as the League’s membership director, I have gotten many questions about insurance for individual cyclists. Until recently, there has been nothing specific for cyclists, and the coverages that apply to cyclists come from a patchwork of different policies that can vary wildly by insurer.
My answer, until recently, has been “contact your insurer, and find out what coverage you have.” So in writing about the new insurance available to cyclists, I began by calling my own insurance agent to find out what coverage applies when I’m on my bike.
My homeowner’s policy is a robust one, offering $500,000 in liability coverage, should I be accused of causing harm to others while biking. I am covered for theft, but my deductible is $500 – which more than I paid for my commuter bike, back in 1994. Not much help there. The agent mentioned that I could schedule my bike under my insurance policy, to get theft coverage with a $0 deductible. Scheduling a bike is costly, however, and my agent knew of only a few cases where riders had scheduled their (expensive, custom) bikes.
Suddenly, there are four different insurance packages coming to market, offering cyclists the opportunity to unify their cycling-related coverage in single cycle-centric policy, and offering different combinations of enhanced medical, accident, liability, and theft /damage coverage.
As you assess whether any of the new policies is right for you, here’s where to look for your existing coverages as a cyclist:
Liability coverage pays for your legal defense and settlement should you be accused of causing injury or damage to property as a result of your on-bike actions. Liability coverage is typically available under homeowners or renters insurance.
Uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage covers your bills if you are injured by a motorist with inadequate insurance. If you have auto insurance, you are covered as a cyclist, according to Bob Mionske. Mionske is a former professional bike racer and Olympian who advised the Spoke Insurance team on the types of coverage cyclists need. He recommends maximizing this coverage under your auto policy, adding that, until now, cyclists without autos have not had access to this type of coverage.
Theft/damage coverage is provided under homeowner’s/renter’s insurance, but the details of that coverage vary wildly from policy to policy and company to company.
Medical coverage – each of the bike-specific policies provides some sort of additional medical benefit, but generally as a supplement to traditional medical coverage, not a replacement.
Claims against any of your existing policies may result in an increase in premiums. In addition to providing supplemental coverage, filing bike-related claims under a bike-specific policy, rather than other existing policies, may protect you from rate increases, according to Craig Dawson of Spoke.
Why now?
Insurance companies are typically risk averse, and don’t like starting new policies without a proven track record with other companies. The new bike specific insurance policies resulted from the work of motivated individuals with deep ties to both the cycling community and the insurance business. Their passion has helped convince insurers of the need and market for these policies.
Here are the basic details of the new bike-specific insurance policies we know about. Please contact the insurers for specific details, limitations, and personalized quotes.
Read More →A huge thanks to Elizabeth Press and Clarence Eckerson of Streetfilms for attending and covering the National Women’s Bicycling Summit this month. Watch the three-minute video, featuring clips of the…
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