Blog
Convincing college students to spend money can sometimes be a losing battle. Not so for Grace Kyung, however. Kyung, a graduate student studying urban planning at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, successfully lead a campaign on campus to institute a $1 semesterly fee for bicycle programs and infrastructure. She’ll be talking more about her Big Idea at the 2015 National Bike Summit this March, but we caught up with her to talk more about how her initiative got rolling.
Read More →
The plan is simple: Local, local, local. With a hostile state legislature, governor and Congress, the Wisconsin Bike Fed’s Big Idea is to work intensely at the local level, build relationships and momentum and then get local actors to pressure their representatives to do more at higher levels. The comprehensive local effort is two-pronged. First, assemble a network of Bicycle Friendly Communities throughout the state. The Bike Fed will help communities with bike plans, intervene in local controversies, offer advice on how to engage mayors, business leaders and other local influentials, and share information and best practices among communities. Second, boost membership to 10,000, thereby activating engaged advocates throughout the state.
Read More →
We are pleased to announce Lisa Nutter, track cyclist and bike advocate, President of Philadelphia Academies, Inc, and First Lady of Philadelphia, to our list of speakers at this year’s National Forum on Women & Bicycling. At the Forum, Nutter will be speaking on a panel focused on gender equity in competitive cycling. She’s joined by Karen Bliss, former professional cyclist and current VP of Marketing for Advanced Sports International, and Nicole Freedman, former Olympic Cyclist and current head of Boston Bikes.
Read More →
Far too often bike shops are at the margins of the conversation about improving and increasing bicycling. Advocates and elected officials are focused on infrastructure — bike lanes and cycle tracks and multi-use trails. Many would argue it’s time for that definition to change. At the 2013 National Women’s Bicycling Forum, Adonia Lugo, now the League’s Equity Initiative Manager, shared the concept of “human infrastructure” — the existing social networks, community groups, and shared ideas about transportation that make bicycling possible for more people.
Read More →
This year at the National Forum on Women & Bicycling we’re digging deeper into a critical topic — leadership development. And we’re honored to announce a closing keynote speaker who has been a true trailblazer and thought leader: Rue Mapp, CEO and Founder of Outdoor Afro.
Read More →
Fionnuala Quinn has been to plenty of public meetings. Really, she spoke up at one just last night. The northern Virginia-based civil engineer and bike advocate has seen enough to know there is a lot of room for improvement. She’s bringing her experience and expertise to the 2015 National Bike Summit, where she’ll talk about how the public participation process is “both vital and problematic for bicycling” — and how it can be improved. We caught up with Quinn this week to talk more about her Big Idea.
Read More →
Things didn’t go exactly as planned in BikeWalkKC’s campaign to include complete streets treatments in plans for a new streetcar expansion. But no one can say it wasn’t a terrific success. Knowing that a proposed streetcar expansion wouldn’t be of much use if people couldn’t walk or bike safely to it, BikeWalkKC mobilized neighborhood advocates to lobby the city to include complete streets in the final streetcar expansion plan. They hoped to eventually secure up to $2 million for biking/walking infrastructure improvements along the streetcar route. They envisioned fully protected bike lanes connecting to the rest of the city’s bike network, racks, and bike-share stations. They wanted curb extensions, automatic pedestrian signals, and traffic calming.
Read More →
In our Winter 2015 American Bicyclist magazine, we spoke with Harriet Tregoning, the Director of the Office of Economic Resilience at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and a daily bike commuter, about the intersection of active transportation and affordable housing. This is our full interview, which was condensed for length in the magazine. It’s Harriet Tregoning’s job to create opportunity. A bike commuter, Tregoning is the new Director of the Office of Economic Resilience at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She comes to HUD after most recently serving as the director of the District of Columbia’s Office of Planning, spearheading several projects, including the implementation of the city’s bikeshare system. In her new role, Tregoning said her boss, HUD Secretary Julian Castro, likes to say HUD is the “department of opportunity.”
Read More →
Across the country, a growing number of established and start-up companies — run by women — are gearing up creative products, services and solutions for bicyclists. Back for it’s third year, the Women Bike Pop-up Shop will help showcase those efforts and ingenuity, and connect business leaders and bike advocates at the 2015 National Forum on Women & Bicycling. We’re excited to showcase these innovative brands! Stay tuned as we confirm additional vendors.
Read More →
Riding and reading already have a lot in common. Laura Silver, a media project associate from Transportation Alternatives in New York City, puts it perfectly: “Bikes and books both offer adventure, self-sufficiency and a chance to explore new horizons.” So what happens when you combine the two activities? Big ideas emerge.
Read More →