Blog Post
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.
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.
Calling all advocates! It’s legislative season. If your organization is working under a tight timeframe to unlock public dollars to plan, build, maintain, or promote safe walking and biking facilities, we can help. We’re delighted to announced that REI just contributed another $20,000 for Advocacy Advance Rapid Response grants, and that money is available as fast as you need it.
We’re exactly six weeks away from the premier bicycle advocacy event of the year: the 2015 National Bike Summit and National Forum on Women & Bicycling. It’s been months in the making, and we couldn’t be more excited to reveal the full agenda. What’s in it for you? How is this year different than the past? Keep reading…
Organizations often have a culture that doesn’t allow women to thrive as leaders. Ashley Fullenwider and Laura Todd of Nuu-Muu want to inspire women to take stock of their authentic selves and create the space they want to be in. With a wealth of experience in this realm, we’re excited the duo will be leading a breakout session at this year’s National Forum on Women & Bicycling that will encourage participants to “discover their core motivations for doing the work that keeps them bright.”
It is with great sadness that we received the news that on December 27 41-year-old Baltimore resident, Thomas Palermo, was struck and killed while riding his bike. As details emerged, and prosecutors alleged the intoxicated and text-messaging driver left the scene initially and had an arrest record for drunk driving, our sadness and exasperation increased. The specifics of the case -– that the driver was one of the highest ranking officials in the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland; that her blood-alcohol level was 0.22 when the Maryland legal limit is 0.08; that charges were not immediately filed; that the crash occurred in a bike lane –- have made this a particularly high profile event. But preventable fatalities on our roadways are all too common.
In the latest edition of Bike Law University, the League’s Legal Specialist Ken McLeod looks at dooring laws nationwide. Read more of his bike law analyses here. Dooring laws are laws that require people in a vehicle to open their door with a degree of care for moving traffic. A typical dooring law requires that a person opening a vehicle door ensure that it is reasonably safe to open the door, that opening the door will not interfere with moving traffic, and that the door is not open for any more time than necessary.
Last month we hosted a webinar featuring the work of Liz Jose and Casey Ashenhurst of WE Bike NYC. WE Bike NYC is a community of women who ride bikes. They envision a community of bicyclists as diverse as the neighborhoods that comprise New York. In order to conduct more effective outreach to Spanish speaking participants, WE Bike NYC Founder Liz Jose and 2014 Women Bike Mini Grant recipient set out to create a toolkit that provides beginning Spanish language resources for bike clubs.
In late 2013, the League teamed up with the Alliance for Biking & Walking to host a series of webinars focused on harnessing social media for bike advocacy. We talked over the basics of the most-used platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc) and about how to use these social media tools to build an audience and capture media attention. Below are the links to each of these presentations’ recaps, including video and descriptions. If you have any additional questions, please email [email protected].
Over the past three years, the League has been privileged to play a pivotal, leadership role in the National Bike Challenge, uniting bicyclists of all abilities and interests to collectively log nearly 100 million miles. The Challenge has shown us the valuable role the League can play in catalyzing a great idea and the immense power in using our national reach to make a difference at the local level. We’re excited to see how the Challenge continues to evolve, as the League shifts to its new strategic plan and new challenges in 2015.