Blog Post
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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…
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.
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.
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…
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…