Equity
A single session at the 2013 California By Bike Summit radically reframed my perception of urban planning. In the final round of workshops I was drawn to an intriguing title: “Creating your own Biketopia: Community engagement workshop through play.” Presenter James Rojas didn’t disappoint. Put simply, the urban planner, artist and founder of the Latino Urban Forum has found a way to bring planning to the people. And we couldn’t be more excited to have him present and facilitate at Future Bike on September 11.
For this year’s National Bike Summit, I collaborated with New Orleans-based urban planner Naomi Doerner, now the executive director of Bike Easy, to create a historical overview of bicycling and bike advocacy in the United States. The project grew from a discussion we had about how to visualize bike equity for Summit attendees.
While “equity” is a more and more common term to hear in bike circles, many people have asked us what it should mean in their work. The simple answer is that a commitment to equitable outcomes takes shape differently depending on the task. For planners, it might mean strengthening a community outreach process, such as what the City of Cambridge has done in creating a Community Engagement Team.
Two years ago, the League launched Women Bike at the Pro Walk Pro Bike Pro Place conference. I still remember that first moment standing at the podium. I had barely gotten the words “Welcome to the National Women’s Bicycling Summit” out of my mouth when a woman in the crowd yelled “It’s about time!” Well, now it’s time to take the conversation further. Get ready for Future Bike.
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.
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.
Santa Barbara is a small town in Southern California whose size, flat terrain, and sunny weather make it a fertile environment for bicycle cultures of all kinds. From Gibraltar Road to the Cabrillo Beach bike path, you can find many groups using two-wheeled locomotion for multiple reasons. Roadies on carbon-fiber bikes ride with their teams, mountain bikers traverse our challenging trails, BMXers practice tricks, and tourists see the sights on rented bikes.
Melody is originally from North-East Tennessee. She moved to Jackson, Mississippi fifteen years years ago and immediately got involved with community development and service oriented work focused on low income communities in the inner city of Mississippi’s capital. Melody now serves in a statewide role as the executive director of Bike Walk Mississippi, the state’s bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organization.
As a person of color, I acknowledge the complexities that people who are marginalized experience because I too live with these experiences every day. I see the cultural diversity that exists within the bicycle movement and comprehend that all groups have different needs when it comes to education and empowerment. We must work together to see that we keep all diverse groups into consideration, so we can all continue moving forward in taking ownership of these safe, healthy, clean and bicycle-oriented linkages.
The Obama administration sent its vision for the next federal transportation bill to Congress today. Addressing equity, connectivity and local control, the bill takes promising steps toward the League’s four federal priorities for bicycling. Learn more on our webinar at 1 p.m. Eastern on Wednesday.