2019 National Bike Summit

The National Bike Summit turns 20 this year, and our theme is SHIFT: Accelerating the Movement to Build a Bicycle Friendly America for Everyone. In 2000, the first National Bike Summit drew just a few advocates, but started a tradition of regular outreach to federal lawmakers. Twenty years later, the National Bike Summit has become a regular gathering of bike advocates from around the country, and the Summit lobby day is now the kick off of the transportation season on Capitol Hill.

Just as the first National Bike Summit symbolized an important shift up in bicycle advocacy, we are ready for the next shift. Our transportation system is being disrupted by innovation – including changes in bicycling with bikeshare and e-bikes; the health world has embraced active transportation as critical to healthy populations; the bicycling advocacy community is working to make sure our work reflects the diversity of the entire bicycling community; and we are seeing increased interest from government, business, and university decision makers.

This 20th anniversary of the first National Bike Summit will be a pivot point just like the first Summit. This is our opportunity to both take advantage of what we’ve accomplished and create what we need to move forward to build a Bicycle Friendly America for Everyone.

The League is working hard to leverage the 2019 National Bike Summit to make it as productive as possible for all bike advocates. Reaching this goal includes your proposal contribution. Executive Director, Bill Nesper says, “The League is excited to host the 20th Annual National Bike Summit in 2019. An essential aspect of this conference and our shared mission is the provided opportunity to share successful work done by bike advocates. We hope you will share your expertise and experiences with your fellow bicycling advocates from around the country, so together we can build a bicycle-friendly America for everyone.” Please consider submitting a proposal for the Summit! To submit a proposal, visit this link. 

The 2019 National Bike Summit takes place March 9-12, 2019 in Arlington, VA and Washington, D.C.  If you are a government or business-based bicycle advocate, university bike advocate, bicycle club leader, or an individual who loves to bike, we hope to see you there!