Why We Ride #8: Because Our Hot Pink Makes a Powerful Statement

(Girls Bike Club, a program of West Town Bikes, is a group inspired, created and run by young women in Chicago, Ill.)

Why do we ride?

We ride to get around. We ride because it feels good. We ride so we can encourage other young women to ride bikes. We ride because we like it. Girls’ Bike Club (GBC) rides because we care about the environment and our planet. We ride because we see how cycling has positively affected our community.

We ride because we recognize that if you want to get somewhere, the first step is to get moving.

The primary aim of Girls’ Bike Club is to offer young women the tools to safely and effectively use bicycles for transportation. GBC wants to get more young women on bikes, create a safe space for female-positive programming, and have fun.

GBC helps young women gain marketable job and interpersonal skills for continued professional development, to better understand their roles in their ability to affect and change not only their own realities, but also a larger context of the neighborhood, our city, the nation and our planet!

Young women in our neighborhood are not encouraged to get out and ride bikes. Who thought that riding bikes could be such a powerful statement? Especially when we wear our matching hot pink sweatshirts!

By riding in a group, or individually, we are empowering young women to recognize and remember that we may not have control of every aspect of our lives, but if you fix up a bicycle and get riding, you can get to where you want to go.

May is National Bike Month and this year’s theme is One Ride, Many Reasons. To highlight and celebrate the many benefits of bicycling, throughout May we’ll bring you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collections of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.