Pat Brown was just hoping to hang on in a tough economy. When she relocated her art gallery in 2008, it was the rock-bottom rent that drew her to a still struggling strip of downtown Memphis, TN. “We were just trying to survive,” she said.

Brown (pictured right) was betting on a small core of community members determined to transform Broad Avenue from a fast-moving thoroughfare, where traffic whizzed past boarded-up storefronts at 50 mph (80 km/h), into a bustling arts district. Little did she know that they would hit the jackpot with bicycling.

Shortly after Brown opened T Clifton Gallery, Sarah Newstok walked in. The local nonprofit Newstok led, Livable Memphis, had a vision for Broad Avenue, too. They wanted to build a protected bike lane that would pass right by Brown’s door, creating a vital connection between a popular multi-use trail and the city’s largest park. “We’re a retail business, so any time there’s a concept to bring additional traffic directly by your storefront, it’s very easy to say ‘yes,’” Brown recalled with a laugh.

In 2010, after garnering support from city officials and surrounding businesses, Livable Memphis and the Broad Avenue Arts District rolled out the idea in a dramatic way. They painted temporary bike lanes and crosswalks and invited the community to “A New Face for an Old Broad,” a celebration, complete with live music, street vendors and a kids’ bike parade down the freshly striped cycle track (photo below).

“Until then, the area had been doing art walks once a year and, at best, those were bringing in 1,000 people,” Brown said. “Our goal for this day-and-a-half event, where the street itself would be a sort of theatrical performance, was maybe 5,000 people. We had 15,000 show up. The energy level was incredible. It was a huge tipping point for us – it changed the trajectory of the revitalization efforts.”

The energy didn’t wane once the event was over and bicyclists started taking advantage of the temporary lanes. Since then, the promise of permanent facilities has drawn more than $6 million in private investment. More than 15 new businesses have opened and nearly 30 properties have been renovated. Traffic has slowed, new customers are arriving on two wheels and, suddenly the rock-bottom neighborhood is one of the hottest spots in town.

Memphis isn’t the only city where bicycling is bringing business. Increasingly leaders in the public and private sector are realizing that being bike-friendly makes good business sense, boosting the bottom line and promoting community-wide economic development. Bicycling in the United States is a $6 billion national industry and one study estimates that the spillover effects of recreational bicycling alone could be as large as $133 billion. But that’s just the beginning, barely scratching the surface of the economic impact of transportation bicycling in communities across North America…

Read the full story here!

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

National Bike to Work Day is one of our favorite times of the year, and it proved its salt again this morning. The League staff was stationed at several pit stops in and around Washington, D.C., to say hello to bicyclists on their way to work. We passed out bike pins, urged visitors to become members and listened to local politicians as they extolled the benefits of bicycling.

Scroll through some of our photos from this morning in D.C., and be sure to send us yours via Facebook, Twitter or in the comments below!

Thank you to everyone who participated in Bike to Work Day 2013!

We were not only celebrating Bike to Work Day a day early, we were also celebrating their new Silver Bicycle Friendly Business award.

Neon yellow shirts were passed out as we convened at Thompson Boat House in Washington, D.C., to ride the last two miles together. It was an eclectic group of riders: high heels, ties, dress shoes, slacks — and some spandex. We snapped photos, gave high-fives, and talked about our routes into and around the city.

I presented the Silver BFB award to the World Bank Group this morning.

The day would be a celebratory and informative event of bicycling. Following our ride there was a Confident City Cycling class led by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association with a bike maintenance class soon after.

The World Bank Group has been part of the Bicycle Friendly Business program since 2009 when they received a Bronze designation. Now, with their recent bike facility improvements, promotion of D.C.’s Capital Bikeshare system through subsidized membership to employees, and increased education efforts, they moved up the BFB ranks last month.

Congratulations, World Bank Group, thanks for the ride!

Alison Dewey
League Program Manager, BFB & BFU

Do you remember that feeling as a kid when you got your first bike?

A close second to that feeling is giving a good kid his first great bike.

On July 4, 2008, Bikes for Goodness Sake hosted its inaugural event, giving 50 bike shop quality bikes to children of deploying soldiers in Austin, Texas. The highlight for me: The expression on the children’s faces when they approached their bike. It was heartwarming.

At that event the commanding officer, Lt. Col. Michael Dietz, said these touching words to all present: “I can walk down the street and, by virtue of my uniform, I’m acknowledged for my sacrifice to this great country. However, our soldiers’ children go unrecognized and sacrifice in silence. It’s rare and indeed humbling when someone honors the sacrifice of your families. And for that I am grateful for Bikes for Goodness Sake.”

The tears of solace and gratitude began to flow from both the volunteers and the parents of the children.

Since that event Bikes for Goodness Sake has been asked by scores of companies to facilitate bike build events for charitable purposes. We use only bike-shop-quality bikes sourced through our special relationship with Raleigh Bicycles. At the event, we have bike mechanics from the local Raleigh dealer to ensure all is safe for the kiddos.

The events range from a basic bike builds to fun team building events. Recipient children are identified from local charitable organizations that the company has a heart for. Bike-build teams not only build the bikes, they also make poster-size personalized cards for the children receiving the bikes.

The most amazing and gratifying part of these events are during the picture taking ceremony at the end. We surprise the bike builders by having the children rush into the room looking for their card and bike. A personal connection is made — and again tears begin to flow.

It’s one thing to donate your time and treasure to a good cause, but it’s a whole other matter when you have the opportunity to make a real and personal connection. It is never forgotten. When you can share the freedom and the joy that only a bike can deliver with a child, then you have impacted the world for goodness sake.

Learn more about Bikes for Goodness Sake here.

We were about halfway through our tour of SRAM headquarters in Chicago, when we heard a strange sound coming from a small work room and caught the sight of F.K. Day.

One of the founders of the leading bicycle components manufacturer, Day was hunched over a bulky black bike next to a bucket of… corn. Attached to the side of the bicycle, operated by the spinning wheel, was a grinder that shucked the kernels right off the cob.

For F.K. and wife, Leah Misbach Day, driving innovation is more than providing the revolutionary components for the ultimate ride. It’s also about turning bikes into a flour grinder — and transforming the lives of residents in small villages in Africa.

In the wake of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, F.K. and Leah founded the global non-profit World Bicycle Relief. In the two years following the disaster, WBR provided 24,000 bicycles to the residents of Sri Lanka, supplying a key resource to citizens in rebuilding their lives. In partnership with local aid organizations, World Bicycle Relief shifted its efforts to Africa in 2006, providing 23,000 specially designed, locally assembled, rugged bicycles to healthcare workers treating HIV/AIDS patients. And they continued to expand their efforts.

Leah Misbach Day

To date, WBR has supplied more than 125,000 bicycles through programs in Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

At the National Women’s Bicycling Summit in September, we got a chance to see one of those amazing bikes in person — and hear from Leah about the amazing impact of WBR’s work in Africa. “When addressing global development challenges, a single-speed bicycle can improve the dignity and quality of life for women,” she says. “Entrepreneurs can get their goods to market; mothers gain access to life-saving medical clinics; girls are able to attend — and stay in — school.”

And WBR’s reach is growing, too.

Maria Boustead, owner of Po Campo, was also a presenter at the Women’s Summit in September. Inspired by Leah’s presentation, the stylish bag maker is now a WBR partner — for every 25 bags sold, Po Campo is donating the funds for one new bike.

“WBR shares our passion for supporting girls in realizing their dreams as well as recognizing the bicycle as the perfect tool for gaining access to new opportunities,” Boustead said in the announcement this week. “By working with WBR, we are delighted to play an active role in equipping the female leaders of tomorrow with the tools they need to change the world for the better.”

Learn more about WBR here.

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

Kids prepare for the ride in Georgia this morning. Credit: @FrankMc12

Credit: @DCxFitChic

Credit: Andy Clarke, League President

Credit: Andy Clarke, League President

The racks are full outside a school in Colorado! Credit: Bicycle Colorado.

Up next? CycloFemme is this Sunday and Bike to Work Week starts Monday!

Sure, we say it every year, but 2013 promises to be bigger than ever. So here’s our list of 10 things to get your Bike Month rolling — and take full advantage of the BEST month of the year.

Find out what’s going on in your community: Search our national database for events in your area and get in touch with your local advocacy organization, favorite bike shop or bike collective to get plugged in to the happenings in your community.

Mark your calendar and get involved in special national events:

• National Bike to School Day is one week from today: Wednesday, May 8. Hundreds of events are already scheduled — learn more here.
• Women unite: The second annual Cyclofemme takes place on May 12. Organize a ride in your community or join one of the nearly 200 events already planned — join the movement!
• The Ride of Silence, honoring bicyclists who have been injured or killed on our public roadways, marks its 10^th anniversary on May 15 — find a ride in your area here.
• And, of course, celebrate Bike to Work Week (May 13-17) and Bike to Work Day (May 17)

Connect your event to the national movement: Download our new National Bike Month logo for your materials. Nothing says style like our updated winged wheel!

Use our free posters to promote your events: This year, we have not one, but four Bike Month posters, highlighting the diversity of people who ride. You may recognize some of our models, too. Thanks to New York City bicyclists (and advocates) Helen Ho, Karyn Williams, Ed Hernandez, and Kyle Mosholder for sharing their passion for cycling on the national level. Plus, new this year, we have a poster in Spanish, too!

Get ideas from our updated Bike Month Guide: Need a creative new idea to get folks rolling or guidance on how to make sure your event runs smoothly? Looking for key facts and figures to convince peers and policymakers that bicycling benefits your community or quick links to helpful commuting tips? We’ve got you covered! Click here to download the rebranded and updated Bike Month Guide.

A page from our new Bike Month Guide

Build the buzz on social media: Understanding that social media has become a critical advocacy tool, we created a new resource for 2013: a social media toolkit with plenty of sample Tweets and Facebook posts to help you engage, encourage and get folks talking about bikes in your community this May. We also created an official National Bike Month Facebook timeline cover you can use, as well.

Promote National Bike Month on your Facebook page!

Get in the game with Bike Month Bingo: To inspire you to pedal somewhere new or use your bike in a different way, we created a Bike Month Bingo card. Download the Bingo card and stick it on your fridge or wall — and check the boxes as you ride. Once you’re done, share a picture of you with your completed card on our Twitter feed and you could win a prize!

Join the National Bike Challenge: Now in its second year, the National Bike Challenge continues its mission to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health. Join the friendly online competition to track your miles, make new friends, compete for prizes — and help us show the power and popularity of bicycling in the U.S. by uniting 50,000 Americans to log 20 million miles from May 1 to September 30.

Tune in to our web series: We got great feedback on our Why I Ride web series last year — so we’re bringing the daily Bike Month blog posts back! This year, in line with our “Where will the ride take you” and the developing efforts of our new Equity Advisory Council, we’ll be spotlighting how bicycles aren’t just about recreation and transportation, but tools for personal empowerment, social justice and community development. Subscribe to the blog — the series starts tomorrow!

Have fun — and tell us all about it: Don’t forget to share pictures and stories with us on our Facebook page or Twitter feed. After all, YOU make Bike Month the best time of the year!

Where will the ride take you? Get involved in National Bike Month and find out!

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

Thanks to our friends in New York City — Helen Ho, Ed Hernandez, Karyn Williams and Kyle Mosholder — for being part of the Bike Month photo shoot!

We’re still focused on Bike to Work Day — the pinnacle of the month! — but, with the tagline “Where will the ride take you?” we’re showcasing the many ways bikes benefit our lives and our communities. Whether you ride to work at a construction site, pedal your kids to school or cruise on two wheels to meet up with friends, we’re celebrating YOU this May.

To help you organize and promote Bike Month in your area…

1) Download a poster with the dates of Bike to School Day, Bike to Work Week and Bike to Work Day — and use the white space at the bottom to include information about your organization and details about your events.

2) Use our web button or web banners on your website to highlight May as Bike Month — and the different dates of national events.

3) Incorporate the new National Bike Month logo in your materials!

4) Get involved in the National Bike Challenge, which kicks off May 1. Help us unite 50,000 Americans to bike 20 million miles; download posters, postcards, web materials and more here.

And coming soon:

• We’re currently in the process of refreshing our Bike Month Guide, which includes a wealth of ideas for organizing events in your community. The rebranded version with updated stats and content will be available by April 12!

• Need help building the buzz for your events? We’ll have a Social Media Toolkit with a sample blogs, Facebook posts and tweets on April 8.

• We’re also working with our partners and Equity Advisory Council on Spanish-language resources to be available in April, as well.

• And we’ve got a whole feature about different types of celebrations in the upcoming May/June issue of American Bicyclist. (If you’re not a member, join here to receive our magazine — AND a free winged wheel t-shirt!)

How are you getting ready for Bike Month in your community?

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

Here in Washington, D.C., the brilliant folks at Bicycle Space rolled out the red carpet for bike commuters — and, in our mind, everyone across the nation who organized or participated deserves that VIP treatment. THANK YOU for making Bike Month 2012 the best yet!

Unfortunately, we can’t tell you precisely how many (millions?) of people participated in Bike Month festivities, but we can share a few other impressive numbers:

$4,600,000,000: On Bike to Work Day, the League released a new fact sheet, in partnership with the Sierra Club and the National Council of La Raza, that showed Americans save $4.6 billion per year by riding their bikes instead of driving.

3,000,000: The National Bike Challenge kicked off on May 1st, and during Bike Month alone, riders logged more than 3 million miles!

1,006: On May 22, the League released our 2012 Bicycle Friendly States Ranking and the blog post alone was shared more than 1,000 times on Facebook.

700: This year, the Center for Safe Routes to School, in partnership with the League, launched the first-ever National Bike to School Day and more than 700 events took place in 49 states.

318: The Ride of Silence, which honors fallen cyclists, marked it’s 10 anniversary with 318 events in all 50 states and 19 countries. Highlighted as the 2012 Champion, 16-year-old Angelique Martinez in Oxnard, Calif., organized a ride in memory of her 6-year-old brother, Anthony, who was killed on Thanksgiving, riding in front of his house.

214: The League also announced our latest round of Bicycle Friendly Community designations and, with the additional of 24 new awards, the total numbers of BFCs nationwide rose to 214 in 47 states.

163: Sarai Snyder of Girl Bike Love designated May 13 as Cyclofemme — a day dedicated to women’s riding — and female cyclists organized 163 rides in 14 countries.

83: On May 9, America Bikes released a new survey showing 83 percent of Americans — in all regions and from all demographics — want Congress to maintain or increase federal funding for biking and walking.

31: In honor of the “One Ride, Many Reasons” theme for this year’s Bike Month, we shared the inspiring personal stories of 31 cyclists from across the nation in our Why I Ride blog series.

But, perhaps the most important number of all:

361: Number of days until Bike Month 2013!

Carolyn Szczepanski
Communications Director

Carolyn joined the League in March 2012, after two years at the Alliance for Biking & Walking. In addition to managing the League's blog, magazine and other communications, Carolyn organized the first National Women's Bicycling Summit and launched the League's newest program: Women Bike. Before she crossed over to advocacy, she was a professional journalist for nearly 10 years.

Growing up in England I followed a similar path to many an American. I rode everywhere as a kid on a light blue Coventry Eagle ten speed with a leather saddle (probably the most valuable thing on the whole bike, and certainly what I missed most when it was inevitably “nicked”) my older brother David bought me for Christmas. As a teenager I pretty much gave up riding — true, I also went to boarding school, which limited the opportunity and need to ride whole lot — and didn’t get back in the saddle until the end of my second year at university, when I was invited to go on a cycling holiday in France.

At the start of that summer, I got a second-hand bike and started to ride in preparation for the trip. Lo and behold, not only was it a fun way to see the countryside but it was also a whole lot better and more practical than waiting for the bus at home in Bristol. Riding turned out to be quicker and a lot cheaper than any other way of getting to classes in Birmingham. At the end of that summer, I traded in the bike for a new one and had another “aha!” moment: I got more trade-in value and had ridden more miles than my other brother Peter did on his motorcycle over that same summer!

So before I turned 20, I’d figured out that riding a bike was cheap, economical, quick, practical, and enormous fun. Why wouldn’t I ride a bike?

A growing social and environmental conscience confirmed the bike as a true vehicle for change in the world — more so than the law degree I was finishing at the time. The day after exams finished I took off on a six-week ride around Europe with a fierce determination not to be a lawyer and not much else. On my return, I volunteered for a local cycling campaign in Cheltenham and worked on a Safe Routes to School project. That was the summer of 1984 and within a matter of months I had gotten a job with Friends of the Earth in London as a part-time bicycle campaigner, visited the Netherlands for the first time, and in May 1985 found myself appointed the [volunteer] Secretary-General of the European Cyclists’ Federation — still the best title I’ve ever had.

What’s not to love about cycling and riding a bike?

Almost 30 years on, I am still amazed at the practical versatility and simple common sense of the bicycle. I still ride to work every day. I still see the bike as THE vehicle for change. And I am still amazed that so many people just don’t get it… yet. Why wouldn’t you ride? Why on earth haven’t individuals, communities and nations embraced the multitude of diverse benefits bicycling brings; all the reasons you’ve read about in this compelling “Why I Ride” series of articles.

Why do I ride? Seems pretty obvious to me: it’s a good thing to do.

Why wouldn’t I ride?

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 brought you the personal reflections and inspirations of a diverse collection of bicyclists from coast to coast with our daily 31 Days, 31 Reasons blog feature.

Click here to view the full series.