April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month and there are numerous national, state, and local campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of not putting down your cell phone behind the wheel.

New laws to combat distracted driving are proposed frequently, including laws against new technologies that are not even on sale yet. Despite a high level of awareness, 49 percent of commuters and 43 percent of teenagers admitted to texting or sending emails while driving,according to a recent poll conducted by AT&T.

Sharing the road is much harder when people are not looking at the road. Effective distracted driving laws and enforcement are key to discouraging this dangerous behavior.

What are they?

Generally, distracted driving can be caused by any activity that can divert a person’s attention away from the primary task of driving. Although distracted driving can take many forms, distracted driving laws are primarily a response to the spread of mobile communications devices into our vehicles. The most common distracted driving laws include bans on text messaging, bans on cell-phone use, and the required use of a hands-free device while operating a mobile communications device in a vehicle. These laws can either be primary enforcement laws, which means a driver can be pulled over solely for violating the distracted driving law, or secondary enforcement laws, which means that the distracted driving law can only be enforced if another traffic offense also takes place.

Why should you care?

In 2010, 18 percent of injury crashes were reported as distraction-affected crashes. The prevalence and use of mobile communications devices has increased dramatically in the last decade and is likely to continue to increase. Safe bicycling and safe driving requires an awareness of your surroundings that is made more difficult by the use of mobile communications devices in vehicles. Distracted driving laws are important because they encourage people to stay focused on the task of driving and can be used in legal actions resulting from collisions or other incidents between road users.

If you would like to know more about the dangers of distracted driving, particularly distracted driving caused by the use of mobile communications devices, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) have a great site with links to research and reports on the issue. For some information about how MAP-21 provides incentive grants for distracted driving programs please see this report put together by the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety or this press release from NHTSA.

Who has them?

Thirty-nine states ban text messaging for all drivers, and 33 states ban all cell phone use by novice drivers. Ten states prohibit all drivers from using handheld cell phones while driving. To learn more about the various laws targeting distracted driving please see the excellent information put together by the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Click on image for full chart. Credit: GHSA.

Spotlight State –New Jersey

New Jersey has some of the strongest laws in the country to combat distracted driving. It is one of only two states — the other is Delaware — that has primary enforcement laws against all cell phone use by school bus and novice drivers, text messaging by all drivers, handheld use by all drivers, and includes a category for cell phone/electronic equipment distraction on police accident forms, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.  Every year since 2008 New Jersey drivers have been issued about 100,000 summons based upon illegal talking or texting while driving. Recent studies have shown that strong texting bans can reduce fatal single-occupancy, single-vehicle crashes but that vigilant enforcement is needed and concurrent handheld bans increase the effectiveness of texting bans.

Where did they come from?

Distracted driving is a relatively new issue and has been addressed in a variety of ways by states. In 2000, only three states had laws related to cell phones in cars. Oregon was the first state to make distracted driving a priority by incorporating it into their Strategic Highway Safety Plan in 1999. Since 2000, every state has considered legislation related to cell phone use in cars or distracted driving, and almost 200 bills were considered in 2009 alone

As of the last revision to the Uniform Vehicle Code (UVC) in 2000, there are no UVC sections relevant to distracted driving.

You can learn more about distracted driving in this report: http://www.bikeleague.org/resources/reports/pdfs/distracted_driving_league_report.pdf

(Photo Credit: Alliance for Biking & Walking Photo Library)

Jess Mathews is one of those magnetic people who’s passion and energy are evident within moments of meeting her. Lucky for Ohio — and bicycle advocates nationwide — her passion is getting more women on bikes.

After attending the League’s National Women’s Bicycling Summit in Long Beach last September, the Safe Routes to School Manager for Consider Biking got the wheels rolling for a women’s summit in her state. With the Ohio Women’s Bicycling Summit exactly one month away, I wanted to learn a little more about Mathew’s background and get a behind-the-scenes look at the organization and focus of perhaps the first stand-alone state summit specifically focused on women and bicycling.

So what’s your story, Jess? How did you get into biking?

One of the repeated questions that takes up space in my mind is, “How will I be remembered when I die?” I want to be remembered as a leader passionate about making her city (Columbus) more people-focused, specifically, a city that places priority on bicycling and walking.

I lived and went to art school in San Francisco back in the day and started bicycling there. The ease of using my bike in SF didn’t click until coming back to Columbus and experiencing how challenging and unfriendly it was here. Not only did I get crazed looks when I was on my bike trying to get to my destination, my being a woman trying to get to my destination via bike I think compounded those stares. Experiencing how difficult it was here, I started to become involved in local bike events and bike organizations, like Consider Biking. My youthful passion and determination led me to become a board member of Consider Biking. At that time, I was the youngest person on the board and the fourth woman on the board. Long story short, funding became available, I interviewed and the rest is history!

What inspired you to host an event around women cycling — rather than an outreach campaign, ride series, etc?

Actually, I am not only organizing — along with two incredible women — the first statewide Ohio Women’s Bicycling Summit. I actually created an outreach program directly geared towards young girls in marginalized neighborhoods — Girls in Gear — and I lead what has become an explosive ladies’ ride here in Columbus: 2 Wheels & Heels.

The future face of biking is going to be women and families and I am passionate about the empowerment of women and girls. I whole-heartedly believe that it is critical that city officials, such as Mayors and Directors of Public Service, grasp that the success of their cities will revolve around transportation options for ALL. City streets need to be re-designed so that everyone feels invited to enjoy their public space, including women. Our city leaders must comprehend that our streets need to be “designed” and not “engineered.” They need to be designed with women and children in mind and, if they are not, then more designing process needs to take place.

In the past two years, there’s been HUGE momentum to decrease the gender gap when it comes to men and women on bikes. When I attended the Women Bike gathering in Long Beach, Calif., I knew what I needed to do when I returned to Columbus: continue the momentum here and create the first Ohio Women’s Bicycling Summit. I’m a “do-er!”

Who’s behind this event and how did you rally the coalition / support required to put on the Summit?

One evening, I had asked a couple of colleagues of mine to meet me for a beer. During that meetup, I said, ‘Would you two be interested in helping me organize the first statewide Ohio Women’s Bicycling Summit?” Their answers: “HELL YES!” It was a pretty easy sell.

Jeannie McKenna Martin is our Acting Director of Consider Biking and runs her own landscape architecture business and Mimi Webb is the Sales and Operations Manager of the Trek Bike Stores here in Columbus. I specifically thought of these two because they’re ‘do-ers’ as well. We’ve been organizing and planning since last October. I couldn’t have asked for better partners.  Trek Bikes and ROLL are two of the local bike stores that jumped all over this Summit and have been extremely supportive. Support from businesses, city leaders, women and men have been paramount.

Overall, there’s been this missing niche of women-on-bikes empowerment that we’re tapping into—  and people are excited. Women e-mail and tell me ‘Thank you! I’ve been waiting for something like this!’  This past year, Columbus celebrated its bicentennial birthday and our focus was to brand ourselves as “Open & Smart.” The Ohio Women’s Bicycling Summit exemplifies this.

Are you focusing in on certain issues or topics? What are the key objectives or take-aways of the event?

The Summit’s mission is simple:  To engage, educate, and activate more women in Ohio to ride bikes. We came up with five categories speakers including economics, fashion, dispelling barriers, bike mechanics and riding for transportation. We specifically wanted to keep the topics broad, so they’re able to reach and touch as many types of women riders as possible. Based upon responses after the Summit, we’ll see which topics were of most value and plan accordingly for next year.

You’ve attended the past two Women Bike gatherings — how have past events informed what you’re doing with the Ohio Summit?

I think / feel that both Women Bike gatherings have guided me towards the thought that no matter where you live (California, North Carolina, or Ohio) the issues that women face and struggle with when it comes to the barriers of riding are the same. How do we achieve “choosing” the bike? It’s going to take years — decades! — here in America but the conversation has begun, and that’s the first step. I think just the idea that we’re putting something together here in Columbus, completely women-specific is bold and says, “Hey, we know the importance of women’s inclusion and understand the leadership that women possess, and if you get women to collectively support a cause with purpose, it usually succeeds.”

Are you getting push-back around it being an event “for women”? Why go this route rather than co-ed?

The only push-back I’ve received is that guys want to attend which is pretty awesome! I went this route because I know and understand first-hand the importance of empowering women. Women and men are different. We work through our processes differently. I have found and watched through both my “2 Wheels & Heels” ladies’ rides and “Girls in Gear” program, that there’s an enhanced comfort level when it’s “women-only.” There’s a greater sense of kinship and encouragement that I’ve seen — and its incredible. The women and girls learn from one another and are more prone to help one another and not judge them for any lack in knowledge. It’s the whole ‘Lean In’ experience that I feel you just can’t have if it were to be co-ed.

What are some cool, innovative things you’re doing with your event that are new or creative approaches?

Well again, I think just beginning the conversation here in Columbus, Ohio of actually having a statewide Women’s Summit is innovative, cool, and creative! People presume that these kinds of events are more apt to be held in bigger metro cities like D.C. or Long Beach — but it’s just as critical of a need here as it is in other cities. This being the innaugural Summit, we’re keeping it pretty controlled. I love measuring outcomes, so after our first Summit, obtaining post-Summit surveys given to both attendees and presenters for next year, will allow us to build and maneuver our creativity and innovative approaches with a bit more ease. This year is about starting the conversation with hopes of watching it blossom into an endless field of women and bikes! (Cheesy but true!)

What are YOU most excited about?

I’m excited that other women and girls are excited. I get pumped when I hear women say, “We need this and I’m excited you’re doing this!” I’m excited that middle and high school girls are attending, as well as grandmothers. I’m excited to continue this Summit to where, two or three years from now, it becomes the “Midwest Women’s Bicycling Summit.” What can I say, I’m a visionary!

Stay tuned to the blog each Wednesday for profiles and coverage of women’s cycling efforts in communities nationwide.

 

Guest post by the Griffin Bicycle Coalition.

Congratulations to the Griffin Bicycle Coalition and Georgia Bikes! for a successful ‘Show me event’. We believe this is the first follow up district event since the National Bike Summit. At the Summit, the League encouraged advocates to urge their lawmakers to visit a bicycle project or event to see the positive effects of bicycling in their communities.

Griffin, Georgia, held a Bike to City Hall event in chilly weather with occasional snow flurries last month to mimic the Atlanta-based “Ride to the Capitol” led by Georgia Bikes! earlier that day.

Tracie Sanchez, Michelle Cannon, Ian Flitcroft, and Bruce Reid of the Griffin Bicycle Coalition organized bike trains from four points across the city: a university, church, high school, and city park — and invited citizens to ride along, including Matt Brass from Rep. Lynn Westmoreland’s (R) office — who all joined a regularly scheduled City Commission meeting.  At the meeting, the following recently approved resolution was read out loud and presented to the more than 30 cyclists. The cyclists stated their names and addresses as part of the permanent record of support for the resolution.

2013 COG Bike-Ped Resolution

 

The Griffin-Spalding Area Transportation Committee Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee is working in collaboration with the Griffin Bicycle Coalition to increase and enhance infrastructure, including the installation of sidewalks, bicycle lanes, multi-use paths, routes, signage, bicycle parking, and storage facilities. In addition, they are working to encourage walking and bicycling as viable modes of transportation, in order to reduce the dependence on the use of automobiles and improve air quality.

This is a great example of involving your Congressional office. Not only did the Congressman’s staff come out to a bike ride, but he witnessed the local government voicing their support of biking and walking!

The League is excited to announce the arrival of a new member of our staff: Jakob Wolf-Barnett. Jakob is our new Chief Operating Officer, and he brings years of experience in the biking industry to the League. What’s Jakob’s story? Here’s a quick Q&A on Jakob’s background…

What’s your first memory of riding a bike?

It was a feeling of total freedom and independence when I was five years old. Riding the ½ mile to a nearby bakery with no pesky, parent-imposed rules and no limit on how fast I could go was life-changing! Well, as life-changing as an experience can be for a 5- year-old. Checking out the world by bike was empowering for me as a kid and continues to provide me with the same feelings many years later.

What’s your background in the biking industry?

Working in retail. I was fortunate to be able to spend the past 5 ½ years working for an amazing group of IBD [indepedent bicycle dealer] shops in the D.C. metro area — Revolution Cycles — as their COO.

What got you interested in working for the League?

It’s simple: I love bikes and think that they can be part of the answer to many big problems faced by our society. I have a deep passion for getting more people riding and having cycling become a part of their life, however large or small. The League works towards those goal on a big scale and I believe in the mission and want to help.

What will your average day look like here?

Doing whatever I need to support the League staff and the mission.

What bike are you riding now and what inspires you about cycling?

I’m lucky enough to have more than one bike, and my favorite is an older Gary Fisher Simple City 3-speed. Fenders, big comfy bars and the ability to carry everything with me on my bike. What’s not to like?! What inspires me about cycling now is no different than when I started: The freedom and mobility that comes with experiencing D.C., the Shenandoah Valley or wherever I happen to be by bike.

 

Exactly two months ago we gave our dedicated blog followers a sneak peak of the newly selected Equity Advisory Council, before its formal announcement at the National Bike Summit. Since then, the Council has been busy meeting, reviewing League policy and organizational history and informing League resources.

The day before the Summit, all members of the Council gathered for this first time, getting to know each other, becoming familiar with the League’s inner workings, and meeting with the League’s Board of Directors. During the first Council meeting, members learned about League history before launching into a fruitful preliminary discussion about how to update, expand and enhance the organization’s policies, outreach and programming to be more representative and inclusive. The Council then ended the day having dinner with the League’s Board of Directors, who pledged support for the work and (coming) recommendations of the Council.

The Council had its first monthly (virtual) meeting this week, defining and solidifying key terminology around the issue of equity. We will be sharing some of these definitions and terms with you soon. Next on the Council’s buffet-sized plate is setting some concrete goals and outcomes to help keep our collective eyes on the prize: better cycling for ALL!

We’re doing our best to synthesize all the great research, ideas and people we encountered at the Summit; keep up with a fast moving Equity Advisory Council and gather information from YOU about the great work being done around Women and Equity around the country, as well as the best ways to support you in your efforts.

How can you get involved in this important work? Click here and fill out our mini-survey on Women and Equity by April 12.

Want to stay connected to the Equity Initiative at the League of American Bicyclists? Stay tuned to this blog, keep a lookout for a dedicated page on our new website and shoot me your questions, suggestions and critiques: hamzat@bikeleague.org

 (Photo: Equity Advisory Council and League Board dinner. Credit Brian Palmer)

 

The League is seeking an ambitious Director of Development to lead the organization’s development plan, with a strong emphasis on major donor development.

We are looking for an experienced fundraising professional with proven success in building a major donor program and experience in all areas of fundraising. This position reports to the Chief Operating Officer and works closely with the CEO and Board of Directors to implement an aggressive fundraising plan.

The ideal candidate will bring passion, fundraising experience, strong communication skills, and, as you may have guessed, a personal connection to bicycling is preferred.

Interested? Check out the full job posting here and send your cover letter and resume to Jakob Wolf-Barnett at jakob@bikeleague.org.

 

The League wants your help in advancing equity and women’s participation in bike advocacy. You game? We thought you might be.

We’ve recently launched two initiatives to start institutionalizing some real change. The Women Bike program is empowering, engaging and elevating more women to get on a bike and ride, as well as influence the bike advocacy world. We’re also developing a full-scale Equity Initiative, with our new Equity Advisory Council charged with guiding the organization’s efforts to become a model for equity, diversity and inclusivity both in its internal and external programming.

Both initiatives are off to a great start — and now its time to make sure we keep the momentum going by highlighting the work you’ve done and are doing around equity and women in biking. We need your help to:

• Identify initiatives related to equity and women around the country
• Understand what resources would be helpful to YOU as we move forward
• Benchmark key demographics among cycling organizations currently

So please take a moment to fill out our brief, online survey by April 12th — and circulate to other organizations that might be interested, as well.

***Extra bonus: Is there work around issues of equity or women in cycling that you can’t wait to tell someone? Well, stop waiting and post in the comments section. Who knows? Your story might be our next post!

(Photo: Eboni Hawkins of Red, Bike & Green – Chicago is a member of the League’s Equity Advisory Council. Credit Brian Palmer)

 

Research consistently shows that women shoulder more of the household responsibilities, including childcare and transportation. Whether running errands or shuttling kids, women often face additional considerations when it comes to getting around by bike.

So join us for our next Women Bike webinar — April 11, from 3:00 – 4:15 p.m. EDT — as we discuss “Getting More Moms and Families on Bikes.” We’ll explore how individual, advocacy and retailer leaders are addressing these unique but widespread considerations and helping to get more moms and families out riding.

Join us for a conversation with:

• Megan Odett, founder of Kidical Mass DC and creator of the National Family Biking Survey

• Kit Hodge, Deputy Director for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the creator of the organization’s “Family Biking Guide” and

• Martina Fahrner, co-founder of Clever Cycles in Portland, Ore., which was among the first bike shops in the U.S. to carry bikes specifically geared toward family transportation needs

Click here to register!

And, if you missed our first two webinars on “How to Start a Women’s Bike Club” or “The Economic Impact of Women Bicyclists,” view the recordings and download the slides here!

(Photo by Leslie Bloom, Alliance for Biking & Walking Photo Library)

 

Last month, we were excited to help launch the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s new “Women & Bicycles” campaign with a $15,000 grant. Revolving around small social gatherings hosted by Roll Models and practical-skill workshops and group rides, WABA’s innovative initiative will engage and provide resources to women in the D.C. area – and, we’re confident, serve as a model for other advocacy organizations nationwide. (Stay tuned for much more on this effort in coming weeks!)

But that’s not all.

In celebration of the launch of the Women Bike program, the League is also awarding $5,000 in mini-grants. We know that it often takes a modest amount of funding to get the wheels turning on a big idea — and the goal of our new Growth Fund is to seed, support and spread campaigns and ideas that are getting more women on bikes.

Purpose: Whether it’s an innovative outreach strategy or a first-of-its-kind event, we know great ideas and efforts are breaking ground across the country — and we want to make sure the best efforts take root and serves as examples for the rest of the nation. The Growth Fund aims to provide best practices on women’s bicycling outreach and engagement to advocates nationwide, by sharing effective strategies, programs and materials to inform and be utilized by other advocacy organizations.

Eligibility: To apply for these funds, an organization must:

• Be a member of the League of American Bicyclists
• Be incorporated as a 501(c)(3) organization; grants will not be awarded to individuals
• Propose a campaign or event that is specifically aimed at increasing the number of women riding — with a defined timeline and measurable goals

Grant Amount: Based on applications, the League will award between three and five mini-grants. Maximum application and award amount is $2,500. Grants will be administered by the League’s Women Bike program.

How to Apply: Complete the brief online application here. The application deadline is Monday, April 15, 2013. Grant winners will be announced on Monday, April 29, 2013. Proposals will be evaluated by League staff and the Women Bike Advisory Board.

Reporting Requirements: A final report highlighting the results of your campaign, effectiveness of this grant, lessons learned by your organization, best practices / model(s) to share with other organizations, photos and PR-related materials will be required at the end of the grant period.

For more information about the Women Bike Growth Fund, contact me at carolyn@bikeleague.org. We look forward to helping you grow the number of women riding in your community — and communities across the country!

(Photo: WABA “Women & Bicycles” launch party, credit Brian Palmer)

 

“We are going to address bike safety head on… and we are going to pull from all our resources to do it.”

At the National Bike Summit earlier this month, Secretary Ray LaHood announced that the U.S. Department of Transportation would focus on bike safety by holding two Bike Safety Summits — and today DOT announced the dates and locations:

• April 11: Tampa, Florida
• April 29: Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Safety Summits will feature an expo in the morning with resources on bike safety, education, Safe Routes to School, and creating Bicycle Friendly Communities, Universities and Businesses, as well as hands-on safety training. The afternoons will include policy discussions on the built environment and planning, enforcement and education.

In announcing these Summits, Secretary LaHood said DOT would bring to bear all of its resources — including policy experts from DOT, research experts from the National Highway and Transportation Safety Administration and engineering experts from Federal Highway Administration.

So what would we like to see as results?

Policy: A non-motorized safety performance measure (a national goal to reduce bicyclist deaths)

Engineering: Innovative bike design standards endorsed by US DOT

Research: Better data overall bicycling data- including data on the what, where, why, when and who of bicycling crashes and best practices on buidling safe, accessbile bike friendly infrastructure.

Beyond that, though, we hope the Summit in Tampa shines the national spotlight on the spate of tragic fatal crashes involving bicyclists in the area over the past several months and helps to identify some solid, practical suggestions to improve traffic safety for all road users in the region. In Minneapolis, we expect the leading efforts of local officials, advocates and Mayor R.T. Rybak to turn their city into a Gold-level Bicycle Friendly Community will clearly showcase the many benefits of making biking a safe and enjoyable means of transportation and recreation.

We thank Secretary LaHood for his continued leadership on biking and on safety — and we look forward to seeing what the Bike Safety Summit brings. Learn more, including how to register, on the Fast Lane Blog.

Photo: Secretary Ray LaHood at the 2013 National Bike Summit, credit Brian Palmer

 

It’s been three weeks since the conclusion of the 2013 National Bike Summit — but the buzz is still rippling across the country. With 750 people in attendance, and our most diverse and exciting program yet, there was a discernible shift in tone from Summits past.

What did attendees take away from their experience? Plenty of new ideas, a-ha moments and excitement about the future of the movement…

Although it was my eighth summit, it felt really new and fresh. Jim Sayer (pictured, left, with April Economides), Executive Director of the Adventure Cycling Association, shared his Top 5 Takeaways from the Summit (also included: a picture of a red, white and blue folding bike!).

If I were an investor in ideas or social movements, I would put a lot of money into bicycling right now. Jonathan Maus of BikePortland has a great wrap-up and gorgeous photos on his re-cap list.

The bike summit armed us with the tools we need to get businesses on board. BikeArlington‘s Zanna Worzella posts on  how the facts and figures presented at the Summit make the case for bicycling.  She’s pictured with the rest of the BikeArlington team and Janette Sadik-Khan, Zanna on the far right.

And StreetFilms captured the voices and perspectives of a number of speakers and attendees on how Bicycling Means Business for their communities.

National Bike Summit 2013 from Streetfilms on Vimeo..But that’s not all. Across the country, advocates from New Orleans to Indianapolis are sharing what they learned and how it will impact their work. Click the links below to read more from…

• Bike Easy from New Orleans has an “aha”-moment on how biking makes sense and cents.
• Bike Texas gives the Lone Star perspective.
• Consider Biking has a links page to a radio show and other info on the Summit.
• Bike Delaware has a Top 3 Takeaways, which happen to not include the 5 from Adventure Cycling.
• The Greater Valley Forge Transportation Management Association gives a succinct wrap-up.
• Bicycle Garage Indy has a nice personal narrative from Summit presenter Connie Schmucker.
• Georgia Bikes! deserves that exclamation point; they won the Alliance for Biking and Walking‘s Advocacy Campaign of the Year award!
• LACBC joined 70 other Californians at the Summit.
• Bicycle Retailer and Industry News have a number of good articles on the Summit.

Reading your recaps has us excited about Summit 2014 already! Want to relive the experience or get a glimpse of the fun? Visit the Summit page to check out the photo collections, watch the keynote addresses and download the workshop presentations.

And stay tuned for an exciting announcement on Monday…

 

To achieve her dream of waving the Afghan flag at the Olympics, 16-year-old Salma Kakar rises before dawn, to train under the cover of darkness. For the new Afghan Women’s Cycling Team, participating in the sport is a direct — and perilous — challenge to the prohibition against women cycling.

“These women are literally risking their lives to ride bikes,” says Shannon Galpin.

Over the past five years, Galpin has dedicated herself to improving the lives of girls like Kakar through her organization Mountain2Mountain. In 2006, the Colorado trainer and avid mountain biker established her nonprofit to empower women and girls in conflict zones — through cycling.

.According to National Geographic, which honored Galpin as a 2013 Adventurer of the Year: “The 38-year-old has braved some of the most violent periods in Afghanistan—a country considered by many humanitarian agencies to be the worst place in the world to be a woman—to work on women’s education and health. She fostered midwife training to combat infant and maternal mortality in the Panjshir Province. In Kabul and Kandahar, she helped develop reading programs for the daughters of women in prisons, some of whom were jailed for adultery after they were raped or for escaping arranged marriages.”

In 2010, she became the first person to ride across Afghanistan’s Panjshir Valley and has been a key supporter of the Afghan Women’s Cycling Team.

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“I started challenging that barrier [against women riding bikes] myself by being a foreign woman and looking for other women riding bikes,” she told NBC Nightly News. “Finding out that a small group of women were riding in Kabul as part of a cycling team it was a really natural segway to work I was doing in Afghanistan to support this burgeoning group of women pushing the boundaries on bicycles… It brings bikes into a whole new realm that could galvanize women’s rights in Afghanistan.”

And, if women like Kakar are willing to take the risk, Galpin says, the least we can do is support them. The first step: gear. The Mountain2Mountain founder has garnered hundreds of pounds of donations from bike shops, industry and individuals in a matters of months. And with her new Combat Apathy campaign she’s encouraging all of us to step up, building a “battalion of passionate mothers, daughters, and sisters, that are willing to sacrifice time, money, and energy to be crusaders of gender equity and human rights.”

Watch the video above to hear more from Galpin — and see the incredible passion of the Afghan Women’s Cycling Team. Galpin, along with Let Media and Side of the Road Sessions, are currently working on a full documentary about the team; click here to learn more and support the effort.

 

They’re here! We’re just five weeks out from National Bike Month and excited to debut our posters for May 2013. Yep, you read that right; instead of just one, we have four options for you to choose from or use as a set.

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?

 

The “Vulnerable Road User” concept is a new and powerful tool — and it’s taking root throughout the country.

Recent legislative successes include the “Access to Justice for Bicyclists Act of 2012” in Washington D.C., the recent endorsement of a vulnerable user ordinance by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors (read more about that campaign here) and a statewide law in Utah. While VRU protections have proliferated in the past five years, they continue to take many shapes.

So, in this edition of Bike Law University, we explore the current laws and the concept behind them.

What are they?

Automobiles provide a shell of protection for their users — creating a safety disparity between cars and other road users. This is not to say non-automobile forms of transportation aren’t safe, but simply that there is a difference between what occurs when a car is hit at 25 miles-per-hour and what occurs when a pedestrian is hit at 25 mph. While the percentage of motorist deaths has fallen, the percentage of road fatalities that are bicyclists and pedestrians has grown in recent years (from 12 percent to 16 percent).

Vulnerable Road User laws increase protection for bicyclists and other road users who are not in cars. They are relatively new and states have chosen to protect vulnerable road users in a variety of ways. This includes usually involves 1) harsher penalties for the violation of existing laws when that violation impacts a defined set of road users or 2) the creation of new laws that prohibit certain actions directed at a defined set of road users.

 

Click the image above for the full chart.

Why should you care?

Safety: The vast majority of VRU laws provide for increased fines or civil liability in cases where a vulnerable road user is injured or killed because of negligence or as the result of a traffic violation. These laws increase the cost of unsafe practices that impact bicyclists and provide an incentive for safer driving practices, especially around cyclists and pedestrians. In this way the laws are much like increased fines in work zones, which promote construction worker safety. VRU laws recognize that the type of simple negligence or traffic violations that may result in minor collisions between cars can have disproportionately severe results when a vulnerable road user is involved and provide ways to address those divergent results.

Read the rest of this entry »

Challenge or charity. Fitness or friendship. There are so many motivations to start riding.

For women, the social aspects of bicycling are often a key motivation and inspiration, making rides and races particularly important in engaging and empowering more female bicyclists. At the National Women’s Bicycling Forum this month, we explored ways to break down the road blocks and turn cycling events into gateways for participation.

Moderated by Sarai Snyder, founder of Cyclofemme and Girl Bike Love, the panel touched on charity and social rides, as well as racing and charity events.

Nicole Preston, national campaign director for the Tour de Cure, discussed best practices from one of the nation’s largest charity rides — which engages nearly 25,000 women of all ages and abilities. Tara McCarthy, Race Director Certification Manager for USA Cycling, announced the work of her organization’s new “Women’s Committee” to increase the number of women members and riders from its current 13 percent. And the ever-inspiring and outspoken Jacquie Phelan shared some of her unique insight as a mountain biking champion and founder of the Women’s Mountain Bike & Tea Society.

As a take-away for Forum participants and folks around the country, the group also created a hand-out with 11 tips to engage more women in your cycling events. See below.

.… And stay tuned for more recaps and resources from the Forum.

 

Before there were hundreds of women’s bicycling blogs; before there was a growing number of books and zines and publications showcasing the diversity of bicyclists, there was Momentum magazine. Established in 2001, Momentum has become a growing voice for the cycling lifestyle, putting particular emphasis on women and families and folks who ride for transportation. Amy Walker was one of the key founders and initial owners — and answered a few questions on the start and evolution of the magazine… and the everyday biking movement it’s helping to propel.

What’s your biking background — how did you get into riding?

I biked as a kid and had parents who biked. In the early 1980s, my dad would take my sister and I riding across town by way if the portside roads in Vancouver. These were the DIY bike routes of the day. On the way from East Van to the Stanley Park Seawall he’d teach us how to shoulder check, cross railway tracks safely and be mindful of traffic. He went traveling in France by bike (which seemed very cool) and was a cycle commuter. My step dad was also a cyclist and had taken several cross-country bike trips and was a regular bike commuter. I was quite lucky that I had people in my life who were role models, but I don’t remember them ever being prescriptive or preachy about biking. They just did it. Later on, in high school, I was involved in an environmental conference and I learned about cycling as a form of environmentally friendly transport. I started riding to school (45 min each way) and over the years my relationship with cycling deepened.

What inspired you to even *think* about starting a magazine? Who else was involved in this adventure?

When I was a little kid I remember making fake newspapers. I would write the headlines and make photo-collaged illustrations, then draw in lines instead of story text. I’ve always enjoyed magazines and all forms of visual communication and I loved poring over books of illustration and cover art as a teenager. I was working as a graphic designer in the mid-’90s and I started picking up a free publication called The Spoke ‘n’ Word. It was the newsletter of an organization called B.E.S.T. (Better Environmentally Sound Transportation) and it had an artful style, featured real people who biked and highlighted some of the important issues in bicycle advocacy.

Two of the key people involved in that publication were Carmen Mills and Terry Sunderland. When the Spoke ‘n’ Word folded, I met with Carmen and we started planning a new magazine that was for and about “self-propelled people” (the initial local, non-profit, newsprint incarnation of Momentum, 2001-2003). I learned a ton from Terry Sunderland about creating powerful images and Carmen was a true mentor. She is a brilliant organizer with lots of heart. From Carmen I learned about setting a tone that was celebratory, paradoxical, and peppered with “mind bombs.” She also taught me not to get bogged down with wonky policy details that would put readers to sleep. (You can read Carmen’s Blog at bicyclebuddha.org.)

In 2005, I wrote a business plan and relaunched Momentum on my own. Among the wonderful collaborators for the next phase were Colin Mackenzie, Terry Lowe, Chris Bentzen, David Niddrie, Tania Lo, Mia Kohout and so many other wonderful, creative people. Momentum is a group effort. It exists because of the wonderful people that work together on its creation.

What was your vision for Momentum — and how did it change (if at all) as it gained, uh, momentum?

Read the rest of this entry »

Today 69 members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood asking the U.S. Department of Transportation to set a national goal to reduce bicyclist deaths. The bi-partisan letter, led by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Howard Coble (R-NC), was signed by one-third of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and represents members from 26 states and the District of Columbia.

During the National Bike Summit this month, advocates met with their representatives and staff, asking them to sign on to the ‘Dear Colleague’ letter to Secretary LaHood. Sixty-nine of those representatives said yes. Now that’s what I call a successful Summit Lobby Day! Thank you to everyone who participated in Hill meetings on March 6th — or tweeted or e-mailed from home. You clearly made a difference. (Click here for a list of all Reps who signed on.)

Certainly, now is the time to bring some focus to bicycling and pedestrian safety. Biking is booming, as mayors and community leaders around the country are turning to bicycling  as both an important transportation choice and an economic boost. To keep this trend going, we need to ensure that safe and accessible bicycling and walking are factored into future transportation plans and projects.

MAP-21, the transportation bill passed in 2012, requires U.S. DOT to act now to establish goals — performance measures — to guide traffic safety policy and funding at the national and state level for years to come. Without a specific performance measure for non-motorized safety, bicyclists and pedestrians will remain firmly in the blindspot of traffic safety.

The letter sent today shows that Members of Congress agree. This is exactly the time to establish meaningful national goals and performance measures to tackle bicyclist and pedestrian safety as part of an overall, comprehensive and multi-modal traffic safety program.

But we’re not done yet. Today Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Mark Kirk (R-IL) are circulating a similar ‘Dear Colleague’ in the Senate, asking the U.S. Department of Transportation for specific performance measures to gauge and improve bicycle and pedestrian safety. Please ask your Senator to sign on as well.

Did your member sign on? If so, please click here and send them a thank you! Or better yet post a short article thanking them in your advocacy organization or neighborhood newsletters and send them a copy.

 

Cross-posted from the Advocacy Advance blog

At 197 square miles, the city of Tulsa is larger than San Francisco, Boston, Washington D.C. and Miami combined. There are enough lane miles of streets in the city to stretch from New York to Los Angles and back to Tulsa — with 500 miles to spare.  An improvement to Tulsa’s streets would significantly transform the region.

The City of Tulsa has been rebuilding its streets under a capital improvements program called “Fix Our Streets” since 2008, but rebuilding them the way they were over forty years ago before they deteriorated so badly, without adding bike lanes or any other accommodations.

Fix Our Streets is coming up for a 5-year renewal this year, and local advocates are working hard to make sure that the proposed $800 million in road improvements include high-quality facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians.

“We need to put the pressure on and show that many every-day people want this for our city,” says Stephen Lassiter, a member of the Tulsa Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC). “We can’t afford to have five more years of streets projects that do not include bicycle or pedestrian infrastructure.”

To read the rest of this post, click here.

 

As a bicycle commuter, Adonia Lugo noticed a clear shift in cycling when she moved from Portland to Los Angeles in 2007. For the innovative scholar, that distinction led to a whole new approach to bicycle advocacy.

“I was struck by the impact the transportation culture had on my experience of biking,” she says. “And I also started noticing how race and class distinctions played out in transportation and how, even though I was biking in a built environment really similar to Portland, other road users didn’t respect my way of getting around.”

In the “Community-Based Bicycle Advocacy” session at the National Women’s Bicycling Forum, Lugo explained some of her research into L.A.’s transportation culture — and her work co-founding CicLAvia and City of Lights (now Multicultural Communities for Mobility), both campaigns that have broken new ground and succeeded at empowering communities that are underrepresented in traditional bicycle advocacy.

For Lugo it all led to a new and critical frame to engaging more people in biking: “human infrastructure.”

What does the phrase mean? Well, human infrastructure is the existing social networks, community groups, and shared ideas about transportation that affect how people think of streets — and what is possible in them. And underlining this concept is a critical and optimistic question: “If we respect present differences, can we create future consensus?”

Too often in bicycle advocacy, we equate opposition with ignorance or misunderstanding. We jump to the conclusion that people opposed to bike lanes just don’t get it, or don’t have all the compelling facts that clearly show the merit of our positions. Lugo has been a strong voice — and has set a clear example — for shifting that thinking and, instead, actively working with community leaders to understand the cultural and community dynamics that shape perceptions of bicycling and transportation.

That’s the basis of human infrastructure. As Lugo showed at the Women’s Forum, the concept is based on two important pillars:

• Research: Recognizing the multiple cultural meanings of transportation
• Community-based advocacy: Starting from a respectful understanding of community concerns

One way she’s putting that concept to work is with the Seattle Bike Justice Project — an effort to aimed at “questioning the idea that bicycling is a luxury for a privileged group, or a burden for a marginalized group.” Over the course of several months, Lugo interviewed nine leaders from communities of color — folks outside bicycle advocacy circles — to better understand their ideas about biking and public spaces.

She’s also spearheaded the creation of Bicicultures, a network of scholars who study bicycling as a social and cultural phenomenon, aiming to shed light on the many bicycling cultures taking place alongside each other in our cities and towns. (Learn more and register for the group’s first event: Bicicultures Roadshow on April 16-17 in Davis, Calif.)

So how do you start these conversation and build this type of human infrastructure in your community? The panelists for the Community-Based Bicycle Advocacy session put together some key questions you can consider in your work.

Read more about the “Community-Based Bicycle Advocacy” session:

• Jenna Burton on Creating Black Bike Culture
• Megan Odett on Empowering Moms to Ride

And stay tuned for more ideas, recaps and resources in coming days…

(Photo of Lugo by Brian Palmer)

All of a sudden, history seems to be the “in” thing.

First, there was the glorious return of the winged wheel to the League’s logo. Then there were several requests for “proof” of the link between the League of American Wheelmen and AAA. And, of course, with Women’s History Month comes a string a fascinating profiles of women that have a left a mark on the history of bicycling (including our own Phyllis Harmon).

Where to go for all this information?

.Well, the Smithsonian archives aren’t really very accessible on short notice, and the California Bicycling Museum and U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame is 3,000 miles away in Davis. David Herlihy’s go-to book on history of the bicycle always has good leads and is beautifully produced — but David’s history is about the bike and not so much about where the wheel took us after the glory years of the 1890′s.

The role of the League in the creation of the Good Roads Movement and everything that followed from that is excellently documented by Richard Weingroff and fellow authors at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), of all places. I say “of all places,” but, of course, the FHWA most definitely traces it’s own existence directly back to the League of American Wheelmen and their lobbying for the creation of an Office of Road Inquiry in 1892. Colonel Albert Pope was one of the founders of the LAW and a force behind the creation of the Good Roads Movement. General Roy Stone took the idea and ran with it, including pitching the idea of The National Road, and being one of the founding members of the Automobile Club of America (which went on to be a founding member of the American Automobile Association).

The League’s influential past is more than matched on the other side of the Atlantic by the UK’s Cyclists Touring Club (CTC). Those parallels are about to get a thorough airing thanks to the extraordinary work and creativity of Carlton Reid — and the support of a lot of individuals who responded to a kickstarter campaign to fund publication of Reid’s “Roads Were Not Built for Cars.” In fact, interest was so high that the initial fundraising goal was reached in 20 hours and attracted the attention of Kickstarter staff themselves.

The League’s story is entertainingly told by Reid (and he actually did take the time and planned ahead to visit the Smithsonian!), and there are plenty of relevant Women’s History Month stories in there as well. Check it out…

 

Guest post by Fionnoula Quinn, civil engineer at Alta Planning + Design and board member for Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling

Mia Birk fell in love with bicycling while attending graduate school in Washington, D.C.

Having grown up in suburban Dallas, Texas, she was used to driving everywhere. Informed that there was no parking available near her school, she borrowed her brother’s 10-speed Schwinn. Within a few weeks, she was in the best shape of her life and a lifelong love affair had begun. Since then, she has been a dedicated bicyclist for recreation, touring, exercise, and daily utilitarian trips.

For four years she was an advocate with the International Institute for Energy Conservation, and in 1993 became the Bicycling Manager for the City of Portland, Oregon, where she helped get the city to adopt a ground-breaking Bicycle Master Plan and network expansion. The implementation of Portland’s visionary concept has been an inspiration throughout the country for the development of bicycling-friendly infrastructure.

In 1999, Birk left government to help found Alta Planning + Design, of which she is now President. Alta has become one of the country’s pre-eminent bicycling and pedestrian planning, design, implementation and encouragement firms. Its affiliate, Alta Bike Share, deploys and operates public bike share systems in Boston, Washington, D.C.; Melbourne, Australia; and Chattanooga, Tennessee; and is working to launch systems in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Columbus, Vancouver and Portland. Through her role at Alta, she has been involved in helping many communities and individuals, expanding the industry, and creating jobs around the country.

As a leader of Alta, Birk has been at the forefront of developments in the bicycling world, helping write a major study on Rails with Trails for the U.S. Department of Transportation, which opened the door to hundreds of miles of Rails with Trails project across North America. The various studies of new and innovative facilities such as blue bike lanes, sharrows and bike boxes led to the development of the Urban Bikeway Design Guide for the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). The NACTO Guide is advancing the craft of building protected bike facilities and bringing about bike-friendlier streets. Her favorite projects have been those that have the biggest, most long-lasting impacts.

Birk has always believed strongly in the importance of advocacy and education. She was a founding member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals (APBP), which named her “Professional of the Year (Private Sector)” for 2007.  Since 2002, she had been an Adjunct Professor at Portland State University where she was co-founder of PSU’s Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation (IBPI).

She authored Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet (2010) about the story of Portland’s journey to bicycling mecca. The book describes in equal parts, the delights and frustrations of dealing with municipal and elected officials and getting things done. Her story has proven very inspirational to many working to change their own communities and she loves connecting directly with so many great people through the book.

Birk can frequently be seen bicycling around her neighborhood in Portland. As a business leader, professor, advocate, author and mother of three young children, Mia doesn’t have time to waste on finding a parking space.

Hear more from Birk on the “Women’s Work: Bicycle Friendly Communities by Design” webinar from the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals this Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern. On this free session, Birk will be joined by Linda DuPriest, Member and Mentor, Women’s Transportation Seminar; Jennifer Hefferan, Safe Routes to School Coordinator, District of Columbia Department of Transportation; Norma Moores, Senior Transportation Engineer, IBI Group – Toronto; Jennifer Toole, Principal, Toole Design Group. Click here to register!

Photo by Jonathan Maus / BikePortland

 

Guest post by Stefanie Seskin, Deputy Director of the National Complete Streets Coalition

Complete Streets.

The phrase feels so natural and obvious now, almost as though it appeared in our vocabulary one day, a happy accident of words. But without the tireless efforts of Barbara McCann over the last decade, the entire Complete Streets movement is unlikely to have the success and widespread acceptance as it does today.

McCann began her career at the fledgling CNN, where her journalistic skill was recognized and applauded. But 13 years in Atlanta also brought something else: an increasing awareness of how hostile our transportation system is for anyone not driving a car. Frustrated by her inability to simply ride a bike to work safely, Barbara became active in the local bicycle advocacy scene.

An opening at the Surface Transportation Policy Project – the Transportation for America of the late 1990s and early 2000s — brought her to Washington, D.C. While at STPP, she authored many reports, including the high-profile Mean Streets series on pedestrian safety and Driven to Spend, an early report on the impact of sprawl on household transportation expenses. She took on the role of Director of Information and Research at Smart Growth America, where she continued to work for bikeable, walkable communities. Her Measuring the Health Effects of Sprawl was the first report to explain how the built environment is linked to physical activity and health. She co-authored Sprawl Costs and worked the media to get coverage of these topics across the country.

In 2003, Barbara joined forces with the America Bikes campaign, led by the fantastic Martha Roskowski. Martha recalls:

Barbara was providing communications and messaging for the America Bikes campaign to get good stuff for biking and walking into the next federal transportation bill. One our of asks of Congress was ‘routine accommodations,’ the idea that any project that used federal money should routinely accommodate people on foot and on bikes. We’d say ‘routine accommodations,’ and congressional staffers would respond ‘what’s that, cheap hotel rooms?’ We’d say, ‘It’s a lousy name, but a great concept.’ We weren’t finding much support. So we decided to come up with a new name. Barbara pulled together a meeting of smart marketing folks and we brainstormed over cheap pizza. Barbara led the process with her usual understated brilliance, and launched a powerful concept into the transportation world.

That concept? Oh, just the Complete Streets movement. By 2005, the initial collaborators had been joined by several more. Barbara recognized the potential power of this group, and they recognized her commitment and skill. McCann, now a consultant, was hired to run the newly formalized National Complete Streets Coalition, housed at Smart Growth America. Stephanie Potts, who worked for SGA, on the early years of the Coalition:

I joined the staff when the Coalition moved to its new home at Smart Growth America. At that time, Barbara still called herself the ‘Coordinator’ and pretended like she could still work on other projects. As the coalition membership expanded and the Complete Streets movement gained traction across the country, we both realized that we needed more help and hired the first full time staff person for the coalition. Barbara gave up trying to have a life outside Complete Streets and stopped correcting people when they called her the Executive Director — a title that was a much better fit for the amount of energy and passion she dedicated to her work. Through Barbara’s communications savvy and our strong partnerships, Complete Streets became a common-sense policy that local and state governments of all sizes and political leanings adopted. We even made it on to the cover of USA Today!

As that first full time staffer, I have been fortunate to work with Barbara and appreciate her leadership and deep belief that this movement was something that would change the country, that would bring equity and access to everyone. While her work has been lauded by many, she has never taken sole credit for what she’s created. She’s worked tirelessly to build partnerships and instill some spark of her Complete Streets fire in almost everyone she’s met. As a result, the movement has grown stronger and more powerful than if it had One Great Leader.

Last summer, Barbara recognized an opportunity to step back from the everyday management of a national organization and, in doing so, push the Complete Streets movement forward a huge step. Just a week ago, she turned in a manuscript for a book about Complete Streets to her editors at Island Press. The book explores the three (surprising) keys to the success of the Complete Streets movement and how transportation agencies across the country are making Complete Streets a matter of routine. It’s due out this fall.

On a final note, Barbara created a movement that is full of strong female role models, leaders, and contributors. In addition to Barbara and Stephanie, I’ve been honored to work with Christine, Krystle, Eryn, Catherine, and, now, Laura and Lily as colleagues at the Coalition. Our Steering Committee includes powerhouses such as Debra Alvarez of AARP; Stacey Williams of the American Planning Association; Roxanne Blackwell of the American Society of Landscape Architects; and Yolanda Savage-Narva of America Walks. We’ve also called on the skills of Caron Whitaker at the League of American Bicyclists, Kit Keller and Linda Tracy of the Association of Bicycle and Pedestrian Professionals; Coralette Hannon of AARP; and Martha Roskowski of the Green Lane Project. Women such as Kim Irwin in Indianapolis, Karen Nikolai in Hennepin County, Minn., and Cathy Costakis in Bozeman, Mont., are making real change in their communities. And there are so many more.

That’s one of the intrinsic beauties of Complete Streets: without a diversity of voices — without women — it would be another “special interest” and not the gamechanger that it is.

Learn more about Complete Streets at www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets.

 

When she got pregnant and had her first child, Megan Odett knew her life would never be the same: “I thought I lost everything I liked about the person I used to be.”

The top of the list from her old identity: Riding her bike just about everywhere. Like so many mothers, complications during her pregnancy and having a new tiny passenger kept her from cycling. “So one day, I decided, screw this,” she said. “I’m going to get back one thing about the old me.”

Already, Odett had noticed more parents and families riding on the streets of D.C. “But I hadn’t seen any movement or network bringing them together,” she said. So that’s exactly what she did, bringing the Kidical Mass concept to the nation’s capital, in a big way. In less than two years, Odett — pregnant now with her second child — has created a growing community of family riders and been a strong voice for mothers in the discussion on engaging more women in bicycling.

Odett described her work to get more moms on bikes at the National Women’s Bicycling Forum this month. Part of the “Community-Based Bicycle Advocacy” session, she outlined some of the unique barriers to family riding and solutions to overcome them.

One key example? Equipment and gear to accommodate kids. “The equipment is hard to get and often it’s not stocked in bike shops,” she said. “You have to special order it, so you can’t try it before you drop a lot of money. I wanted to find a way to make it easier for people to learn about different equipment and see it all in one place, before dropping hundreds of dollars on something their kids might hate.” So Odett organized a one-stop shop for moms and dads in D.C. — An ABCs of Family Biking event that gathered current cyclists to share their stories and solutions, and put many of those tools on display for folks to test drive.

Having hosted monthly rides, in addition to special events, Odett identified some key tips for getting more moms — and women overall — on bikes. As Tanya Snyder, over at Streetsblog, summed up:

• Identify the most likely prospects: The “low-hanging fruit” for family cycling are people who rode before they have kids, who live in a dense area, and who have moderate or high incomes (because there can be expensive equipment involved), said Odett. People with somewhat flexible schedules or work from home are also likely candidates for cycling. “I think that the core audience for family cycling and ‘mama-biking’ hasn’t really been saturated yet,” Odett said.

• Saturate the core audience: “You want to looking at saturating this core audience first, and then letting this movement expand out to some of the higher hanging fruit,” Odett said. “That’s going to make it much more ‘normal’ to bike with kids. It’s also going to create a used equipment market, which will help lower the barrier to entry to cycling with children.” And that will expand the demographic base outward from that initial high-income set.

• Model the benefits: Odett says women are barraged with advertising messages, as are parents – so moms learn to just tune it out. An organized PR campaign aimed at getting moms to bike might not work – but they’ll notice when their friend rides right up to the school’s front doors with a happy, smiling child on the back and everybody else has been stuck in traffic. “When I ride, I think of myself as PR for bicycling,” Odett said. “I’m on this bike because it’s an amazingly fun thing to do with my son.”

Eager to understand other families’ experience, Odett recently conducted a Family Biking Survey, that garnered responses from nearly 100 people in 21 states and four countries. The survey gathered insight on what equipment families are using, what resources helped them get started and barriers to riding more. Among the top obstacles for women: effort, safety and distance.

The survey also included a question on what parents would say about the national conversation to get more women riding.

“It’s just plain more complicated for me than it is for my male colleagues who 1) have no hair and 2) don’t have to transport young kids,” said one respondent. “The level of infrastructure and institutional support that’s sufficient for them isn’t sufficient for me. I want to bike with the kids but it’s taken a huge investment to do so. First a bike seat (not such a big deal), then a trailer, then an entirely new bike. Plus lots of time and energy to figure out the logistics. We have an awesome bike share program in Boston that is inaccessible to riders with children. So I don’t use it. What a shame!”

“Good infrastructure is really, really important, as is easy access to route-planning tools,” said another. “I’ve talked to other mothers that don’t bike in our area because there aren’t or they don’t know about good routes (the quiet streets, the dead-ends that go through for pedestrians/bikes, etc.).”

“I wish there were more family bikes found in more shops,” said Shane MacRhodes, the co-founder of the first Kidical Mass in Eugene, Ore. “I want them affordable but I also want people to recognize that they aren’t a toy and aren’t cheap for a reason. People are willing to spend hundreds (or thousands) on a single car repair but gasp at $1,500 for a family bike that can last them more than a decade and give them freedom, exercise, joy and save them thousands over that time. The industry needs to grow and change but so do people’s understanding of what cycling is and is worth.”

Click here to download the summary of results and stay tuned for more recaps from the Women’s Forum. In the meantime, don’t miss “Jenna Burton on Creating Black Bike Culture” from earlier this week.

 

Guest post by Margo Pedroso, Deputy Director, Safe Routes to School National Partnership

As the founder and director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, Deb Hubsmith has made it her life’s work to ensure that kids can safely ride bicycles and walk.

Paradoxically, she got her start in the bike movement as a driver. Nearly 20 years ago, another driver crashed into Deb’s car, and she swore she would not get another. Following through on that promise proved challenging — her home base in Marin County, California, lacked safe bicycling and walking infrastructure. This propelled Deb to get involved in bicycle advocacy.

In the late 1990s, Deb rode a solar-powered electric bike to schools to speak about walking, bicycling, transit and these connections to health. Public attention from that project snowballed into Deb becoming the executive director of the newly formed Marin County Bicycle Coalition, where she led many campaigns, including securing funding for much of North/South Greenway, which will be a 90-mile pathway along a rail line from Sausalito through Sonoma.

As part of her growing involvement, Deb traveled to Europe to see their bicycle infrastructure and activities and was inspired by the Sustrans Safe Routes to School program. She brought that information back to the states and started working on efforts to get more kids walking and bicycling to and from schools. Word eventually spread to then-Rep. James Oberstar (D-MN), who secured $50,000 in pilot program funding for Marin County to run a Safe Routes to School program.

Deb kept in touch with Oberstar, and with advocacy help from the America Bikes coalition, the pilot led to the establishment of the federal Safe Routes to School program in 2005. As a result of that legislation, more than $1.1 billion was made available over the course of the next eight years to all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

At the same time, Deb officially launched the nonprofit Safe Routes to School National Partnership, after more than two years of planning, with help from the League of American Bicyclists. Bikes Belong agreed to host the new organization, and Deb secured additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, cementing the linkage between Safe Routes to School and the campaign to reverse childhood obesity.

Since then, it’s been a fast ride for Deb. As director of the National Partnership, Deb sets the vision for the organization and provides leadership, oversight and direction for programs, policies and staff to build a national movement that advances street-scale improvements and shared use agreements through programs, policy change and publicity. The National Partnership now has a $3 million budget, 25 staff and more than 600 organizational partners. Collectively, the Safe Routes to School federal program has funded more than 14,000 schools, and the movement extends beyond the federal funding to thousands more schools and millions of children nationwide.

Schools are at the heart of communities and health for our nation. Building from Deb’s commitment to collaboration and future generations, the National Partnership and its supporters have propelled the movement into a catalytic change-maker, helping the public and policy makers rethink how we design our communities and schools so that they are walkable and bikeable for kids and everyone.

Learn more about the Partnership here.

 

Guest post by Marya McQuirter

Years ago while working on her dissertation on the social history of blacks in D.C. during the first half of the 20th century, McQuirter came upon an article about five black women who biked from New York City to Washington in 1928. She is trying to gather as many details she can about their three-day, 250-mile trip.

Decades before AIDS Rides, Critical Mass, Tweed Rides and more, five women embarked on a group ride from New York City to Washington, D.C. during Easter weekend in 1928. Yes, 1928! These five New Yorkers — Marylou Jackson, Velma Jackson, Ethyl Miller, Leolya Nelson and Constance White — biked 250 miles over three days.

On the first day of their ride, they biked 110 miles to Philadelphia. The second day, they biked 40 miles to Wilmington, Delaware. The third and final day, they biked more than 100 miles, arriving in Washington, D.C. around 9pm. Once in D.C., they did some sightseeing around the National Mall and Howard University.  They also took time to have the above photograph taken. I love how they sit so confidently on their bicycles, resplendent in their leather jackets, caps, bloomers and stylish socks.

When asked what motivated them to embark on the group ride, they responded that they were motivated by “the love of the great-out-of-doors” that each of them cherished.  Interestingly, they also challenged other young women, 21 years old and older, to replicate their trip in less time. What are we to make of this challenge, the professed love for “outdoor” culture and the trip, in general? And what was happening in 1928 that provides a context for the ride?

Clearly, they were all avid cyclists. It would be impossible to complete this type of ride without serious conditioning, training and skills. Further, two of the cyclists were active in the field of physical education — one at the Harlem YWCA and the other at the Sargent School of Physical Training. It seems very likely that they were in the forefront of promoting women and sports.

Cycling in 1928 was a low-key, mixed bag. There were definitely cycling clubs active in New York City. And I’m certain that the cyclists were members of a cycling club. At the same time, recreational cycling came to be seen as an activity for the young — particularly males. It wasn’t until the late 1930s that we begin to see an uptick in adult cycling.

One of the most popular activities for professional cyclists and fans in the 1920s was six-day races — track cycling races that usually involved a team of two cyclists. These races were primarily the domain of white male cyclists. Perhaps the five women were fans of the six-day races that took place in Madison Square Garden and sought to publicize women cyclists and to replicate competitive team cycling on the open road.

While we may never get the full answers to these questions, it is exciting to know about these five women and their bike trip and to imagine how many others are out there that we haven’t discovered yet.

Marya A. McQuirter is writing a book and producing a film about the five cyclists and their trip. She can be reached via email, mmcquirter@gmail.com

 

Veronica Davis couldn’t have put it better: “A lot of times we try to make women this monolithic group — but we’re not.”

From the Fender Bender LGBT crew out of Detroit to the Kidical Mass moms of Washington, D.C., there are countless subgroups within the women’s cycling movement — and, of course, bicycling at large. At the National Women’s Bicycling Forum we hosted a session on “Community-Based Bike Advocacy: Building the Movement from the Groud Up,” to unpack the diverse definition of “bicyclist” and explore how to encourage and engage underrepresented communities to ride.

With Davis, the co-founder of Black Women Bike DC (and member of the Women Bike Advisory Board) at the helm, we heard from three leaders from across the country: Jenna Burton, founder of Red, Bike and Green; Megan Odett, founder of Kidical Mass DC and Adonia Lugo, co-founder of CicLAvia, City of Lights, and Bicicultures (to name a few of her endeavors).

For Burton, the birth of RBG came from her desire to build a lifestyle around riding a bike — but seeing few other African Americans on Oakland streets or within the local biking culture. But, for Burton and RBG, cycling is a tool to building community. Here’s some of what she shared:

Drawing on black history: We carry with us this element of black history and people notice in the mission that we’re talking about more than just bike riding.We’re talking about health, we’re talking about sustainability, we’re talking about economic and environmental conditions. Our mission expanded into this three point plan that parallels the 10-point plan the Black Panthers came up with… The second element of history you can see in our aesthetic and logo and colors we wear: red, black and green. That’s really how we found the inspiration for the title of the organization.

Creating space: We put on community bike rides and the purpose of these rides is to create space for African Americans to come together and enjoy each others presence and ride bikes together. We go on two- or three-hour bikes rides that are intergenerational: It’s for families, for young people, for elders.

Being visible: We are establishing a presence, not only in the Oakland community, but among the African American population within the Oakland community. We’re creating visibility, representing an image of what bike riding can look like within the black community. The more people see it, the more it becomes commonplace and less intimidating.

Empowering riders: Our bikes rides serve a number of purposes. It makes it less intimidating. Some of our cyclists come on a bike ride for the first time in their lives or since they were 9-years-old. After that first bike ride, it becomes easier and easier to form a lifestyle around bike riding.

Addressing gentrification: Oakland is part of a larger metro area that’s rapidly changing. It’s economically changing, changing what it looks like in terms of the people who live there and don’t live there. These bike rides are a social response to way those communities are changing. Just that visibility is a reminder that this is also a space where African Americans have been living for generations. A lot of people say that bike lanes are the first sign of gentrification, but by using those bike lanes and taking up that space, it’s a reminder that these bike  lanes are for us, as well. It’s a great way to engage in community and to have these conversations that are about more than just bike riding.

Establishing a new bike culture: The great thing about what we’ve been doing over the past few years has been establishing a culture around bike riding. We talk a lot about how we need to diversify the bike movement and diversify cyclists and the industry, but the change needs to happen within communities themselves, especially underrepresented and disadvantaged communities. One of our favorite sayings is “It’s bigger than bikes.” We’re using bikes as a tool for community development. We have this aesthetic — we’re wearing the colors and the history and the style that is unique and well-received with black community… We use the black power fists in some of our images and, as it becomes part of the culture, we’ll start to see more black people getting excited about bikes — for reasons we don’t think about right away.

Click here to watch Burton’s full presentation — and stayed tuned for more insight from the panel tomorrow.

 

We’re less than two months away from the official start of the 2013 National Bike Challenge and we want you to be as prepared as possible. To get you geared up for May 1, we’ve had two terrific webinars in the past week discussing the Challenge from two distinct perspectives: businesses and local advocacy organizations.

On the Making the National Bike Challenge Work For Your Business session, Rob Gusky, NBC participant and Kimberly-Clark’s Bicycle Ambassador presented on some of the great ways the Challenge can help make employees healthier, a workplace more fun, and reduce a business’s carbon footprint.

.“What we really like about the Challenge is that we don’t have to do a tremendous amount of promotion with it,” Gusky said. “Once people find out about the National Bike Challenge and they try it and they really like it. So it was pretty easy for us to get an eight-fold increase in the miles over the last five years for our employees.”

Following on the heels of the business webinar, Rob and I teamed up with Jason Van Driesche from Vermont’s Local Motion to present how advocacy organizations can most effectively create a Local Challenge alongside the National Challenge.

“The Challenge is fantastic for building your network,” Van Driesche said. “It’s a really good way to bring in new people who have not been part of the bike movement before and it’s also a great way to build connections with companies, non-profits, and other organizations.”

.Check out the business and advocacy webinars on the League YouTube channel — and sign up for the Challenge today!

 

Alison Dewey
League Program Manager, BFB & BFU

Dewey joined the League in 2008. For four years prior to that, Dewey worked for Massachusetts- based Landry’s Bicycles and served on the board of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition. Dewey has a MA in International Relations and Communications from Boston University and is a graduate of St. Olaf College. She spent three years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal.

To say the history of the League of American Bicyclists is incomplete without recognizing Phyllis Harmon is an understatement. There simply would be no modern history of the League to write if it weren’t for Harmon, a human dynamo with a passion for cycling – and the League – that will likely never be equaled.

For starters, she joined the League in 1937. Riding with the Evanston Bicycle Touring Club, she became a fixture on club runs (often in conjunction with a train ride to Wisconsin) and was editor of the League’s newsletter for nearly 20 years; even through the war years.

The League was inactive from 1955-64; although I somehow doubt the same was true for Harmon. Under threat of having the State of Illinois claim the League’s funds from an inactive bank account, a last-hurrah dinner actually provided the spark to revive the League. Harmon once again took on the publication of the bulletin — and the League started to grow.

She was the first paid employee of the organization in 1972 and became executive director (temporarily, for four years) in 1975. After the League moved to Baltimore, Harmon took an honorary role on the board (and is still the emeritus editor of American Bicyclist in recognition of her enormous contribution) and remained a force to be reckoned within the organization for many more years.

Harmon was also a powerful influence in the Chicago-area cycling scene. This year, the Wheeling Wheelmen (founded by none other than Phyllis Harmon) celebrates the 44th annual Harmon 100 ride on September 8 with rides of 25-100 miles starting in Wlimot, Wis., and the promise of excellent food at the rest stops.

I had the privilege of accompanying Harmon to the ceremonies in Newport, Rhode Island to mark the 125th anniversary of the League in 2005 – she was there for the 100th and shows every sign of making it to the 150th at this rate. It was a huge honor for me to introduce Harmon at her (well-deserved) induction into the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame just a couple of years ago.

True to form Harmon kept riding well into her 70s — not just around town but across the country and leading tours in New Zealand. In her later years – by which I mean the upper 80s and early 90s — she wasn’t able to ride because of size and fit reasons. Until, I was told, she sat on a recumbent at a local bike store and she just took off, discovering the joys of cycling all over again!

Click here for a 2011 interview with Harmon (“The Grand Dame of Chicago Bicycling”) on Grid Chicago.

Even at age 83, even suffering from lung cancer, Ellen Fletcher rode her bike to City Hall for a hearing on bicycle improvements this past summer. That was the level of dedication that made Fletcher not just a local hero, but a national inspiration.

As a Gold level Bicycle Friendly Community, Palo Alto remains a model for cities nationwide — and Fletcher was instrumental in pioneering innovative infrastructure and putting the California city on the map.

As a mother concerned for the safety of her children; an advocate for clean, sustainable transportation; and an elected official who was intent on creating a better community for all, Fletcher was a leading voice for bikes long before there was a growing chorus of support for active transportation. Her efforts ensured that, when she passed away in November, nearly half of the attendees to her memorial pedaled to the service.

Talk about a legacy.

According to Richard Masoner: “Ellen escaped Berlin as a Jewish child on the Kindertransport trains and spent her teen years as a refugee in World War II London, where she biked to her factory job. She eventually ended up in Palo Alto, California, where she got her start in cycling advocacy as safety chair of the local PTA when she saw that the best way to protect school children from their greatest danger was by reducing auto traffic around schools. She revived the Santa Clara Valley Bicycle Association (which exists today as the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition) in the early 1970s.”

That was just the beginning — Fletcher was also a vanguard for better bicycle infrastructure that would soon be adopted nationwide. As Bob Mack, publisher of Cycle CA! magazine, noted on the SVBC blog: “When the first bike lanes were proposed Ellen was on the front lines. No one knew what a bike lane was or why we needed them. She led the fight and helped create a network of green (yes, pea green) bike lanes to connect schools, parks and neighborhoods in the city. This transformed transportation for those without cars.”

Fletcher also pioneered the first bike boulevard in the U.S. As Naomi Bloom recounted: “In 1973, Ellen Fletcher joined Palo Alto’s fledgling “Citizen’s Technical Advisory Committee” on bicycling. By the next year she was the committee’s chairperson, the guiding light of what was to become the Palo Alto Bicycle Advisory Committee. One of PABAC’s original campaigns was a (then) innovative bikeway concept — a street where automobile access would be limited (but not restricted), offering cyclists a relatively safe alternative to other routes with heavy motor traffic. They dubbed the concept a “bicycle boulevard.” Surprisingly, there was little resistance from the City, which chose Bryant Street for a six-month trial period. Bicycle counts showed a dramatic increase of cyclists on Bryant and a corresponding decrease on the busiest parallel arteries. The first of its kind in the country, the Bryant Street Bicycle Boulevard later expanded north to the Menlo Park border, and has served as a model for similar bike routes across the country. And now it’s been dubbed the “Ellen Fletcher Bicycle Boulevard.”

Fletcher kept her seat on PABAC for nearly 40 years and also served on the city council from 1977 to 1989. As her daughter rightly pointed out at her memorial service, Ellen’s name was “virtually synonymous with Palo Alto’s bicycle improvements,” earning her a number of recognitions, including the League’s Paul Dudley White Award in 1996.

Just last May, Ellen contributed to our “Why I Ride” series. Click here to read about her impact in her own words.

(Photo by Palo Alto Weekly)

 

It took her three months to get a handle on “Gladys.”

Frances Willard, a suffragist and temperance advocate based in Illinois, learned how to ride her bike, “Gladys,” at age 53. But Willard had already made a name on doing things she wasn’t supposed to.

Willard served as the president of Evantston College of Ladies and later as the Dean of the Women’s College when it was subsumed by Northwestern University. She then took the helm as a founding member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. And in her struggle for temperance, she found what she believed to be a great tool: the bicycle.

“She believed that biking was a wondrous social invention, key to keeping young men from the evils of alcohol,” writes April Streeter in her book Women on Wheels.

Willard took up bicycling in her 50s, and she reported that it took her about three months of serious practice to feel comfortable.

“At 53, I was at more disadvantage than most people, for not only had I the impedimenta that results from the unnatural style of dress, but I also suffered from the sedentery habits of a lifetime,” Willard wrote, according to Streeter’s book. “And then that small world of those who loved me best… did not encourage me, but thought I should ‘break my bones’ and ‘spoil my future.’ ”

No so, Willard said.

“I learned to bicycle when 50… and I think it is one of the best things I ever did,” Willard wrote. “What pleases me is to see other worn-out women take it up, and fine a new lease of health and life thereby. The little book I wrote on the subject has reached thousands of women who, perhaps, might not otherwise have looked with favor on the innovation.”

That little book, A Wheel Within a Wheel: How I Learned to Ride the Bicycle, With Some Reflections by the Way was published in 1895. You can read it in its entirety here.

Check back here on Monday for our next profile in our ongoing Women’s (Bike) History Month series!