News

Latest Bicycle Friendly Communities announced, along with new tool for quantifying bike-friendliness

Mon, 14 May 2012 04:00 GMT

The League of American Bicyclists today announced the largest-ever round Bicycle Friendly Communities. According to the League's blog, "While communities from California to Connecticut joined the ranks of BFCs, the Mountain West rose above the rest, including two new Gold Level BFCs in Durango, Colo., and Missoula, Mont.'We aren’t surprised that this was the largest number of new and renewing applicants that we’ve ever had,' said League President Andy Clarke. 'The popularity of this program is clear evidence that simple steps to make bicycling safe and comfortable pay huge dividends in civic, community and economic development.'With this impressive round, there are now 214 BFCs in 47 states. By evaluating and recognizing investment in bicycling promotion, education programs, infrastructure and pro-bicycling policies, the BFC program is revolutionizing the way communities evaluate their quality of life."Bikes Belong is proud to partner with this renowned program that encourages communities nationwide to improve their bike-friendliness.In related Bike Week news, Walk Score, the only site that makes it easy for apartment renters and homebuyers to find neighborhoods where they can drive less and live more, announced today the long anticipated launch of Bike Score. Bike Score provides a quantitative measure of the bikeability of a location based on the availability bike lanes, hilliness, road connectivity, nearby amenities, and the percent of people in that area who bike to work.“Bicycling saves money on gas and fosters better health and a cleaner environment. But the best part about it is not being trapped in traffic. Biking can turn your commute into the best part your day,” said Josh Herst, CEO, Walk Score. “Across the country, biking is growing in popularity and we’re excited to celebrate Bike to Work Week by introducing Bike Score to help more people find bicycle friendly places to live.” The first 10 cities on Bike Score include: 1. Minneapolis (Bike Score: 79)2. Portland (Bike Score: 70)3. San Francisco (Bike Score: 70)4. Boston (Bike Score: 68)5. Madison (Bike Score: 67)6. Washington, D.C. (Bike Score: 65)7. Seattle (Bike Score: 64)8. Tucson (Bike Score: 64)9. New York (Bike Score: 62)10. Chicago (Bike Score: 62) "There's no doubt that Bike Score will add to the growing number of riders in these leading cities by helping everyday cyclists, and those who want to give biking a try, find bikeable neighborhoods and commutes," said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, national sponsor of Bike to Work Week. To request Bike Score for your city, visit walkscore.com/bike. Walk Score will add Bike Score for the top 10 most popular cities receiving votes between May 14 and May 31, 2012.

National survey shows bipartisan support for maintaining bike funding

Wed, 09 May 2012 04:00 GMT

New survey results from America Bikes reveal overwhelming support for biking and walking, with more than 80 percent of Americans favoring level or increased federal funding for sidewalks and bike lanes.Shortly after students and their parents gathered to celebrate National Bike to School Day, members of Congress joined business leaders, organizers, and national bicycle advocacy organizations to announce the new data. The national survey, performed by Princeton Survey Research Associates International, asked 1,003 adults in the United States about their opinions on federal funding for sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike paths. The results were astounding — and bipartisan:83 percent of all respondents support maintaining or growing the federal funding streams that pay for sidewalks, bikeways, and bike paths.80 percent of Republican respondents and 88 percent of Democrat respondents think Congress should maintain or increase federal funds for biking and walking.85 percent of Northeastern respondents, 79 percent of Midwesterners, 84 percent of Southerners, and 84 percent of respondents from Western states reported support for maintaining or increasing funding for sidewalks and bikeways.91 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 support continuing or increasing biking and walking funds.Download the four-page survey summary here and the full white paper here. These results add critical perspective to a pressing national debate about transportation, as members of Congress conference to develop a consensus transportation bill — and some propose eliminating dedicated funding for biking and walking.Infographic by America Bikes.

Six women to ride entire Tour de France route for Bikes Belong Foundation

Mon, 07 May 2012 04:00 GMT

In a historic effort to inspire more women to ride bikes, more often, six amateur female bicyclists are tackling the entire 3,479-kilometer 2012 Tour de France route. The women will ride each stage in a single day, one day ahead of the racers. They are riding to encourage growth in women’s bicycling and also to raise $60,000 for the Bikes Belong Foundation.The project is named Rêve, after the French word for dream. The six Rêve riders include women from Oregon, California, Colorado, and Puerto Rico. Bikes Belong’s research analyst and communications coordinator, Kate Powlison, is one of the six riders.“Increasing women’s bicycling participation is a longstanding interest of mine, both personally and professionally,” said Powlison. “At Bikes Belong, we work to make bicycling safer and stress-free, a proven way of getting more women to ride bikes. I’m doing the Rêve Tour to support more women riding bikes in the U.S. and to prove to any woman that no matter how daunting the trip—whether it’s a Grand Tour, a century ride, a steep hill out of town, or a riding to work for the first time—it can be done.”The riders will average more than eight hours a day on their bikes. Bicycling without the shelter of a large peloton, they will have to work together to ride efficiently enough to finish in daylight. Top of the line equipment support from sponsors—Cannondale, SRAM, Giro, Strava, CAPO, FSA, ZIPP, Schwalbe, Fizik, Zacuto, Quarq, Alpinestars, SmallHD, Osmo Nutrition, and Westone—ensure that the women have every possible mechanical advantage.Supporters can follow the project on Strava, peloton.com, and on Twitter at #revetour.You can help the riders raise $60,000 for the Bikes Belong Foundation by making a donation on the ride’s fundraising page.

America unites to bike 10 million miles with the National Bike Challenge

Tue, 01 May 2012 04:00 GMT

In 2007, Leonard Wright weighed more than 250 pounds and could barely bicycle a quarter-mile before lying in the grass, gasping for air. Now, the 66-year-old Florida resident is slim, fit and every morning he gets up and rides more miles than his age. What’s Wright’s motivation? The Get Up & Ride National Bike Challenge.The National Bike Challenge is a new, nationwide initiative to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health. The friendly, online competition — sponsored by the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong, Endomondo and the Kimberly-Clark Corporation — kicks off today, May 1, and runs until August 31, 2012. The goal: Unite 50,000 bicyclists to ride 10 million miles in communities across America.The Challenge is simple, free and open to everyone. Sign up as an individual or as a team, log your miles, share your stories and encourage others to join you. Bicyclists with smartphones can download the free, GPS-enabled Endomondo mobile app to record travel distance and automatically upload their miles. Riders will compete for prizes and awards on the local and national level, including a Grand Prize trip through California wine country from Trek Travel. Even before the official start, the Challenge has engaged thousands of participants. During the warm-up period from February to April, more than 12,000 residents from more than 500 cities nationwide registered. Collectively, they logged more than 1 million miles and burned nearly 30 million calories. By encouraging healthy living and active transportation, the Challenge provides an innovative tool to address the nation’s obesity epidemic and save American families money as gas prices skyrocket this summer. Leonard Wright is certainly leading the way — the retired General Motors worker won the warm-up period with the most miles logged. “I’ve been riding for years, and I was looking for something to get me motivated,” he says. “When I saw the National Bike Challenge, I thought, ‘This is something I can do.’ And anyone can do it. I’m involved with a number of other senior physical fitness groups and I always encourage people to try biking because it’s so easy.” In addition to encouraging individual riders, the Challenge provides a free and engaging wellness tool for businesses. It’s already proven successful: During the pilot run last year, employees from the Kimberly-Clark Corporation embraced the Challenge and logged more than 182,000 miles. Recognizing the tremendous resource to boost employee health, more than 3,000 companies have already signed up for the 2012 Challenge, including Facebook, Verizon, Mars, Harley Davidson, IBM, and Texas Instruments.

Bikes Belong President Tim Blumenthal awarded 2012 BRAINy Award for Individual Advocacy

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 04:00 GMT

At the Bicycle Leadership Conference in Monterey, California, Bikes Belong President Tim Blumenthal was awarded the 2012 BRAINy Award for Individual Advocacy. Nominees and winners are decided by the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association in conjunction with industry publication Bicycle Retailer and Industry News Blumenthal has led Bikes Belong since September 2004. The Bikes Belong Coalition and Bikes Belong Foundation together stand as the world's largest non-profit bicycling advocacy organization, with a combined annual budget of more than $6 million.Blumenthal previously served 11 years as the executive director of the International Mountain Bicycling Association. Under his leadership, IMBA grew from a single staffer and $60,000 annual budget into the world’s largest mountain bike advocacy group with 24 employees and a budget of $2.1 million.Blumenthal began his cycling work as a journalist, serving as an editor for VeloNews from 1980–84. He later became the managing editor of Mountain Bike Magazine and the racing editor of Bicycling Magazine. He was a top editor/writer at Rodale Press for a decade.Blumenthal has been a TV commentator for more than 35 ESPN and OLN/Versus mountain bike programs. He has served as the scriptwriter and consultant for the U.S. network TV cycling coverage of the last seven Summer Olympic Games. He was elected to the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 2001.He is an executive board member of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership and an executive board member of the America Bikes Coalition.

Bikes Belong’s Green Lane Project selects six focus cities

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 04:00 GMT

Bikes Belong’s Green Lane Project has selected six focus cities that will become national leaders in creating comfortable spaces for people on bikes over the next two years: Austin, TexasChicago, IllinoisMemphis, TennesseePortland, OregonSan Francisco, CaliforniaWashington, D.C.The Green Lane Project is leading the effort to catalyze the installation of world-class bicycling facilities in the U.S. “We are seeing an explosion of interest in making bicycling stress-free on busy city streets, ” said Tim Blumenthal, Bikes Belong president. “The selected cities have ambitious goals and a vision for bicycling supported by their elected officials and communities. They are poised to get projects on the ground quickly and will serve as excellent examples for other interested cities,”Project director Martha Roskowski said, “We are delighted to be working with these forward-thinking cities. They are a range of sizes, spread across the country, and at various stages in terms of developing networks for bicycles. What they share is a strong commitment to rethinking how city streets are used and making room for bicycles.”The six cities were chosen from a pool of 42 city applications. “The response we received shows that not only established leaders such as Minneapolis and Boulder understand the role of bicycling in next-generation city transportation, but also places like Wichita, Miami, and Pittsburgh,” said Roskowski.Green Lanes are dedicated, inviting spaces for people on bikes in the roadway. They are protected from motor vehicles by curbs, planters, posts, or parked cars. Also called cycle tracks or protected bikeways, the lanes are carefully engineered with rigorous attention to safety, efficiency, and ease of travel for all street users. The Green Lane Project will provide resources and technical assistance to help the six focus cities accomplish their goals of creating this type of protected space for people on bikes. During the next two months, the Green Lane Project will work with elected officials, staff, and community groups in each city to finalize details, solidify the vision, and identify the unique story each city can tell. Details will be released at a national kickoff in late May in Chicago. The Green Lane website, greenlaneproject.org, will act as a hub where all U.S. cities working to install these types of facilities can share and learn from each other. Based on decades of experience in Europe and a growing number of U.S. examples, cities are embracing new designs as cost-effective and quick ways to accommodate the demand for safer places to ride. Last year’s publication of a design guide produced by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) provides a toolbox for designers and engineers, showing how widely accepted road standards can be combined to transform city streets.The Green Lane Project is an initiative of the Bikes Belong Foundation. Major partners include Volkswagen of America, Inc., the SRAM Cycling Fund, Taiwan Bicycle Exporters Association, and NACTO. New York City’s Department of Transportation is a senior advisor to the program, based on their groundbreaking work in creating new public spaces on city streets. The Green Lane Project is a relaunch and expansion of the Bikes Belong Foundation’s Bicycling Design Best Practices Program, which for the last two years has been dedicated to hosting workshops and taking city officials and engineers on study tours to leading U.S. and European cities to showcase the best in bicycling facility design. These workshops and study tours will now be a part of the Green Lane Project, in addition to the new programming and resources offered by the Project.To learn more about the Green Lane Project, visit greenlaneproject.org, or contact Martha Roskowski.

House Transportation Bill: Next steps

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 04:00 GMT

Following the March 31 approval of another short-term extension of the federal transportation bill (for 90 days until June 30), now is an ideal time to contact your U.S. Representative to urge them to maintain funding for biking and walking programs such as Safe Routes to School. Important decisions about the future of biking programs continue to be debated and your voice can help make the difference. Congress is on a two-week recess from April 2 - April 13, and many members will be home during this break.The current version of the House transportation bill (H.R. 7) eliminates popular and cost-effective programs for bike infrastructure that increase transportation safety.The House plans to resume work in the middle of April to further refine and advance this crucial legislation. That's why it's important to ask your member of the House of Representatives to vote for the Petri Amendment that makes improvements to pedestrian and bicycling programs and provides more local control by creating new funding flexibility for states and a competitive process for local projects.The Senate has already passed its bipartisan version of the bill (MAP-21). Grassroots support from people like you successfully carried the Cardin-Cochran Amendment into the bill. The Amendment ensures that local governments and school districts can compete for much needed biking and walking funds.Even if you have already talked to your Representative about the Petri Amendment, please follow up. Thanks for making the case to save bicycling. Stay tuned for updates on the current House bill and the Petri Amendment.

Congress approves 90-day clean extension of Transportation Bill

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 04:00 GMT

On its fourth try this week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a 90-day extension to the transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU. The Senate quickly followed suit, making this the ninth extension of the current federal transportation law.This extension buys Congress time to craft a new transportation bill, or to pass another extension. Unfortunately, it also creates more uncertainty for state and local transportation projects during this year's construction season.Bikes Belong, with the America Bikes coalition, will continue to advocate for a full transportation bill that protects and advances bicycling and walking as part of a safe, balanced transportation system.Bikes Belong would like to thank the industry members and advocates across the country who helped defend funding for bicycling. Your attendance at the National Bike Summit and persuasive "Bikes Mean Business" meetings were crucial to bicycling's defense. We will keep you posted as Congress continues towards a new transportation law.

New online competition engages and connects bicyclists nationwide

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 04:00 GMT

Launched today by a powerful alliance of the Kimberly-Clark Corporation (NYSE: KMB), the League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong, and Endomondo, the new National Bike Challenge aims to inspire and empower millions of Americans to ride their bikes for transportation, recreation and better health. The Challenge is simple: Sign up as an individual or as a team, log your miles, share your stories, and encourage others to join you. Riders will compete for prizes and awards on the local and national level, including a Grand Prize trip through California wine country from Trek Travel. Already, organizations in 26 states have committed to participate and have started warming up for the May 1 start date on the Challenge website: nationalbikechallenge.org. "The League is excited about this unique opportunity to share the many benefits of bicycling and offer a fun, engaging entry point for new riders," said Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclists. "There's nothing like riding a bike with your friends and colleagues and the National Bike Challenge will create a new social network of cyclists stretching from coast to coast." The online initiative was piloted by Kimberly-Clark (K-C), Endomondo, and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin in 2011. The idea was sparked by K-C research engineer, Rob Gusky, and Kimberly-Clark extended the competition to its 57,000 global employees. The Challenge proved to be a great team building and wellness activity for K-C's sustainability efforts globally. Participating K-C employees logged 357,739 miles globally, with U.S. employees pedaling 182,210 miles. The success in Wisconsin led to a bigger vision: Taking the challenge to the national level. "We're pleased to be the national sponsor of the Challenge as it supports the wellness of our employees and the communities we serve, while contributing to improved air quality by replacing car travel with clean, healthy bicycle trips," said Jan Spencer, K-C's senior vice president of continuous improvement/procurement/ sustainability. "This year, K-C is providing an extra incentive for our global team members: The Kimberly-Clark Foundation will donate 10 cents to the League of American Bicyclists for every mile logged by a K-C employee during the 2012 Challenge." The platform for the National Bike Challenge was created by Endomondo, a social fitness network with 7.5 million users worldwide. "Riding a bike for transportation is among the top five activities for our European users, and we look forward to helping expand this kind of biking in the U.S. with this campaign," said Mette Lykke, Co-Founder of Endomondo. "Logging your miles is easy and the social interaction with co-workers, family and friends really makes it fun and motivating to get up and ride." "Bikes Belong is delighted to be a part of the National Bike Challenge, which provides all the tools to help more people ride bikes more often," said Bruno Maier, vice president of Bikes Belong. "We're looking forward to seeing all the different types of riders who participate. The Challenge is a great way to encourage people to live healthier lives." The Challenge runs from May 1 to August 31, 2012, but the public is invited to sign up now and get warmed up. For more information, visit www.nationalbikechallenge.org. Join us at facebook.com/nationalbikechallenge.

Cyclocross superstar Tim Johnson and crew arrive in D.C.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 04:00 GMT

For the past week, national champion and cyclocross superstar Tim Johnson has thrown his leg over his bike for some hard training. But this time he’s not riding to improve his own cycling; he’s riding to improve bicycling for everybody else. The Tim Johnson’s Ride on Washington ended today after starting March 15. The five-day event, in its second year, is an invitational bike ride for 20 riders that covers a span of 520 miles beginning in Boston and making stops in Hartford, New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore before ending at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. The ride has raised funds and awareness for the Bikes Belong Foundation. Tim Johnson created the Ride on Washington after first attending the National Bike Summit in 2010. In 2011, he recruited seven riders to pedal from Boston to Washington, and scores of additional riders joined in along the way. New this year, Tim encouraged the general public to join the last five miles of the ride in street wear, with no spandex required, to the National Bike Summit on Capital Bikeshare bikes. The ride brings together advocates, industry leaders, and racing clubs at nightly receptions in each host city in an effort to raise local awareness about national bike initiatives. The event also aims to create discussion and attention around the social and health benefits of bicycling.Tim Johnson created the Ride on Washington after first attending the National Bike Summit in 2010. In 2011, he recruited seven riders to pedal from Boston to Washington, and scores of additional riders joined in along the way. New this year, Tim encouraged the general public to join the last five miles of the ride in street wear, with no spandex required, to the National Bike Summit on Capital Bikeshare bikes. The ride brings together advocates, industry leaders, and racing clubs at nightly receptions in each host city in an effort to raise local awareness about national bike initiatives. The event also aims to create discussion and attention around the social and health benefits of bicycling. SRAM is the title sponsor of the event. Other major sponsors of the event include Bicycling magazine, Cannondale, CatEye, Firefly Bicycles, Fuji Bicycles, Mad Alchemy and Red Bull.