I’m just back from an invigorating bike ride. Nothing unusual about that.

I bike almost every afternoon—not only for exercise but for the mental lift that comes from feeling the wind in my face and blood pumping through my body. For me it’s a form of meditation, which sends fresh thoughts soaring into my imagination that would never take flight back at my desk.

The only thing unusual about my ride today is that it was 5 degrees (Fahrenheit, that is). But that doesn’t stop thousands of people in the Twin Cities from getting on their bikes each day to pedal to work, school, errands and just for fun.

Traffic counts from Bike Walk Twin Cities show that 36 percent of summer bike commuters continue to ride on clear, warm winter days (like the ones we experienced in early January) and 20 percent on cold or snowy ones (which we seem to be getting our share of now). Even in the midst of blizzards and Arctic cold blasts, you see hardy cyclists navigating the streets on two wheels. It’s one reason we were named America’s No. 1 Bike City by Bicycling magazine in 2010.

Now let me confess that I am no ultra-fit athlete; I’m just a regular middle-aged guy who likes to ride. So if I can do it, you probably can too. In fact, I’ve discovered over the past dozen years that winter biking is way easier than it looks. Actually, I can’t think of any easier way to earn macho points without really pushing myself too hard.

Here in Minneapolis, the streets are clear and the mercury hits the 20s many days throughout the winter. (Even in our coldest month, January, the average temperature is 21.) And when it’s not, follow these common sense guidelines to stay safe and warm.

Get a Good Light. I find that darkness, more than cold and ice, is the biggest challenge of year-round biking. Many North Americans and Europeans, even in warm climates, ride home from work in the dark and need the protection of bright front and back lights.

Dress Warm. Thick socks and good gloves are especially important, since the extremities get cold first. Add a face mask when you venture out in sub-zero temperatures.

Dress in Layers. The great surprise about winter biking is that being too hot can be as big a problem as being too cold. You warm up quickly once you start pedaling, so make sure to wear wickable undershirts and long johns on long rides (I find silk the best to bead up the sweat, but others swear by synthetics). It’s also handy to have outer garments that you can easily unbutton or unzip to let in some cool refreshing air.

Invest in Snow Tires. This innovation sparked the winter biking boom. Studded tires give you good traction in the snow or slush. They are some help on sheer ice, too, but extra caution is warranted.

Lower Your Seat. The best way to stop in a hurry is to plant your boots right on the pavement.

Travel Slower. Use the same common sense as when driving a car in winter conditions—take it easy.

Pay Extra Attention to Motorists. Drivers are less likely to be looking for bikes in the cold weather. Also, you may be competing with them more for the smooth spots in the center of the road. I stick more to off-road paths (which are well plowed here in Minneapolis) and less-traveled streets in the winter, and sometimes pull over to let a vehicle get past. It relieves anxiety for both of us.

Have Fun! Winter biking really is one of life’s unexpected pleasures.

We are working with VW as part of its Think Blue initiative, which encompasses all of the company’s efforts to promote eco-friendly mobility and encourage environmentally conscious behavior. VW has a history of working to improve its sustainability. Its factory in Chattanooga is the only auto manufacturing plant in the world to be LEED Platinum Certified. The VW factory in Wolfsburg, Germany has 5,500 bikes for employees to use for transportation.

“Volkswagen’s commitment to environmental sustainability extends beyond our fuel-efficient vehicles and company practices,” said Jonathan Browning, president and CEO, Volkswagen Group of America. “We are extremely proud to be partnering with Bikes Belong to encourage biking and ensure that people of all ages can safely share the road, saving fuel and reducing pollution and traffic congestion.”

This sponsorship will considerably increase the reach of our efforts to make bicycling better and safer in the U.S. We’ll be able to unite more bicyclists through the PFB movement, help more children safely ride or walk to school, and increase the number of innovative bicycle facilities in cities across the country. Mainstream support like this is huge for bicycling in America.

Right now we are nearly halfway to our goal of uniting 1 million bicyclists. Thanks to VW, we might even reach our goal by the end of the year. We’re truly thankful to be working with a forward-thinking company that recognizes bicycles as a solution. Look for great things to come from this partnership in 2012.

Thanks to Allen, Ryan, Boulder Cycle Sport, Pete Webber, and everyone else who helped with this video.

So far, so good! After a solid first year, the PFB movement nearly tripled in size during 2011. Nearly 500,000 supporters now power our collective, unified voice. We will continue to grow in 2012. 

We've rallied the PFB troops four times to show how much Americans care about the federal investment in bicycling. In 2011, our movement sent more than 100,000 letters to U.S. Representatives and Senators. These messages made a strong impression, and inspired Congress to preserve dedicated funding for essential bike infrastructure and programs--at least for now. 

Nevertheless, some members of Congress still want to eliminate all support for bicycling and reallocate that money to highways. They fail to recognize how the steady federal investment is boosting bicycling and helping our nation in many important ways. They overlook the tangible outcomes and the cost-effectiveness: 3,000 bike projects are backed nationwide for less than the cost of a dozen miles of multi-lane highway in a single city.

Your voices have made a difference. But the fight isn't over.

2012 will be a challenging year for federal support of bicycling. Federal transportation funding expires at the end of March. Congress must either approve a new, multi-year bill or extend the current bill again. Either way, the value of ongoing bicycling investments will be debated. Future funding will be determined.

Peopleforbikes.org is ready for this fight, and we want all of our supporters to be ready for additional calls to action. Together we can protect key investments in bicycling that keep people safe and encourage more individuals to get on their bicycles.

Meanwhile, you can help us make our movement stronger by spreading the word and asking your friends and family to sign the pledge. Tell us how we can improve PFB by posting a comment below. Finally, you can help us continue to protect bicycling by donating to PFB -- even $5 or $10 can help us win this battle and assure that bicycling becomes safer and better for all Americans for decades to come.

Thanks, as always, for your action and your support.

For this year’s Winter Bike to Work Day, we had clear roads, gusty winds, and temperatures slightly above freezing. I rode to work with my husband, Spencer, who is a year-round bike commuter too. We live just a few miles from our offices, which makes it easy to leave our cars parked at home most days.

 
Spencer sets out for a wintry ride to work.

Riding in the bike lane.

Of course, the whole point of Winter Bike to Work Day isn’t the fact that you are biking to work, but the strategic planning around how to visit as many breakfast stations as possible. Spencer and I made sure to stop at Ideal Market, which always has one of the biggest and best breakfast spreads.

  
Arriving at our first breakfast stop of the morning. 

 
Yummy French toast.

   
S'mores for breakfast!

Compared to the main Bike to Work Day in the spring, the turnout was lower at Ideal Market. (Though this meant there was no line for the free coffee!) The city still expects 1,400 people to officially participate in Winter Bike to Work Day.

Spencer arrives at work after a successful Winter Bike to Work Day.

My coworker Erik visited another station by the Boulder Creek Path on his way into the office. This station seemed to be busier.

The Dushanbe Tea House breakfast station.

Especially for those of us highly motivated by free food, events like Winter Bike to Work Day are a great way to encourage people to try bike commuting during a time of year when participation tails off. Chicago’s Winter Bike to Work Day is this Friday, and Madison, WI and Fort Collins, CO have held similar events in the past.

Would you participate in a Winter Bike to Work Day if your city had one? Is every winter day a Bike to Work Day for you? Or does biking during the winter seem too difficult or inconvenient where you live? Let us know in the comments below.

TED launched the Ads Worth Spreading initiative as a way to recognize companies that want to communicate ideas in the same way TED wants to communicate with its audience.

We feel honored to be included in this group of visionary leaders working to make the world a better place. 

Check out TED’s YouTube channel to watch (and vote if you’d like) for Bikes Make Life Better. 

We’d like to thank TED for this amazing opportunity and wish the other companies and organizations good luck!

Each participating school must choose one school winner whose poster will go to the state coordinator. Each state will have three winners, and the first place winner will receive a new bike, light, and helmet. There will also be one national winner. In addition to the bike, light, and helmet, the national winner will receive a three-day all-expense-paid trip for two to Washington, DC for the 2013 National Bike Summit.

The national winning school will receive 10 branded bike docks (bike parking for 20 bikes) and a Hub system. The Hub is an active transportation tracking system that makes it easy, fun, and educational for a school to implement a walking and biking incentive program.

The national winning state coordinator will receive $250.

For more information about the Saris Fifth Grade National Poster Contest and how to become a state coordinator, visit the Saris Cycling Group website.

After being acclaimed as America’s best city for biking in 2010, what can you possibly do for an encore?

Well, in the case of Minneapolis, you do even more bicycling—and more walking too.

People here biked and walked 16 percent more in 2011 than in 2010, when Minneapolis was crowned “#1 Bike City” by Bicycling magazine. The same is true for St. Paul and some inner ring suburbs.

Biking rose 22 percent across the Twin Cities compared to 2010, according to data just released by Bike Walk Twin Cities. And it’s up a whopping 53 percent since 2007, when the organization began counting bicyclists and pedestrians at 42 locations from Beltline Blvd. in St. Louis Park to Larpenteur Avenue in Falcon Heights.

Bike Walk Twin Cities has conducted bike and pedestrian counts over the past five years as part of the federally funded Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program, which is focused on implementing proven strategies and finding innovations that allow some Americans to switch from driving to biking and walking for many short trips. Bike Walk Twin Cities is a program of Transit for Livable Communities, a nonprofit focused on increasing transportation options for Minnesotans.

The pronounced rise of two-wheel and two-feet travel between 2010 and 2011 is attributable in part to an array of street improvements—including more bike lanes and special bicycle-and-pedestrian boulevards—installed around town in the past year as part of the Nonmotorized Transportation Pilot Program. The Twin Cities was one of four communities around the country designated as transportation laboratories in the legislation, which was passed by a Congress in 2005 and signed by President George W. Bush.

“The goal of this project from Congress was to shift some trips, and this data shows it is happening,” says Joan Pasiuk, director of Bike Walk Twin Cities. “The implications for overall health and transportation access are outcomes the community will realize from the numbers we’re reporting.”

Bike and pedestrian counts on the Lake Street Bridge, for example, show that the increase in biking translates to 96,000 fewer auto trips at that location during 2011 compared to 2007, explains Tony Hull, Bike Walk Twin Cities’ Nonmotorized Evaluation Analyst. He arrived at that figure by using a model developed as part of the National Bicycle and Pedestrian Documentation Protocol by Alta Planning & Design of Portland. Overall, people made 1.1 million bike and pedestrian trips across the bridge in 2011.

“This is a massive number of people that need to be factored in our transportation policies,” Hull notes. “It’s not just nice that people are biking and walking more today. It’s a significant form of transportation” which he says offers positive results for public health, the environment and our sense of community.

Accurate bike and pedestrian counts are critical to the growth of biking and walking in America, Pasiuk explains. “Policymakers act on hard evidence—they want to be able to know if their investment is paying off and that more people are relying on biking and walking as a regular transportation pattern. These counts show what’s happening on the streets in a way everyone can understand.”

The busiest spot for bicyclists in this year’s count was 15th Avenue and University Avenue, near the University of Minnesota campus, with 787 riders and 1840 pedestrians between 4 and 6 p.m. on the days of counting in mid-September.

I was on hand at the second busiest spot, the Sabo Bridge on the Midtown Greenway where 767 riders and 60 pedestrians crossed over Hiawatha Avenue. It was a chilly afternoon with howling winds that felt more like March than September yet waves of bicycles rode by, ranging from executives in business suits to Native American kids from the nearby Little Earth housing project.

Rolf Scholtz tallied each one as they passed. He’s the president of Dero Bike Rack Company, located nearby in the Seward neighborhood and one of 54 volunteers who took part in the project. “We let our employees out to do the counts every year,” he said. “Bike riding is going crazy around here.”

All the people counting bike and pedestrian traffic are trained by Bike Walk Twin Cities, and checked in on at least once by staff during their two-hour shift. Some cities use paid counters from temp agencies, Hull notes, but BWTC believes volunteers are more diligent and accurate.

The counts have been carried out the second Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday of September for the past five years to ensure an accurate measure. “This data is rock solid,” Pasiuk says. “BWTC is using state of the art methodology for tracking and interpreting data.”

Bike Walk Twin Cities also conduct counts on the second Tuesday of every month at 6 locations around town, which have turned surprising results—20 percent of bicyclists and 75 percent of pedestrians continue to bike and walk throughout the winter despite Minnesota’s frigid, snowy weather. Given the trends reported today, no surprises here – just more evidence of the transportation shift that the Twin Cities can underscore.

Jay Walljasper, author of The Great Neighborhood Book, is editor of OnTheCommons.org and senior Fellow at Project for Public Spaces. He writes frequently about cities for National Geographic Traveler and other publications.

Update: the sale ends Friday, December 16 at 12 PM MT.

As 2011 draws to a close, we’re cleaning out the PFB office to make room for new goodies. We have a ton of extra t-shirts left over from our summer tour, and bottle openers too. Help us find them a home!

We have men’s shirts in sizes M and L and women’s shirts in S and M. (A note from PFB ladies: the women’s shirts run small. We usually wear a size up or a size down in men’s.) They are printed on 100% cotton Gildan and Next Level tees. Tees are $12 each, including shipping. Our apologies if we don’t have your size. Consider ordering one for a friend instead.

We also have Park Tool bottle openers for $5 each. They are *the* best stocking stuffer in the history of stuffing stockings.

To add a bit of holiday fun to our holiday sale, we’re randomly including a Primal jersey in two orders. You just might win one, you lucky dog!

To order a t-shirt or bottle opener, first submit your order on our online form below, and then mosey on over to the Donation page and pay there. We know, we know, it’s not a fancy online shopping system. But ordering this way allows as much of your donation as possible to go directly to our work, instead of hosting some slick e-commerce site.

For 17 bucks you can treat yourself to a new shirt and a bottle opener. For a $27 donation you can add bottle openers for two friends! Get shopping!

Though it may be tempting to buy a trendy toy, skip the lines and purchase one of the most iconic children’s gifts: a bicycle. Call me old-fashioned, but when I conjure up childhood memories, none measure up to the feeling I felt when I rode my first bike.

I learned to ride a bike when I was three, and that experience led to a childhood of independence, freedom, and health. I was probably the only four-year-old who rode his bike to preschool on Ohio’s Little Miami Scenic Trail. My bike was not just my way to have fun, but also my ticket to independence. I rode my bike everywhere: to elementary school, the pool, the store, and friends’ houses. As I entered high school it became a vehicle to get to sports practice, work, or anywhere else I wanted to go.

As an adult and a father, I love bicycling in all its forms—I use it for recreation, transportation, and exercise. It allows me to spend time with my family as well as maintain my physical and mental health. But what I appreciate most about bicycling is how it is helping my children develop into smart, independent, and healthy teenagers. My two sons are learning to be responsible and self-reliant while building healthy habits that will help in their development to adulthood. I can say with 100% certainty that Madden 2012 and Modern Warfare 3 will not have the same positive effects as a bicycle.

Functional and fun, bikes make the ultimate gift for kids because they can use it every day. More importantly, a bike will help your child develop independence and a healthy lifestyle. If you are considering purchasing your child’s first bike, here are a few suggestions to keep in mind.

1. Stick to your budget
Children’s bikes come in a range of prices. Shop around, and determine which one will be within your budget.

2. Find the perfect fit
The right size and set up of the bike will make a big difference. Most bike shops will help guide you on the bike’s size.

3. Stock up on proper gear
Of course, this means a properly fitted helmet. Make sure your child has pants that won’t get caught in the chain, and a good pair of sneakers to safely pedal.

As we set out to make holiday wishes come true, I challenge you to carefully consider your purchase decisions. Certainly we all desire to see that look of unbridled joy dance across the faces of our little ones. In my opinion, there’s no gift that will have the lasting impact of a sparkling, new two-wheeler.

 
    PFB Vice President Bruno Maier on his first bike

This idea of Tim’s got the rest of us thinking. Why should we acknowledge other bicyclists, and how should we do it? And what would it look like if every rider did this?

It’s safe to say that greeting another cyclist—whether it’s with a nod, a smile, a wave, a bell ding, or even a “hello”—can’t hurt, perhaps except in special situations. If you’re flying down a winding, technical descent, you might not want to remove your attention from the road right in front of you. But in most cases, a simple greeting will do no harm. Smiling at another rider will probably make both of you feel good. Research shows that your facial expressions can influence your mood.

If you’re an introvert (or perhaps tired from a long climb) and can only bring yourself to lift a few fingers, that’s still better than staring off into the horizon and pretending the human being next to you on the bike path doesn’t exist. The bike bell is the ultimate tool for those who have trouble mustering a greeting. And for those of you concerned with the extra weight of a bell, they do come in lightweight titanium versions.

As bicyclists, we are typically in the minority out on the roads. Greeting other riders enhances camaraderie and builds a feeling of community. If you get caught out on your bike in the pouring rain or a freak hailstorm, nothing beats seeing another bicyclist and sharing your collective experience with a single moment of eye contact and a grimacing smile.

But what happens when our numbers grow to the point where encounters with other riders happen every second, instead of every hour or even once in a blue moon? Well, it becomes much more difficult to follow Tim’s lead of greeting every passing bicyclist. Some members of the PFB staff were in Copenhagen, “City of Cyclists,” earlier this year. In Copenhagen, where 37% of commuters ride bikes every day, bike riders don’t acknowledge each other. There are simply too many of them! 

To demonstrate this, our guide Mikael Colville-Andersen showed us a photo of a vacuum cleaner. (Yes, a vacuum cleaner.) For Copenhagen residents, he explained, a bicycle is like a vacuum cleaner. It’s a tool. We don’t wave to other vacuum cleaner users, Mikael explained, so why would we wave to other bicycle users.

The sheer prevalence of bicycling is why we didn’t see riders greeting each other in Copenhagen. We observed the same thing in the Netherlands, where bicycling is also extremely popular.

Until the day when bicycles outnumber cars on the streets of your city, take a lesson from Tim and try greeting the other bicyclists you see. Being cordial can’t hurt, and a simple smile can make you and others feel better. It might even encourage new cyclists. Why not spread the joy that a bicycle brings (which, incidentally, is way more than that of a vacuum cleaner.) We have the luxury of not being stuck in metal boxes, so go on and ding that bell!

Bicycling does immense work for our health and happiness. The next time you are out riding your bike—whether it's a hilly, 40-mile ride to burn off all that bacon-wrapped turkey, or a simple jaunt downtown to meet a friend—remember to give thanks. Give thanks for bicycling, because it makes our own lives, our country, and our planet better with every pedal stroke. And, as with anything in life, there's no guarantee that you will be able to ride tomorrow, so give thanks for riding today.

We'd love to hear your comments below about why you are thankful for bicycling. Are you thankful for a shiny new bike? Losing a few pounds? Being able to ride with your family? Let's hear it.

But for those naysayers out there who haven’t ridden a bike since they were kids, the benefits of bicycling aren’t so obvious. In lieu of the actual experience of riding, we have to encourage them with facts and statistics that make the case for biking.

Lately, a bunch of new studies have come out on the benefits of bicycling. Here’s a summary of our top picks. Share them with your favorite naysayer when you have the chance. That is, after you get them out for a bike ride.

Bikes are good for the economy

• A University of Cincinnati study estimated that houses within 1,000 feet of Ohio’s Little Miami Scenic Trail are worth an extra $9,000.

• Another study found that three bike paths in Central Florida bring $42 million in annual spending and 516 jobs to the area’s economy.

Bike facilities are good for cities

• After New York City installed protected bike lanes on Columbus Avenue, bicycling increased 56%, all traffic crashes decreased 34%, speeding decreased, sidewalk biking went down, vehicle traffic flow remained the same, and double parking decreased.

• Bicycling in Salt Lake City—which has recently added 50 miles of bikeways—increased 27% from 2010 to 2011.

Biking is good for our health

• University of Wisconsin researchers estimated that if Midwesterners ran half of their short distance errands (less than five miles round trip) by bike instead of by car, they would avoid 1,100 deaths each year and save $7 billion in healthcare costs.

With a new study pegging the cost of obesity-related diseases at an extra $48-66 billion per year by 2030 (thanks to the additional 65 million obese adults we’ll have in the U.S. by then), bicycling’s benefits should warrant attention from everyone—whether they ride bikes or not.

For more statistics on the benefits of bicycling, visit our parent organization Bikes Belong’s Stats Library.

The U.S. Senate resoundingly defeated Kentucky Senator Rand Paul's proposal this morning to strip the transportation enhancements budget and reallocate money traditionally spent on bicycling and walking infrastructure to bridge repairs. The vote, 60-38, affirms bipartisan support for cost-effective investments in facilities that make bicycling and walking safer and easier.

Thanks to all PFB supporters for taking the time to email your U.S. Senators. PFB-backers and our partners generated more than 50,000 letters in 48 hours!

Read more here.

Cheers to full glasses and companies that want a better future for biking!

They’re good exercise, fun to do and—as an alternative to driving everywhere—help us save money and the environment. Both biking and walking are increasingly popular for transportation and recreation today, thanks in large part to a recent flowering of federally-funded trails, bikeways and pathways that make getting around on two wheels and two feet safer and more convenient.

But in these antagonistic political times, bikers and walkers are now targets of controversy for some members of Congress. In September, Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn proposed stripping all designated federal funding for bike and pedestrian projects from the pending Transportation Bill. After an outpouring of opposition from citizens coast-to-coast (including PFB supporters), Coburn withdrew his amendment.

Now bicyclists and pedestrians are under attack again, this time in an amendment from Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. He wants to redirect every last penny of money dedicated to bicycling and walking to bridge repair instead.

His proposal is scheduled for a vote next Tuesday. (Here's how to contact your Senators and Representatives to save federal bike and walk programs.)

Now we all agree that safe bridges are important. Look at the tragic bridge collapse four years ago in Minneapolis that took 17 lives.

But safety for the millions of kids and adults that bike and walk every day is important, too. Since 2007, 2,800 cyclists and 20,000 pedestrians have died on America’s roads—many due to the lack of sidewalks, bike lanes and other safety measures that federal funds provide.

We shouldn’t have to choose between safe bridges and safe streets. Here’s why.

First of all, Senator Paul’s amendment will not even come close to fixing America’s bridges. Biking, walking and other so-called “transportation enhancements” that Paul wants to kill account for less than two percent of the total Transportation Bill. It would take 80 years using money saved from scrapping these programs to finance the backlog of current bridge repairs—not to mention future needs.

States are not spending the money already allocated for bridge repairs. Last year, they returned $530 million to the federal government. That represents a big chunk of total bike and pedestrian projects.

Federal money to make biking and walking safer and more convenient is a great investment in America’s future that pays off in safer streets, reduced environmental damage, greater energy security, improved public health and more resilient, neighborly, pleasurable communities.

Originally posted on Shareable.net.

Last month, we asked you to contact your U.S. Senators to oppose Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn's plan to strip funding from the Transportation Enhancements program, which is the main source of the federal investment for bike projects of all types. Peopleforbikes.org supporters and our allies generated more than 75,000 emails to Congress in 48 hours. This rapid and powerful grassroots response succeeded: Mr. Coburn withdrew his amendment and crucial funding for bicycling was preserved.

We are sorry to report today that bike infrastructure funding is under serious and immediate attack again – this time in an amendment proposed by Senator Rand Paul (KY) that would redirect all funding for Transportation Enhancements to bridge repairs. Mr. Paul's amendment is set for a Senate vote Tuesday, Nov. 1.

While we are all for bridge repairs, gutting the Transportation Enhancements program is not the way to get the job done. We must defeat this amendment and we need your help. We need you to contact your state's two U.S. Senators today and ask them to oppose this amendment. Here are four reasons why:

1. Everyone deserves to be safe. We agree that we must keep our bridges safe, but the lives of pedestrians and bicyclists are important too. Nearly 5,000 Americans die each year biking or walking on our nation’s roadways.

2. Reallocating bike funding won't make a dent in the cost of bridge repairs. Even if every penny of Transportation Enhancements money is diverted to bridge repairs, Senator Paul’s plan would still take 80 years to fix the backlog of bridge repairs we have today.

3. Transportation Enhancements provide essential transportation benefits, like reducing road congestion, improving safety, getting people active, and creating more jobs per dollar than highway-only projects.

4. States don't spend all the money they already receive for bridge repairs. Last year, states sent $530 million of unspent bridge funds back to Washington in rescissions – the states are leaving bridge repair funds on the table, unspent, year after year; they should at least spend these funds first.

This is the third attempt in a month by a small group of Senators to target Transportation Enhancements, using a different angle each time. It is a waste of the Senate's time and taxpayers dollars to focus on eliminating this modest, cost-effective, valuable program when we are in dire need of real and viable solutions to fix our failing transportation system.

Please contact your Senators today to ask them to vote against the Paul amendment (SA-821) to eliminate Transportation Enhancements. (You can find your Senators, review basic suggested text for your email, and send your note directly from this link.)

Thank you for your help today, and for passing this call to action along.

Tim Blumenthal
Director, Peopleforbikes.org

To highlight their commitment to bike advocacy and the fight against climate change in 2011, CLIF BAR is out to inspire people to avoid 100,000 car trips – and they are awarding $100,000 in grants along the way! All you have to do to participate is register, pick your team and start pedaling your bike to earn points.

Here at PFB, we've joined the Safe Routes to School National Partnership RED team. The National Partnership helps kids bike and walk to school safely all over the country. We hope you'll register and start tracking your miles to help them win a grant to get even more kids to school safely using their own power. Visit www.2milechallenge.com to join -- the contest ends Oct. 31.

Although we try to get around on two wheels whenever possible, here at PFB we recognize that sometimes taking a car is the best option. But, we would argue that it's almost never the best option on a college campus! Pedaling to class is practically universally accepted as the fastest, cheapest, healthiest, and most fun method of transportation at alma maters around the country. We hope that GM will soon realize that this campaign is not only shameful, it's just not true.

You can read more on the League's blog. Or, let Chevrolet and GMC know how you feel about their new campaign.

The goal for each event has been to create greater awareness about the peopleforbikes.org movement while collecting pledges of support for a better biking future all across the US. In order to reach the largest number of people and efficiently carry our event set-up, we got a truck and trailer, wrapped the rig in the peopleforbikes.org logo, and hit the road. I was joined on this grand adventure by my co-conspirator and significant other Lucy Berenato, an accomplished bicycle commuter and lover of all things single speed. At the beginning it seemed clear that this was going to be a wild summer tour; but, now as we inch our way into the cooler fall months, I've realized we had no idea just how inspiring and eye-opening this experience would be.

Of all the events that we attended, who would of thought that I would have one of the best times on a steamy 105-degree day in Western Iowa! That’s right; one of my all time favorite events would have to be the 39th Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa, also lovingly referred to by its participants as RAGBRAI. This annual event draws riders from all across the country as they come together to enjoy the small towns, quiet roads and surprisingly challenging terrain Iowa has to offer. I was amazed to meet so many riders getting ready to complete their 10th, 15th, or 20th consecutive RAGBRAI. But even more impressive was that for every veteran rider, there was a friend or relative in tow who was getting ready to embark on his or her inaugural RAGBRAI experience. RAGBRAI truly is a special event with both new riders and old coming together year after year to ride bikes with 15,000 likeminded folks across Iowa.

The peopleforbikes.org campaign is all about uniting people around their love of bicycling. And this summer, it was so inspiring how everyone we met came from a different background, a different state, and a different lifestyle and yet all were connected by their love of bikes. Whether touring across Iowa, cruising to a music festival in Austin, or taking in an elite road-racing event in Minnesota, all of these people were united by a desire to improve the future of biking. It has been so much fun these past few months traveling to all these great events across the U.S.; but, with 30,000 miles and countless interactions under our belts, it is now time for some much needed rest.

View photos from the 2011 event tour on our facebook and Flickr pages.

Austin Rand & Lucy Berenato, the PFB road crew and events team.

Since 2000, the ACS has shown growth in bike commuting. Bike commuting has grown the most in those Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) cities that are actively investing in bicycling. It has also grown more in large cities than the U.S. as a whole.

For the fifth consecutive year, the bike commuting share (or the percentage of people who commute by bike frequently) grew in the 38 largest BFCs. But for the first time since 2005, the U.S. average share dropped slightly (though not significantly), surprising everyone who has sensed the upward momentum of bike commuting. One reason for the ACS not picking up on this trend may be that it excludes anyone who rides a bike for two or fewer weekdays, or combines a bike ride with a longer leg in a car or transit, from being counted as a bike commuter. With the average American commute at 15 miles one-way and only 29% of commutes at 5 miles or less one-way, the ACS is counting mostly super hardcore bike commuters who can ride a long commute most days of the week, or those with short commutes.

The city with the highest bike commuting share in 2010 was Davis, CA at 22.1%. Boulder, CO came in second at 9.9%. Fourteen cities total had a share of 5.0% or higher. To see how your city ranked (keep in mind that there is a high margin of error for smaller cities), check out this online spreadsheet created by the League of American Bicyclists. You can also read more about the ACS findings over at the Bike Pittsburgh and League of American Bicyclist blogs.

Have you stopped by your local bicycle retailer lately? Chances are if you have, you’ve come face-to-face with the PFB pledge, buttons, brochures and more at the register. That’s because 1,500 retailers nationwide have been collecting pledges for us since this spring. So far, these stores have brought in more than 50,000 supporters for PFB.

On the digital front, the bike industry has rallied to promote the PFB pledge from their homepages. For one month beginning Sept. 14, some of our best partners – including Trek, SRAM, Shimano, Giant, Huffy, Saris, and others – have made the PFB pledge form the landing page on their U.S. websites, sending all visitors to us before they go to the company's homepage. After less than two weeks, this effort has generated nearly 20,000 pledges.

Both of these initiatives show an unprecedented willingness by the bike industry to work together in a very public way for the long-term good of bicycling. Counter space in bicycle stores and website homepages are among the most valuable real estate a company has.

We couldn’t be more thankful for this exceptional support, which will continue to accelerate the growth of our campaign and help to improve bicycling nationwide.

The story gallery has been so successful that we recently teamed up with the social video app BlipSnips to create another way for you to share your story about bicycling. Here’s how it works:

1. Download the BlipSnips app (currently available only on iPhone).
2. Use BlipSnips to shoot a video that explains why you ride a bike. Show us your bike, your commute…whatever you want to tell the story. Short is fine!
3. Save your video with the #peopleforbikes hashtag in the title and upload to BlipSnips. You can also tag your friends in your video on Facebook and Twitter with the BlipSnips app (log in to your services in the BlipSnips Account area in the app).
4. View everyone’s videos at blipsnip.it/peopleforbikes. It might take a couple minutes for the videos to appear in the gallery.

We’ll award some cool PFB gear to our favorite stories. Now get filming!

Of course, these commuter racers are not exactly scientifically rigorous tests of the most efficient mode of city travel. Truly, they are exhibitions to demonstrate that bicycling can be just as fast, if not faster, than the more popular (and more detrimental) car. Because, when it comes down to it, convenience is one of the best ways to convince people to bike. When bicycling is the fastest and easiest way to get from point A to point B, it’s an easy choice. Surveys of bicyclists in Copenhagen find that the #1 reason people ride is because it’s faster than any other mode of travel. Fifty-five percent of Copenhagen riders said they bike because it’s fast, and 33% because it’s more convenient than other modes. Only 9% of Copenhagen bicyclists ride because it’s good for the environment (unlike New York City bicyclists, who list health and environment as their top reasons for riding.)

The bike almost always wins these races in American cities like San Francisco, Philadelphia, and New York. However, these cities don’t yet have many of the facilities that Dutch and Danish cities use to make bicycling even faster and more convenient. Technology like traffic lights timed to a bicycle’s speed, rather than a car’s, allow riders to pedal through a “green wave” of green lights. Separated pathways often allow bicyclists to bypass traffic signals altogether, making bicycling faster and easier than driving. Bicycling is most definitely the fastest way to make most trips in bicycling cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam—hence the hordes of bicyclists. U.S. city planners are beginning to implement some of these European means of bicycling prioritization. For example, San Francisco has a green wave on its Valencia Street. Bicycling is naturally fast in cities; these innovations make it even faster.

Many existing bicyclists will still bike even if it’s faster to drive—perhaps because it makes them feel good, or because it’s good for the environment. But when a 20-minute car trip can be replaced with a 10-minute bike ride, bicycling becomes the obvious choice for the whole neighborhood. The lazy man doesn’t choose bicycling right now, but in the future, perhaps he will.

San Francisco Board of Supervisors President and mayoral candidate, David Chiu, won a commute race in August on his bike. (Photo by Flickr user Velobry, used under a Creative Commons license.)

Peopleforbikes.org supporters and our advocacy partners influenced this outcome by sending close to 50,000 emails and making thousands of phone calls to their U.S. Senators in just 48 hours. Thank you!

As a result, funding for all federal transportation programs has now been extended to March 31, 2012. The key, cost-effective programs that make bicycling safer and easier -- Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails -- will continue to receive modest, dedicated support -- about 1.5 percent of the total federal transportation investment.

Every U.S. Senate office received an unprecedented number of well-crafted emails and articulate phone calls this week from people who bike. This powerful show of support for bicycling made a strong impression on Congress and influenced the positive outcome.

We reminded the Senate that bicycling investments support a growing number of transportation trips coast to coast, and save government agencies money on road repairs, parking infrastructure costs, and health-care costs. They recognize that this is a small investment with a big payback that makes Americans safer.

A huge thanks to the thousands of Americans, our supporters, who rallied quickly to contact their elected officials on this challenge. We will continue to keep you posted on key issues and opportunities that affect the future of bicycling in the United States.

We hope you'll join us in taking a ride this weekend to celebrate!

If Senator Coburn's amendment succeeds, bicycling in the U.S. will become less safe and more difficult. Twenty years of consistent, cost-effective investment in beneficial bike projects will stop.

When we launched peopleforbikes.org, we promised you that we would only ask for your help when we really needed it. This is one of those times.

We need every U.S. Senator to hear from hundreds, if not thousands, of their constituents who value government support for bicycling. A strong vote against Coburn's amendment will be a convincing statement of how much Congress and Americans value bicycling, and will influence all future votes on bike and pedestrian programs and funding.

Please email your U.S. Senators today and tell them to oppose Coburn's amendment and preserve funding for bicycling. (You can find your Senators, review basic suggested text for your email, and send your note directly from this link.)

Thanks for your support and your quick response to this call to action.

This decline in active travel to school has directly correlated with a rise in childhood obesity. During the past 40 years, U.S. childhood obesity rates have tripled, and more than 33% of children and adolescents are overweight, obese, or at risk of becoming so. Kids are getting fatter for a number of reasons, but this huge decline in daily active travel has to be at the forefront.

It’s appropriate then that the White House recently proclaimed September National Childhood Obesity Prevention Awareness Month. How children get to school (and what they eat when they’re there) can help determine the obesity epidemic’s future. Kids have enjoyed biking for generations, but in today’s sedentary culture it is more important than ever for children to ride to school. Bicycling provides daily physical activity when gym classes are being cut from schools.

Rest assured that there are parents, teachers, school officials, politicians, and other professionals working hard to help more kids bike or walk to school. Six hundred leaders of the “Safe Routes to School” (SRTS) movement held a major conference in Minneapolis just in time for September’s back to school excitement. Former Congressman James Oberstar and Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak spoke about the importance of SRTS to current and future generations. Oberstar, the leader of the SRTS movement in Congress, called the program “An enormous force that can create a change throughout society.” You can read more about the conference on the Safe Routes to School National Partnership’s blog.

The Safe Routes to School movement is important for everyone in this country, child or adult. Healthier future generations mean lower healthcare costs and a more productive workforce for us all. More biking and walking to school also helps reduce traffic and pollution: Returning to 1969 levels of walking and bicycling to school would save 3.2 billion vehicle miles, 1.5 million tons of carbon dioxide and 89,000 tons of other pollutants—equal to keeping more than 250,000 cars off the road for a year. Finally, safe places for kids to ride to and from school are safe places for everyone to ride all day, every day. SRTS is something all bicyclists (and all Americans) can get behind.

Positive stories about the growth of urban bicycling continue to pour in. A month ago New York City released its annual bike counts, which found a 14% increase in bicycling. The same week, Boston opened its bike sharing program, New Balance Hubway, while Minnesota expanded its bike share because of its success. This week, Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel announced a campaign to build 25 miles of new bike lanes every year—a total of 100 miles by the time his first term ends; and PFB's Bruno Maier was quoted in a story about U.S. cities embracing bicycling.

It’s true, bicycling is booming in many U.S. cities, especially those that are working hard to become more bike-friendly. From 2000 to 2009, bike commuting grew 62% in the 70 largest U.S. cities and 71% in the 31 largest Bicycle Friendly Community-designated cities. That’s compared to 44% for the U.S. as a whole. It’s a great time to ride a bike if you are one of the 30% of Americans who live in the heart of a city, but what about the rest of us? One-fifth of Americans live in a rural area, and 50% live in a metropolitan area but outside of the central city (a.k.a. the suburbs.) How is bicycling faring there?

Not so well, concludes Rutgers University professor John Pucher. “A bicycling renaissance is indeed underway in many cities of North America, but they are islands in a sea of car-dominance,” he writes in a 2011 Transportation Research Journal paper. Lower bicycling levels in suburban and rural areas is due in large part to the urban form and land use that make bicycling for short trips a less attractive option than it is in a city. Roads are less connected and destinations are farther apart. This may be fine for recreational bicycling—open roads with few stoplights are what you want on a 30-mile road bike ride—but not for using the bicycle as an everyday way of getting around (which is the kind of bicycling that is driving its growth, according to Pucher.)

That doesn’t mean that it’s impossible to bike for transportation in suburban or rural areas; many people still do. It just means that we’ll have to work harder to grow bicycling outside of cities. The demand is certainly there. Actually, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, rural (75%) and suburban (77%) residents are more likely than urban residents (55%) to say bike lanes are important to them. And even in rural areas, 30% of all trips are two miles or less—an easy biking distance.

The success of bicycling in American cities is inspiring, but our true test will be transforming this entire country, with its widely varying landscape and land use, into a bicycling nation.

If you live in Colorado or are visiting to spectate the race, come say hi at the peopleforbikes.org booth. We’ll be part of the race festival at three stages, the Prologue in Colorado Springs, Stage 1 in Crested Butte, and Stage 6 in Denver.

Even if you won’t be watching the race in person, you can join the action by signing up for MapMyRIDE’s USA Virtual Pro Cycling Challenge. During the race (which lasts from August 22-28) you can track your bike rides on MapMyRIDE.com and see how you measure up to the pros. Each mile pedaled raises $1 for Millennium Promise, a nonprofit that empowers rural communities across sub-Saharan Africa with simple, affordable, sustainable solutions to life themselves out of extreme poverty. Prizes up for grabs include a slick set of Zipp 404 wheels. Learn more about the Challenge at MapMyRIDE.com.

Stage 1 will pass through historic downtown Crested Butte. The PFB crew will be there for the stage race festival.