Gravel and Changing Leaves west of Boulder

Ambassador C.C.'s "It’s An Uptown Thang!" Ride

DC Brewery Tour- Four Breweries, 15 miles of fun!

The stationary bike and exercise company offers potent lessons when it comes to fostering safety, comfort and community for BIPOC riders.

Before she joined Peloton, Tonoka Metoyer wasn’t a biker, although she always wanted to be. 

“I've always felt like bicycling was cool,” said Metoyer, who spent almost three decades living in South Florida and Atlanta. “I've always had friends that bike, and I saw people that did it. I just never did it.”

Metoyer, who works remotely as a medical sales representative, moved to Montgomery, Alabama, right before the pandemic. The absence of a commute, coupled with the lack of good bicycling infrastructure and a community to ride with, meant Metoyer was unlikely to take up biking on her own. When COVID-19 led to the closure of her CrossFit gym, however, Metoyer needed something to fill the fitness void. Through a friend, she was invited to a private group chat of Black Peloton users — Metoyer ordered a bike, started riding and is now nearly 250 rides of various lengths and intensity into her journey. 

Peloton Interactive was founded in January of 2012, the brainchild of a Barnes & Noble executive who saw an opportunity to bring the high-end spin studio experience into people’s homes. After a successful Kickstarter campaign and several rounds of raising seed money, a version of the Peloton bike that’s now ubiquitous — with its mounted touchscreen and speakers for streaming classes — was released in 2014. In 2018, Peloton expanded to the U.K. and Canada and in 2019, the company went public, raising $1.16 billion (Peloton is currently valued at closer to $4 billion).

When the demand for home gyms surged amid pandemic lockdowns, many people turned to Peloton, ordering bikes despite shipping backlogs to join a community of millions. But Peloton’s success isn’t solely attributed to convenience or COVID-19. Rather, the company employs a growth strategy that values the patronage of historically marginalized groups, celebrating diversity and allowing both its instructors and community members to show up as their whole selves.

When compared to the traditional bike industry, which has long been criticized for its diversity problem and has made few strides despite public commitments, Peloton’s user base is much more representative of American demographics. In particular, the growth of Black users, both men and women, on Peloton offers potent lessons for the bike industry as a whole, including those working in city government, transportation, advocacy, health and the nonprofit sector. The Black Peloton group on Facebook currently has more than 29,000 members from around the globe and many of the company's most prominent bike instructors, including Alex Toussaint, Ally Love and Tunde Oyeneyin, are Black. Anecdotally, the number of committed Black Peloton riders appears to exceed Black folks passionate about traditional bikes, with a fair amount of overlap between groups.

So, what is Peloton doing right when it comes to Black Americans? For starters, the company understands and values Black culture, a fact most evident through its marketing, programs and music selection, which center Black lives and experiences. From Peloton’s ads to its website to its Instagram, there is an open celebration of diversity, consistently showcasing Black and brown employees and customers. When honoring Black History Month, the company goes beyond rote social media campaigns, instead curating rides set to Black musicians, releasing an apparel collection in collaboration with Black artists and hosting fireside chats with musicians, actors and activists. When was the last time the bike industry celebrated Blackness in a similar way? The success of Marshall Walter "Major" Taylor comes to mind, but his heyday was at the turn of the last century.

Peloton does a great job of bringing in modern Black cultural icons, curating rides with music from Bad Boy Entertainment for example, or developing an 8-week series called the “Year of Yes” with television producer and screenwriter Shonda Rhimes. When Peloton partnered with the queen herself, Beyonce, the company simultaneously gifted two-year digital Peloton memberships to students at 10 historically Black colleges and universities. These rides celebrating Black greatness being led by Black instructors showcases yet another aspect of Black leadership and talent, not only as creatives and cultural icons but as teachers and experts as well. What’s more, many Black celebrities, Beyonce included, are Peloton riders themselves.

“They have a brilliant marketing model and are incredibly reactive — and in some cases proactive — to the needs of their customers,” said Maisha Rudison-Bryant, a Black healthcare director based in North Carolina. “[Peloton] listens and then they change. I think that for any company that is not often an easy thing to do but they seem to do it flawlessly.”

In addition to adding more rides celebrating Blackness, Peloton doesn’t shy away from confronting current events head-on. After the murder of George Floyd in May 2020 and the resulting protests around the U.S., the company didn’t hesitate to say, “Black Lives Matter,” angering some users who viewed it as a political statement. During a time when all sorts of organizations were stalling on what to say, scrambling to craft DEI mission statements and struggling to acknowledge the Black experience, often for the first time, Peloton led the way for corporations coming out in solidarity.

Many people in the Peloton community remember a class Toussaint taught amid the worst of the social unrest, where he shared from his heart the pain he was undergoing as a Black male in America and urged his followers to take anti-racist action. Similarly, Oyeneyin created a 30-minute class dubbed “Speak Up,” which was part performance art, part activism and all fitness, imploring riders to “get comfortable with the uncomfortable” and meet the moment.

“Peloton allowed employees to speak to who they were as people and to use that platform as an outlet for some of the rage that was out there in the Black community,” said Rudison-Bryant. “They don't seem to separate the fact that we are humans. We have things that we do in our day-to-day lives and our work but those two worlds, they shouldn't be separate.”

Rather than censor or edit its employees, Peloton celebrates them, encouraging vulnerability and conversation. Jen Cotter, the chief content officer of Peloton, told The New York Times that while instructors are generally expected to avoid political topics, the Black Lives Matter movement wasn’t political. “We see this as a human rights issue,” she said. “Those are not the same for us, politics and civil rights.”

The direction from Peloton’s leadership — who represent a variety of backgrounds and ethnicities themselves — is one of the reasons the company has been so successful in reaching a diverse and devoted user base. Although Peloton’s board of directors and executive leadership, like many organizations, is still overwhelmingly white and male, its chief strategy officer, Dion Camp Sanders, and head of global marketing and communications, Dara Treseder, are Black. For her part, Treseder prioritized a marketing strategy that emphasizes diversity and promotes community over products.

“Connection to culture for us is something we do intentionally and authentically,” Treseder told AdWeek earlier this year. “It’s not enough to just talk about diversity. It’s a commitment to anti-racism: What are the things we’re going to do to be truly anti-racist? Cultural marketing is not something that sits in a silo over here — it’s something that’s infused into all we do.”

The difference is obvious to users, who take note of everything from the camaraderie and authenticity of Peloton’s instructors to the friendships and affinity groups that form outside of virtual rides.

“[Peloton] brought in some of the most well-regarded people of color into marketing positions and into roles that directly affect the customer base, and I think that’s the primary reason they’ve been so successful, no question,” said Rudison-Bryant. “At every level of the company, you see a reflection of yourself and I think that that's important.”

That sort of modeling goes a long way toward making people feel comfortable trying something new. In fact, comfort is another reason Peloton is so successful: not only does it promote an inclusive atmosphere, but by nature of being an indoor, stationary bike company, it offers riders a way to participate in the sport without leaving their home. Peloton riders don’t have to worry about having the right gear, being discriminated against by law enforcement or neighbors, showing up to work sweaty and being judged by colleagues, messing up their hair in public, catcalling from passersby or inadequate bicycling infrastructure — many things we know affect women, and in particular minority women, more than others.

There’s also an element of safety that partially explains why Black riders might be drawn to Peloton over biking on the road. It’s a fact that traffic enforcement disproportionately affects BIPOC riders, resulting in over-policing and leading to “Arrested Mobility” with a slew of adverse social, political, economic and health outcomes. In America, Black people must face the ever-present threat of discrimination, intimidation and physical harm whenever they step outside, whether it be while driving, walking, running or bicycling. In the world of Peloton, that danger doesn’t exist. There, a Black man can virtually high-five a stranger without the possibility of it being taken the wrong way or putting his life and livelihood at increased risk. 

While there are limitations to using Peloton for persons with disabilities, in general, it’s also a more accessible product than many similar-quality road or gravel bikes. While the original Peloton bike starts at $1,895 (plus $39/month for the required all-access membership), the company offers 36-month financing at 0% APR. While still expensive, the bikes are easy to navigate and cost less than many premium road bikes, gym memberships or dealing with societal unease.

“Underrepresented minorities spend trillions of dollars on stuff and a lot of companies are missing the ball by not marketing to us,” said Bianca Blades, a Black Peloton user who works as an HR consultant and diversity strategist. “We have the money and we’re going to spend it. But some people still don't want a certain demographic representing their product due to history, which is sad.”

Once Peloton’s marketing efforts do the job of getting people in the door, the company’s dual emphasis on fitness and community is what gets them to stick around. Peloton riders are constantly being encouraged to connect with other users, via the aforementioned high-fives, various groups and teams or hashtags. For Black riders, hashtags range the gamut from #BPR to the Black Peloton Riders Community to #BlackGirlMagic, for Black women, to a variety that represent the Divine Nine, the umbrella term for historically African American fraternities and sororities. By allowing people to use multiple hashtags, a rider can rep #BPR alongside #PeloBuddhas (the official Buddhist group of Peloton) and #Vets (for veterans). Thus, the company allows for and encourages intersectionality in a way American society typically does not.

Peloton celebrates individuality while promoting the collective, empowering people to feel free to express who they are in the context of a community. Even when riding a Peloton alone in your living room, you never feel alone. Riders can start with a group, take an on-demand class alongside others and even get a shout-out from the instructor during a live class. As a Black bicyclist outdoors, being alone is more of a default, albeit one that Black riding groups are aiming to combat. For many Black Peloton riders, including all of those interviewed in this article, the camaraderie of Peloton often carries over to real-world interactions, via private groups, meet-ups or in-person rides. 

“For me, [my Peloton community] has been a lifeline,” said Metoyer. “Just being able to connect has been very motivational, both on and off the screen.”

If everyone working in the world of bikes were able to cultivate the same level of community and motivation amongst BIPOC riders, the effects would soon multiply — more bicyclists on our streets would lead to a safer riding environment for everyone. According to a report from the League of American Bicyclists, Black and brown riders are the fastest-growing segment of the bicycling population, and PeopleForBikes’ research during the pandemic showed that BIPOC bicyclists represented 44% of new riders, compared to 33% of active riders before COVID-19. 

In June of 2020, Peloton CEO and Co-founder John Foley issued a public statement outlining the company’s commitment to anti-racism. In the letter, Foley announced that Peloton would be investing $100 million over the course of four years to “fight racial injustice and inequity in our world and to promote health and wellbeing for all.” He went on to note the responsibility of corporations — with their large resources, platforms and influence — in combating systemic racism, acknowledging that “this kind of important work starts from the inside out” at the employee level. The same could be said for many government and nonprofit organizations.

Peloton’s trademark saying is “Together We Go Far” and the company brought that ethos to its anti-racism work, co-creating with rather than dictating to those who receive funding. Although simply issuing a statement is never enough, articulating a vision and committing a substantial amount of one’s budget to that vision are necessary first steps. People of color, be they customers or employees, know when an organization’s platitudes are authentic based on what follows. That, perhaps, is the most important lesson of all: Actions speak louder than words.

Charles T. Brown is the founder and principal of Equitable Cities, a minority- and veteran-owned urban planning, public policy and research firm focused at the intersection of transportation, health and equity. He is also an adjunct professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University and an active road cyclist and Black Peloton rider. Kiran Herbert is PeopleForBikes’ local innovation writer and content manager.

What the Growth of Black Peloton Can Teach Bicycling

A 1.5-mile stretch of Broad Street in Providence, Rhode Island, is slated for a holistic mobility upgrade and community engagement is an integral part of the plan.

In small towns and big cities across America, certain thoroughfares form the lifeblood of a place, serving as cultural and commercial hubs filled with restaurants, shops and places for the community to gather. Sometimes these streets define a particular neighborhood and other times they’re defined by a certain ethnic group or historic identity. In Providence, Rhode Island, Broad Street is such a place. 

Clocking in at roughly 4 miles, Broad Street maintains an international character, known for its large Asian markets, popular Dominican restaurants, numerous bodegas and lively street life. Compared to Providence and Rhode Island as a whole, Broad Street is incredibly diverse, with a primarily Latinx demographic, as well as large Black and Asian populations. Roughly 40% of Broad Street’s inhabitants are foreign-born (primarily Caribbean and Central American) and almost 35% live in poverty (the national average hovers around 15%). Additionally, some 40% of Broad Street community residents commute via walking, biking or transit and 25% of households do not have access to a car, significantly higher than the statewide and national averages. 

It’s these characteristics that, in 2017, inspired Mayor Jorge O. Elorza to rebrand Broad Street as Providence’s Latino Cultural Corridor, a move that accompanied $4.3 million in funding, the majority earmarked for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure. The idea for developing Broad Street to become more bike and pedestrian-friendly really began in 2006, however, and in the 15 years since, has been pushed back and reimagined numerous times. The extended timeframe has provided ample opportunity for community engagement, and since 2019, the Providence Streets Coalition has taken on the bulk of that work. 

“The project development timeline has just been so long,” said Liza Burkin, lead organizer of the Providence Streets Coalition, noting that the city did a demonstration day in 2018 and still hasn’t started work. “We really felt like we needed to remind people of the entire timeline of all the public processes that have gone on over the last 15 years to get us to this point, including the demonstration day and all the safety data.”

The Providence Streets Coalition formed in 2019 as the city’s first mobility advocacy organization, establishing itself at the intersection of environmental and social justice. In the last couple of years, the group has brought that spirit to Broad Street. The core of the coalition's messaging has been driven by crash data, which highlights Broad Street's abysmal safety record for both pedestrians and bicyclists: Between 2009 and 2015, Broad Street experienced the greatest number of crashes involving people walking or riding a bicycle out of any corridor in Providence.

“We just had another fatality this summer and we had one of the City Council members get into a car crash on Broad Street,” said Burkin. “It’s a real safety problem and every passing year people understand that more and more.”

The coalition’s outreach also focuses on the fact that the city is positioning the Broad Street work as a holistic mobility project, as opposed to a bike lane project (although 3 miles of bike lanes are also part of the plan). Rather, the emphasis has been on the new crosswalks, traffic signals and bus islands, as well as the reconfiguration of everything in an integrated way, creating a balanced street for all users, drivers included. The current design even retains street parking on both sides of the road — based on feedback from residents and businesses — and instead will create bike lanes using space from a central turning lane, an unsafe and chaotic feature many folks are excited to get rid of. 

A 600-person phone poll conducted by the Providence Streets Coalition in March of this year, with oversamples of Latinx voters and those under 40, highlighted residents' support for new bicycle infrastructure. Interviews conducted in English and Spanish showed that 63% of people believe Providence should have more protected bike lanes that are separated from driving lanes, even if it means reducing driving lanes and less on-street parking. Additionally, 70% indicated that they would like to ride a bicycle more often, particularly if infrastructure designed to improve bike safety were built throughout the city. When it came specifically to the work proposed for Broad Street, 87% of residents were in favor and many said that they would ride their bikes instead of driving (45%), or that they'd shop and dine more on Broad street (50%), if there were more safe and accessible options. 

“We’re hoping to create a safe, beautiful street where the local businesses can really thrive,” said Burkin. “A street that attracts more people and gives them the ability to move quickly and easily.”

The bike lanes on Broad Street are part of a 75-mile network Providence is in the midst of building, offering greater connectivity for residents. Broad Street is an important thoroughfare and the new infrastructure will provide a crucial way for those on foot or bike to access its businesses, jobs, schools, community services and Roger Williams Park, the city’s largest greenspace.

“The park is flanked by highways and major streets and it's very difficult to get to via active modes if you don’t live right in the neighborhood,” said Burkin. “Connecting to Roger Williams Park is a big deal for the rest of the city and south Providence neighborhoods.”

The southside of Providence has been disinvested in for generations and the coalition consistently emphasizes the magnitude of the city’s investment in outreach, promoting safety first and foremost, but also how a revamped street will improve the neighborhood’s ability to flourish for decades to come. In order to celebrate the culture and history of the corridor, while sharing out the city’s plan, the Providence Streets Coalition created a virtual story map: “Broad Street Was, Is, And Will Be.” 

Comprehensive and colorful, the website tracks the history of everything from Native American displacement to redlining, moving on to the diversity that defines Broad Street today, as well as the safety data and economic demographics of the area. Finally, the site reminds folks of the city’s proposed redesign and all of the community engagement work that’s already been done, including the 2018 3D demonstration day where residents provided feedback in real-time.

A section of the Providence Streets Coalition’s website on Broad Street.

Recognizing that the public’s memory can be short, the Providence Streets Coalition took advantage of the project’s two-year delay due to COVID-19 to create the story map and promote it alongside its standard forms of outreach, including door knocking along the corridor, conducting one-on-one meetings with business owners, and biking a mobile community engagement trailer multiple times a week to block parties, farmers markets and outside of the nonprofit Youth in Action’s headquarters.

“We’re using a combination of in-person and virtual outreach to complement one another as the project nears construction,” said Burkin. “The website is the one cohesive place where people can access it all and we’re trying to get it out to as many people as possible.”

The coalition vetted the website with many of its community partners before launch, ensuring that the content was clear and the Spanish translation was as good as possible for the variety of ethnicities in the area. In addition to a coordinated email campaign and handing out postcards with QR codes at events such as the Dominican Parade, the coalition is preparing a texting campaign targeting 5,000 Broad Street residents and business owners. In addition to the website URL, the texts will contain information about the final community meeting, set to take place in the coming month. Although the project is currently out to bid and set to break ground as soon as October, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and its Delta variant remain an ever-present variable.

Until construction is underway, the Providence Streets Coalition will continue its outreach efforts, canvassing the street and working in conjunction with organizations such as the Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island and Community Angels. Although Burkin is optimistic about the engagement work that’s been done, she’s reluctant to be too congratulatory, noting that, “It won’t be a proven success for many more months — if not years.” After all, there are plenty of languages spoken outside of Spanish or English on Broad Street, including a variety of South Asian and West African languages, as well as Haitian Creole. For everyone that’s been engaged and included so far, there’s a neighbor that has not. As with all things community engagement, the work is ongoing and never done.

The future of kids’ bicycling appeared dire until the pandemic hit. Now, a new generation of bicyclists is emerging.

Back in the glorious, pandemic-free summer of 2019, things were looking a bit grim for youth bicycling. From 2014 to 2018, the number of kids who regularly rode their bike (25 times per year or more) dropped by more than 1 million, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association. The market research company NPD Group reported that from 2018 to 2019, children’s bike sales dropped more than 7%, impacted by steel tariffs and a resulting 5% increase in the average price of kids’ bikes. 

The repercussions of this decline in youth cycling are significant and the stakes are high. The WHO ranks the U.S. third in the world for depression and anxiety rates and the CDC reports that one in five U.S. children are affected by obesity. These trends had the bike industry, parents, teachers and youth program providers concerned, with some taking action to address the decline in youth ridership. In 2019, 10 national youth biking organizations came together to form the Youth Cycling Coalition in order to get more kids on bikes and keep them riding into adulthood. Taking a “stronger together” approach, the partnership combines program offerings that are unique but complementary and is already proving effective at cultivating a biking ecosystem in Morgantown, West Virginia. 

Still, at the outset of 2020, there was no guarantee that the downward trend wouldn’t continue. In March, however, when the world as we knew it ground to a halt, many Americans rediscovered outdoor recreation. As schools and daycares closed, parents found themselves with more “kid time” on their hands. Families sheltered in place for weeks that turned into months, and as the days grew warmer and longer, many found respite from the walls of their homes through biking. The Burrow family of Parker, Colorado, are one of many that started biking during the pandemic summer of 2020. 

“There was so much time to slow down and take a look around at what we were and weren’t doing,” said Ali Burrow, whose sons Flynn, 9, and Charlie, 6, both learned to ride last summer. “We realized the kids were missing out on some of those key, classic elements of childhood like bike riding. We didn’t know how long the quarantine was going to last so we wanted to make sure the kids knew how to ride their bikes. Now biking is one of our main family activities, a huge part of our lives — this year we became a one-car family.”  

The shift to lockdown and rise in outdoor recreation meant more kids on bikes, resulting in an uptick in kids’ bike sales across the country. According to NPD group, May 2020 trail-a-bike sales grew by 142% and kids’ bikes sales were up 59% compared to 2019. An Aspen Institute study on the state of play found that bike riding moved from the 16th most popular youth activity pre-pandemic up to the third most popular youth activity in 2020.  

Youth Cycling Coalition member organizations — including The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA), the USA BMX Foundation and Project Bike Tech — consistently reported massive increases in participation for 2020 among both kids and coaches. Despite all the challenges associated with the pandemic, Project Bike Tech graduated 500 students last year and will be launching 10 new schools this fall. Over the last year, NICA has also seen rapid growth, with student sign-ups increasing by 16% and coach registrations by 11%.

In 2020, the youth bicycling nonprofit Outride added more than 44 new schools to its Riding for Focus middle school-based physical education program and in 2021, saw an almost 90% increase in the number of applications — the organization plans to announce its largest cohort ever in the coming weeks. Similarly, Outride’s community grant program, the Outride Fund, has seen more than 90% growth in the number of applications in both 2020 and 2021, resulting in its largest matching round to date with $530,000 committed to 53 organizations across 27 states. The growth is a testament to the demand for investments in youth bicycling across the country.

Sabra Davison, the co-founder and director of Little Bellas, an organization that spans 17 states and offers non-competitive mountain biking programs for girls age 7-18, saw a similar jump in participation. 

“Little Bellas has seen more girls excited to participate than ever before,” said Davison. “We are seeing an increase in both renewing and new riders signing up for our programs. As a result we’ve seen more smiles and heard more giggles on singletrack.”

The positive impact that learning to ride has had on 9-year-old Flynn is apparent. When we chatted over Facetime, he eagerly jumped up to show off his green and black “hybrid bike with gears.” He was especially proud of his “cool” grey helmet, complete with a retractable visor best described as, “World War II but with a bunch of robots in space.” 

“Biking helped a lot during the lockdown because school was out more days and if I wasn’t biking I’d probably be inside playing video games,” he said. “It’s easier to get to places and takes half the time of walking. It’s fun to ride with your friends.”

The best part about this upward trend in youth riding is that there are numerous indications that it is not just a passing phase. An April 2021 Rutledge report on COVID-19 impacts on bicycling found several points of evidence: Habit formation has already begun to occur and 45% of those surveyed reported that they would continue to commute by bike over using public transportation, even once it was an option again. The report also highlights the lasting positive impact of rapid-build pedestrian and biker-friendly infrastructure.

When we asked Flynn for his thoughts on his own bike future, he said, “I think I will definitely keep riding when I get older. And I really want to get an electric bike just like my dad has.”

The ‘Bike Boom’ Isn’t Just for Adults

An update on PeopleForBikes' federal trade and tariff work.

Last year, PeopleForBikes published our 2021 Trade Policy Agenda, outlining the U.S. bicycle industry’s policy recommendations for Congress and the Biden-Harris administration, and shared it across Washington, D.C. While a majority of our advocacy work focuses on boosting infrastructure funding and increasing access to and for bikes, trade policy holds a lot of influence over the availability of bikes, parts and accessories in the U.S. Now eight months later, here is an evaluation of our work to advance our top goals: 

Replace the Section 301 Tariffs With More Targeted Actions

At the end of 2020, the last remaining pieces of Section 301 tariff relief expired. In practical terms, this meant substantial tariff increases on critical products such as children’s bikes, electric bicycles, helmets, lights and more. Every bicycle product imported from China now faces a Section 301 tariff and most are subject to an extra 25% duty. 

We are actively advocating for Section 301 reform in Congress and there’s momentum on Capitol Hill to address Section 301 tariffs, not only by reforming the process but also creating a new process going forward. In June, the Senate passed the bipartisan Endless Frontiers Act, a massive science, technology and competitiveness bill that included several positive provisions on Section 301, including automatically renewing all expired tariff exclusions for 18 months, providing retroactive recovering of duties for some products that were excluded and creating a new, mandatory exclusion process. This would include all bike products for which duties increased after December 31, 2020. While the House of Representatives has not taken up the mantle to move this or similar legislation, we anticipate it will rise up on their agenda after they tackle infrastructure policy and a budget resolution. 

While President Biden and his administration have touted the benefits and potential of U.S. manufacturing and production, his administration’s actions so far have yet to offer any meaningful incentives for onshoring or supporting existing made-in-the-U.S. operations. At PeopleForBikes, we are continuing to consult the industry on policies we could support to meet the goals of the current administration.

Renew the Generalized System of Preferences

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) provides tariff relief for imported goods from developing nations. The last authorization for GSP expired on December 31, 2020, so the program remains lapsed.

We have been emphasizing the importance of renewing GSP to our Congressional allies for nearly two years, and there are signs of progress. The Endless Frontiers Act in the Senate also included a renewal of the Generalized System of Preferences through January 1, 2027. The reauthorization would be retroactive to December 21, 2020, allowing importers to recover tariffs on goods from GSP countries that were paid this year. If the bill moves through the House and becomes law, it would reform the GSP to promote human rights, the environment, women’s economic empowerment and other international goals of U.S. trade policy. It would also require the U.S. Trade Representative to review whether GSP countries are complying with these requirements more frequently. 

In the House, Democrats and Republicans are aligning behind two separate bills to renew GSP that differ in specific details. 

Work With Congress and Our Trade Allies to Pass a Free-Trade Environmental Goods Agreement

We continue to promote the concept of a free-trade agreement for goods that promote environmental sustainability and/or health and wellness — for which bikes are well positioned. Lawmakers should make it easier for Americans to purchase products like bicycles, electric bicycles and other bicycle products that help lower carbon emissions and enhance their well-being by facilitating the movement of these goods through an international free-trade agreement. While this issue is unlikely to see near-term movement, we continue to emphasize the importance of this issue to the United States Trade Representative. 

Work With Congress to Amend the De Minimis Shipment Rules

The De Minimis shipment rules provide duty-free treatment for shipments valued at $800 or less. This includes avoidance of Section 301 tariffs. These rules provide a substantial cost advantage to foreign retailers and disadvantage businesses that have a physical presence in the U.S. It also provides an easy avenue for products that don’t comply with required safety standards to reach Americans.

While De Minimis reform continues to remain elusive, PeopleForBikes continues to press Congress and the United States Trade Representative to support changes to De Minimis shipment rules, namely lowering the threshold for imports and ensuring that American consumers can purchase safety products like helmets that meet rigorous testing regulations. 

The Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB) provides tariff relief for products that lack a domestic manufacturing base. The most recent MTB, which provided limit relief for bicycle products such as disc brakes, expired at the end of 2020. Led by PeopleForBikes, our industry substantially increased its engagement in the administrative process that determined what products were included in the MTB in 2019 and 2020. This resulted in a significant expansion of products recommended for relief in the next MTB in the 2020 report issued by the U.S. International Trade Commission. We are now awaiting the final step in this process, which requires Congress to pass a bill containing those recommendations.

The Endless Frontiers Act in the Senate included the 2020 recommendations, which would go into effect until December 31, 2023. It also reauthorized the U.S. International Trade Commission to issue recommendations for two additional cycles of MTB relief, starting in 2022 and 2025. We’ll continue to push the House to pass these recommendations.

Significant progress has been made on key bike industry trade issues in 2021, and we anticipate that several of our priority issues will see successful outcomes. We anticipate that Section 301 reform, GSP renewal and passage of the MTB are questions of when — not if. While the details of Section 301 and GSP remain uncertain, there is significant pressure on Congress and the Biden Administration to act. PeopleForBikes will continue to press our agenda forward with the goal of securing several big wins for the bike industry in 2021.

Looking for a way to help? We need to make sure Congress hears the bike industry’s trade priorities loud and clear. Click on one (or all) of the links below to send a message to your elected officials about some of our key issues:

CALL ON CONGRESS TO RENEW THE GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES

URGE CONGRESS TO PASS THE MISCELLANEOUS TARIFF BILL

How Movement on Trade Policy Is Affecting the Bike Industry

We culled the responses from our annual survey for city officials, painting a more nuanced picture of bicycling at the local level.

Every year, the PeopleForBikes City Ratings is a massive endeavor, utilizing a comprehensive, data-driven approach to evaluate and compare bicycling in U.S. cities and towns, pinpointing areas for improvement at the local level. One of our data inputs is the City Snapshot, a survey asking elected officials to detail what their cities are doing to improve bicycling locally. 

While the City Snapshot doesn’t affect scores, it does provide a valuable, measurable look at local progress. In a sea of quantitative data, it also serves as an opportunity to collect qualitative responses, painting a more nuanced picture of the state of bicycling in cities nationwide. The following insights are taken from 79 cities that submitted responses this year.

States represented: 31 (plus one response from Canada)

Sample job titles of respondents: transportation planner, bicycle planner, transportation engineer, active transportation program manager, sustainability specialist, bicycle and pedestrian outreach coordinator, transportation options coordinator, transportation advisory committee member.

The 2021 City Snapshot asked respondents to rate the quality of OpenStreetMap data for their city. OpenStreetMap is the primary data source we use to produce a city’s Bicycle Network Analysis score, which comprises each city’s Network Score in the City Ratings. OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of maps, meaning anyone can edit the data. 

Approximately one-quarter of respondents judged OpenStreetMap data to be “Good” for their city and nearly half deemed the data “Fair.” The remainder rated the data as “Poor,” “Don’t know” or were not familiar with OpenStreetMap. Based on this feedback, we see additional room to collaborate with cities, advocates and the civic tech community to further improve the data and our OpenStreetMap editing guidance.

The 2021 City Snapshot asked what types of projects cities completed in 2020 and planned for 2021. The responses documented below complement two surveys PeopleForBikes fielded in 2020 asking cities how their bicycle plans adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can find a summary of results from that research here: How Bicycling Changed During A Pandemic.

Additional completed and planned projects include: 

A cyclocross course in Fayetteville, Arizona.

Secure bike parking in Jersey City, New Jersey. 

Redesigned streets for outdoor dining and parklets in Santa Monica, California.

Designated parking zones for dockless bikes and scooters in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Road diets in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Cleveland, Ohio.

A children’s educational bike park in Tallahassee, Florida.

Code revisions in Lawrence, Kansas, to strengthen requirements for bike parking at private developments.

Repurposing a landfill in Conway, Arkansas, to create new mountain bike trails.

Check out NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide for project examples and best practices for implementation in any city.

Overall, the responding cities reported increases in fatalities and injuries for all modes of travel between 2018 and 2019, although outcomes varied widely by city. For instance, Tulsa, Oklahoma, countered the overall trend, counting five bicyclists deaths in 2018 and zero in 2019, and 44 all-mode fatalities in 2018 compared to 36 in 2019. 

The City Ratings score calculation no longer includes safety data and the City Snapshot will not request safety data in the future. However, closely tracking deaths and injuries is critical for cities to evaluate bicycle network outcomes and prevent future deaths and injuries through better road design. We know that 2020 was an especially deadly year for road users, including people on bikes, illustrating an urgent need to make our streets and intersections safer for people using all modes of transportation.

Cities that distinguished between incapacitating vs. non-incapacitating injury data: 37

For the first time, the City Snapshot asked an open-ended question about what cities are doing to address equity in their bike planning. We received a number of great responses demonstrating different approaches to incorporating equity into bicycling networks, programs and outreach. A few of these initiatives are summarized below.

New Orleans, Louisiana, applies a Bicycle Equity Index to identify areas to target for transportation improvements. The index includes five metrics that provide context for decision-making, such as transit dependence and environmental justice.

Madison, Wisconsin, applies a citywide tool to review programs using a racial equity and social justice lens. The city also works with Neighborhood Resource Teams to validate proposed changes.

Lawrence, Kansas, tracks equitable transportation access for disadvantaged communities with a particular focus on designated Environmental Justice Zones.

In Conway, Arkansas, a bike planner reviews crashes involving bikes to evaluate the role of the built environment, a practice that can identify the consequences of dangerous road design rather than focusing blame on people.

Lincoln, Nebraska, incorporates race and income demographics into project evaluation criteria and implementation.

Additional responses from Northampton, Massachusetts; Jersey City, New Jersey; Ferndale, Michigan; Cleveland, Ohio; Tallahassee, Florida and Tulsa, Oklahoma, noted that the cities prioritize bike projects in BIPOC and low-income communities.

Another new question this year gauged the usefulness of PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings when it comes to improving bicycling locally. Respondents cited a number of ways City Ratings supports their work, including:

Benchmarking progress against peer cities.

Creating competitive pressure to improve.

Serving as a promotional tool to engage the community and garner support.

Providing an annual tracking metric and “gut check.”

Collecting feedback from residents via the Community Survey.

Respondents also gave helpful feedback on how PeopleForBikes can improve the program:

Ease the burden of updating OpenStreetMap to generate more accurate network scores.

Draft a more consistent annual calendar for City Ratings deadlines, including the Community Survey, City Snapshot and OpenStreetMap updates.

Provide easier access to the underlying data that informs the scores.

Craft more detailed recommendations based on the results.

Better explain scores that stray far from expectations, particularly given the heavy influence of residential speed limits on overall scores.

Next year, we intend to further simplify and shorten the City Snapshot. We will remove questions about planned and completed infrastructure, bike share trips and safety data,

shifting the focus of the survey to ask questions that will help us improve Network Score accuracy and gather feedback on the City Ratings as an advocacy tool.

Thank you to the cities that submitted a City Snapshot in 2021 and in years past. We invite city officials to sign up to receive the 2022 City Snapshot, which will help PeopleForBikes further strengthen the City Ratings and capture the important work cities are doing to enable more people to ride bikes.

Not a city official? Support the City Ratings project by filling out our Community Survey or petitioning to add your city.

City officials sent the following photographs alongside their snapshot submissions. Imagine if all the amazing bike infrastructure showcased were actually from one (incredible) city!

Red Pole Park and multi-use path in Southfield, Michigan.

Off-street paths intersect in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

Protected bike lane in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Colonial Bridge bike/pedestrian overpass in Orlando, Florida.

Off-street lakefront path in Madison, Wisconsin.

Parking protected two-way bike lane in Staten Island, New York.

Protected bike lane in Boston, Massachusetts.

 Protected bike intersection in Fremont, California.

A bike/pedestrian underpass in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Two-way protected bike lane in Memphis, Tennessee.

Two-way protected bike lane in Eugene, Oregon.

A Snapshot of Bicycling in 78 U.S. Cities

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A Snapshot of Bicycling in 78 U.S. Cities