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!

Encourage employees to get out of their seats

E-bikes are fun, but do they still offer exercise? We surveyed the available data to find out.

There’s no question that electric bikes are soaring in popularity, or that sales will continue to rise (especially as gas prices do, too). The one demographic that seems more hesitant to embrace the e-bike boom, however, is avid cyclists and other fitness enthusiasts. To those more drawn to “type II fun,” an e-bike — with its pedal-powered battery offering riders a boost — can feel like cheating, a way around hard climbs and the stamina required for a traditional 20-mile ride. 

But the beauty of e-bikes lies in the fact that they’re more inclusive, allowing people of all ages and fitness levels to enjoy bicycling. While more expensive than your average bike, there is a slew of electric bicycle incentive programs aimed at low-income individuals, a growing list of e-bike lending libraries and an increasing number of bike share systems going all-electric. Plus, because of the ease associated with using them, electric bikes are also more likely to replace car trips (a recent study found car owners who also own an e-bike used the bike to replace about half the miles they usually traveled by car). 

People love e-bikes for the very reason their detractors don’t: the bike's motor and rechargeable battery carry the brunt of the hard work. 

According to Chris Cherry, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Tennessee who studies e-bike use, a battery-powered bike can help bridge the gap and bring non-cyclists into the fold. “The most powerful thing that e-bikes do is that they take the most painful parts of bike riding away,” said Cherry. “Either the climb or the duration — the stuff that keeps people from starting.”

Because electric bikes are less physically demanding on joints and muscles, they not only bring in riders who might otherwise be inactive, but they also offer the opportunity for people to ride longer periods of time and go greater distances. That leads to more folks using e-bikes as an option for commuting or running errands. Although users won’t find themselves doing the sort of vigorous physical activity uphill mountain biking or even hot yoga entails, e-bike use has been shown to deliver the sort of moderate physical activity most doctors recommend. 

While Cherry isn’t an exercise scientist, he did partner with several on a 2017 study that found e-bikes provide moderate physical activity on flat segments and downhill segments and vigorous physical activity on uphill segments. Notably, that same study found that compared to traditional bikes and walking, e-bikes lower a person’s need to shower after riding, allow riders to dress appropriately for the weather, require less exertion and elicit higher levels of enjoyment.

“If you’re only using your bike when you feel energized versus all the time — as e-bike users tend to — then you’re not doing yourself any favors,” said Cherry. “Research says people ride e-bikes more often and farther, so they get more physical activity, even though it’s less intense.”

A 2019 study found that e-bikes can provide intense exercise, it just doesn’t feel like a workout. Another 2021 study came to roughly the same conclusion: Electric bicycling can definitely count as exercise. Those researchers, who compared the physiological effects of e-bikes and standard road bikes during a simulated commute, determined that the e-bike riders elevated their breathing and heart rates enough to count as a meaningful workout. However, those health benefits varied from person to person.

When on a Class 2 e-bike — which includes a throttle and a max speed of 20 miles per hour — a person could theoretically not pedal at all, burning through their battery power using it like a motorcycle. Obviously, to obtain a health benefit, one has to actually pedal the bike. Similarly, if you’re always using the maximum amount of pedal assist, you’ll get less exercise than someone who’s more conservative. In the 2021 study, some participants that used the highest level of pedal assistance were found to get moderate exercise while others’ heart rate response was too mild to count (rider height and weight can also play an important role in the number of calories burned). 

Across the board, the e-bike users burned about 30% fewer calories than those on road bikes but as with the participants in Cherry’s study, they reported having more fun. Other studies echo this sentiment, with many driving home the point that when bicycling is made easier and more enjoyable, courtesy of pedal assist, it’s more likely to become a part of people’s everyday lifestyle. 

While the mental health benefits of e-biking are harder to quantify, there is something to be said for a form of transportation that provides joy, allowing more people to better connect to the places they live. There’s plenty of research that points to the mental health benefits of spending time outdoors, including one 2019 study that links 120 minutes spent outside per week with elevated levels of health and well-being. Plus, physical activity in general has been shown to improve sleep, mood and cognitive functioning, as well as decrease stress and ease depression and anxiety.

Based on such research, Canadian doctors can now prescribe national park visits to patients. Anna Wassman, the business development manager at Bosch eBike Systems — which manufactures e-bike batteries, motors and displays for more than 70 brands globally — hopes to someday get to the point where doctors might also be able to prescribe e-bikes. In tandem with Cherry and others, Wassman is working to develop a long-term, large-scale scientific medical study to fill a current gap in the research. While it’s still in the conceptual stages, for there to be any sort of medical intervention, longitudinal evidence is needed.

“The adoption of e-bikes as the go-to health and wellness tool for the medical community — that’s the dream goal,” said Wassman. To help achieve that dream, Bosch believes insurance companies, benefits brokers and employers have a large role to play. “It’s lots of little pieces that all tie together to create a better world. We need to help people get there.”

For older adults, whose immune systems benefit from exercise, as well as folks with pre-existing conditions or joint pain, e-bikes are a low-impact way to stay healthy. Research also shows that outdoor e-bike exercise can help stroke, spinal cord injury survivors, Multiple Sclerosis patients, and people born with motor function disorders — as well as people recovering from more everyday injuries. Again, they’re also expensive. Since socioeconomic status is a known indicator of things like hypertension, heart disease, obesity and respiratory issues, e-bikes remain out of reach for many who would benefit most from their use.

In 2021, Biketown, the all-electric bike share system in Portland, Oregon, launched a prescribe-a-bike program to both increase access to e-bikes and improve public health. In partnership with the Multnomah County Health Department, Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) Program and its student health centers, the two-year pilot is offering prescriptions for bike share for clinic patients and 16 and 17-year-old high school students. All prescriptions come with a free bike share membership, helmet and educational support.

According to Roshin Kurian, transportation demand management specialist at the Portland Bureau of Transportation, which manages Biketown, the clinic and student populations live in the same zip codes, one of the best-known indicators of poor health outcomes. “These are underserved communities that are more low income than the rest of the city and more ethnically diverse,” said Kurian. 

Thus far, the prescribe-a-bike program has 58 participants, all of whom agreed to have their ridership data tracked and to submit health surveys. Although prescribe-a-bike programs aren’t new — Boston, Massachusetts, and Brooklyn, New York, have their own, and the U.K. announced a nationwide initiative in July 2021 — they are rare, and haven’t traditionally involved electric pedal-assist bikes. Kurian believes that Biketown’s all-electric fleet helped not only secure the initial buy-in from participants but will ensure that folks ride more often.  

“Once you get on an e-bike and you feel that pedal-assist and you're able to go up the hill, you're able to go further and that builds confidence,” said Kurian. “It’s a gateway drug to more activity and to better behavioral changes around your health.”

For children aged 6 through 17, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends 60 minutes or more of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity each day. For adults, it’s 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity (and two days of muscle-strengthening activity) each week. Biketown’s prescriptions are in line with these guidelines, although Kurian acknowledges that for many folks, it can seem like a lot.

“It's a recommendation, so anything that we hit near that is great,” said Kurian. “It’s also probably more realistic if you’re using an e-bike.”

By focusing on youth and clinic patients with preexisting conditions, the study will showcase how electric bikes might work as both a preventative and curative intervention. The larger public health savings brought on by a large-scale shift to e-bikes is harder to quantify. According to a 2021 study conducted by epidemiological researchers at Colorado State University, bike share alone saves the U.S. $36 million in public health dollars every year. Researchers also found that bike share trips in the U.S. provide health benefits for bicyclists and those health benefits are greater than the risks, such as air pollution or injury from cars. 

Bike share systems that go electric consistently bring in more users — in 2019, when the Madison BCycle fleet in Madison, Wisconsin, went electric, usage more than doubled, and in New York City, electric-assist Citi Bikes see more than twice as many rides per day than traditional bikes. It follows that the more electric bikes there are on our streets, whatever the source, the larger the collective public health benefit. The more e-bikes swell in popularity, the more likely they are to play a role in helping reshape our streets to be more walkable and bikeable — which comes with health savings of their own. 

A widespread mode shift would also reduce emissions while redesigning our streets for bikes can help lower road fatalities all around. And if a future full of electric bicycles seems far-fetched, consider this: In Europe, e-bikes are projected to outsell cars — all cars, not just electric ones — by the middle of the decade. In the U.S., e-bike sales are outpacing electric car sales and are tracking towards 1 million annually. 

Electric bikes are proven to have the ability to help individuals, and getting more individuals on e-bikes has the ability to help our communities and the planet at large. The more people bicycling, in whatever capacity, the better.

In North Carolina, mountain bike trails on Cherokee land are improving citizens’ quality of life and transforming the local economy.

There are some 16,000 enrolled members of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, a sovereign nation located on more than 57,000 acres in the western part of North Carolina. The area, known as the Qualla Boundary, is mountainous and forested and its main town, Cherokee, serves as a gateway to the nearby Great Smoky Mountains National Park and a number of recreational opportunities. 

In early 2015, Tonya “Tinker” Jenks, a tribal member and employee, received approval to start building trails on 212 acres within the Qualla Boundary. Rates of obesity and diabetes are high amongst the Cherokee and her goal was simple: provide another option for enrolled citizens to connect with nature and stay active. When Jeremy Hyatt, the tribe’s secretary of operations and an avid mountain biker, took over the program later that year, he expanded on Jenks’ vision to include 10.5 miles of singletrack. The Fire Mountain Trails opened in June 2017 and they quickly became a regional destination. 

“I’m excited about building outdoor infrastructure in general and being secretary, I’m always trying to find the low-hanging fruit,” said Hyatt, adding that outdoor initiatives tend to be significantly less expensive than other tribal expenditures.

Designed by trails specialist Valerie Naylor and built by Trail Dynamics, based in Pisgah Forest, North Carolina, the Fire Mountain Trails system was paid for with revenue from Harrah's Cherokee Casino, the tribe’s main economic driver. Although it’s been optimized for mountain bikers, the trail system also accommodates hikers and trail runners. The latter makes up about 10% of the mountain’s users and so far, there hasn’t been any conflict — bikers yield to hikers no matter what, and everyone yields to the elk. 

While the goal was to keep the entry point low, the naturally steep terrain of Fire Mountain means it’s not great for all beginners. There are two green trails — one of which is aptly named “Tinkers Dream” — a handful of blues and one black diamond. Riders love it because it’s not too technical and a ton of fun, with top-to-bottom runs that offer a groomed, flowy ride. Plus, electric bikes are allowed, making tough uphills more accessible.

“We were surprised and taken aback by how popular it’s become,” said Hyatt. “It’s not just a tourist destination — it also improves the quality of life of our tribal citizens.”

According to Hyatt, the trail system has brought together the community in new ways, facilitating the intermingling of the tribe and surrounding Jackson and Swain counties. This is especially apparent on Thursday nights during the summer and fall when enrolled members and other locals come together around a love of mountain biking. Hyatt notes that the handful of tribal members that were already avid riders have helped spread the word, encouraging more people to get involved.

“There are several folks who haven't ridden a bicycle since they were 14 and they started riding two years ago,” said Hyatt. “They've lost weight, their health has gotten much, much better and they’re racing now — they're getting on the podium. They're doing well there and they're spreading the word to their friends, their family and their community members.”

Participants take a break during one of the Thursday night group rides.

Bicycling in general — and mountain biking in particular — can often be intimidating for those just starting, especially if you haven’t ridden a bike since childhood. You might not know the lingo or what to even ask when inside a bike shop, and that’s if you even make it there at all. When trusted members of your community make the introduction, however, the whole experience becomes more accessible. This is especially true in a tight-knit tribal community where people are rightfully wary of things. 

“We’re an Indian tribe that has fought for this land for millennia, that has taken the scraps off of the [Bureau of Indian Affairs] (BIA) table for generations,” said Hyatt. “It’s created a general suspicion of anything new.” 

Having buy-in from locals around a healthy, community-building activity has helped generate pride and bring in new business. The Fire Mountain Trails are accessed through the Oconaluftee Indian Village, a replica of an 18th-century eastern Cherokee community, and the routes connect to different parts of Cherokee proper. Three years ago, Motion Makers Bicycle Shop opened a branch in town, and in 2020, Bryson City Outdoors followed suit, opening its Fire Mountain Outpost. During the busy summer season, the trail system also brings in around 2,000-2,500 visitors each month, which has its own economic impact.

“In terms of the local input into the economy, I’ve estimated it to be about $100,000 to $150,000 a month on those big months,” said Hyatt, noting that his data is conservative and based on national averages. “That’s nothing to sneeze at.”

When considering the implications for Cherokee, Hyatt was particularly inspired by his trips to Bentonville, Arkansas, which has become a go-to destination for mountain bikers of all skill levels. Not only has Bentonville invested heavily in beautiful purpose-built trails, but it’s done a lot of work around activation, education and getting various community members involved, including beginner and differently-abled riders. Part of the rationale for allowing e-bikes on Fire Mountain — other than the fact that they’re a ton of fun and the largest growing sector of bike sales nationwide — was to increase accessibility. 

“If you don't get children or families involved, trails aren’t going to do the job they're supposed to,” said Hyatt. “That's to keep everybody active and create another aspect of community that they’ve never had before. That's something we're still working on.”

The trail system’s success has made it easier for Hyatt to push for more outdoor initiatives. The 18-hole Fire Mountain Disc Golf Sanctuary opened in March 2022 and an additional 12-plus miles of bicycling infrastructure is currently in the works. Located just a quarter-mile from the Fire Mountain Trails on land that’s steep and unusable for housing, the tribe is building out more advanced gravity trails, as well as an asphalt pump track, skills park, tot track and bicycle playground. There will also be a shaded, family-friendly area for hanging out, as well as a storefront. The facility is being built in partnership with the International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) and is slated to open in 2024. 

“We'll be able to accommodate both the super-advanced rider and also, on the other end of the spectrum, the little guys and their families who haven't been on a bike in a while,” said Hyatt, who’s committed to carrying out a community vision. “I’d also like to include some sort of representation of tribal folklore, whether it be a painted installation or part of the pump track — something that is legitimately and truly Cherokee.”

Although other tribal nations have embraced mountain bicycling, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is the first to lay down purpose-built singletrack. It’s a decision that’s not only put the Qualla Boundary on many riders’ bucket lists but it’s also helped build local affinity around exercise, well-being and the outdoors. Naming the trail system Fire Mountain was fated in its own way — not only does the land have a history of literally catching fire but it also speaks to the enthusiasm that’s ignited around bicycling.

“Whether folks ride or not, the general attitude towards these trails is all positive,” said Hyatt. “If they’re not riding, they’re cheering on those that are."

Interested in learning more about the Fire Mountain Trails system? Jeremy Hyatt will be the keynote speaker at PeopleForBikes’ 2022 Electric Bicycle Summit, taking place in Asheville, North Carolina, on May 19.

Alix Armour, head of sustainability at Super73, and Troy Jones, social and environmental responsibility manager at Specialized, serve as co-chairs on the Supply Chain and Social and Environmental Responsibility track within PeopleForBikes’ Sustainability Working Group.

The word sustainability usually conjures images of the environment, materials and recycling, not necessarily supply chain outcomes from social inequalities and environmental risks. These issues, beneath the surface of the sustainability conversation, include safety and the status of foreign migrant workers, child labor, codes of conduct, conflict minerals, environmental performance improvement, legal and regulatory compliance, transparency, management systems and diversity in suppliers. 

Immense challenges like these make up the core discussion of the Supply Chain and Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) track within PeopleForBikes’ Sustainability Working Group (SWG). The track meets quarterly, bringing together leaders from across the bike industry interested in learning from one another on how to tackle these big issues of supply chain and SER. 

Figuring out how to get your company started can be daunting, but the work is critical — consider it risk management for your brand. Startups and 50+ year old companies have very different business models, processes and work capacities, and as co-chairs, we bring both experiences to the conversation. As passionate supply chain and sustainability professionals, we’re not wasting time getting to the hot topics. We’ve tackled such themes with PeopleForBikes members that have both close to zero and decades of experience. 

Our first initiative was to invite different supply chain SER service providers to review their tools and techniques bike companies can use to measure and track SER performance metrics. This helped give members who were new to the concept an idea of the existing methods and practices available to evaluate SER for a wide range of needs and company sizes. We also spent time discussing codes of conduct, what difficulties our members are encountering internally and externally, as well as bringing in diverse speakers to offer new perspectives on SER to our discussions.

SER service providers can simplify due diligence by providing elaborate supplier questionnaires, in-factory audits, tracking platforms, risk analysis, legal council and more. While incredibly effective, they do come at a cost. 

For smaller companies who are just starting the process, a simple first step is getting to know and start building relationships with all of your suppliers, understanding stress factors and seeing how you can help and improve specific situations. No matter your company size, it is crucial to identify and evaluate your critical suppliers. In our track, we outlined a simple scoring system to help bike companies identify risk and procedures. 

After that has been established, it’s up to your brand to decide which metrics are most important for your strategy. For example, if you’re trying to calculate your Scope 3 emissions, you may need to find out the locations of all your Tier 1 and 2 suppliers. Depending on your company’s products, you may need to collect valuable supply chain data for compliance reasons, carbon emissions calculations, materials evaluations, etc. 

Our goal in the Supply Chain and SER track is to help brands start implementing and increasing SER practices into their operations, with an objective of 50% of track members establishing an implementation plan by the end of 2022. To join and learn more about how your company can get started, reach out to Noa Banayan, PeopleForBikes’ director of federal affairs and our track staff liaison, at noa@peopleforbikes.org. 

Factoring Social and Environmental Responsibility Into Your Supply Chain

The first-of-its-kind bill prioritizes recreation and mountain biking on public lands nationwide.

On May 3, 2022, the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources (SENR) Committee advanced America’s Outdoor Recreation Act of 2022, a landmark policy package dedicated to funding recreation infrastructure and expanding access on our federal public lands. The bill would help develop long-distance bike trails and streamline the recreation permitting process.

The package, which heads to the Senate floor but still requires approval in the House of Representatives, includes the Biking on Long Distance Trails (BOLT) Act and the Simplifying Outdoor Access to Recreation (SOAR) Act. PeopleForBikes sent a letter in support of these and several other bills included in the package before the SENR’s last hearing on recreation policy on December 1, 2021. 

Read more about building momentum for pro-recreation policy. 

"America’s Outdoor Recreation Act of 2022 will make biking and mountain biking experiences on our public lands more accessible, sustainable and enjoyable for all. Provisions like SOAR and BOLT will help meet the growing demand for bicycling as a low-cost, emissionless and tourism-driving activity," said PeopleForBikes President and CEO Jenn Dice. "This package proves that bike policy brings both sides of the aisle together to grow infrastructure and access. We look forward to working with the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on advancing this first-of-its-kind bipartisan investment in the future of recreation."

Take Action to Support America's Outdoor Recreation Act of 2022.

The BOLT Act would direct federal land management agencies from the Department of Interior to the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture to work together to identify and develop ten unique, long-distance trails for biking on our public lands. The SOAR Act would streamline the currently burdensome recreation permitting process, lessening the duplicative paperwork that guides and outfitters for multi-day and multi-jurisdictional bike trips are required to submit. 

PeopleForBikes applauds the SENR Committee for continuing the legacy of the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020 with this new package. We look forward to working with the bicycle industry, champions for outdoor recreation in Congress and our national advocacy partners to swiftly move America’s Outdoor Recreation Act of 2022 through the legislative process. 

New Recreation Policy Package Hits U.S. Senate

BikeWalkKC and Safe Routes to School released a new publication designed for advocates that want to repeal and modify unsafe, racialized traffic laws.

The murder of George Floyd was the straw that broke many an advocate's back — passionate people across the country utilized the mainstream attention the tragedy garnered to shine a light on the racialized enforcement of many American laws. In the mobility space, there was a renewed effort to critically examine traffic laws related to walking and bicycling that fail to meet their intended safety goals and instead disproportionately affect Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), as well as the unhoused and low-income communities. BikeWalkKC, alongside the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, recently released “Taking on Traffic Laws: A How-To Guide For Decriminalizing Mobility,” based on the organization’s experience reforming unjust laws locally. 

Since its founding, BikeWalkKC, based in Kansas City, Missouri, has centered equity in its work, lobbying for better infrastructure but also larger policy reform. In 2020, as Floyd’s murder sparked protests around the country, the Kansas City City Council adopted Resolution #200450, which directed city staff to review the full municipal code to identify elements of racist language as well as statutes that could disproportionately harm Black and brown residents. BikeWalkKC used the resolution as an opportunity to search for laws that could specifically be used to over-police BIPOC while walking or biking.

“We essentially identified three laws related to jaywalking, bike inspections and dirty wheels that needed to be modified or repealed,” said Michael Kelley, policy director at BikeWalkKC. “Over the course of the next few months, we were able to push for the introduction of legislation, build a coalition and ultimately, successfully advocate for those changes in May of 2021.”

In his new podcast, “Arrested Mobility,” researcher Charles T. Brown explores the adverse social, political, economic and health outcomes of over-policing BIPOC movement — whether on bikes, walking, running or driving — in the U.S. The first episode is all about jaywalking and showcases how while illegal in many places, jaywalking is inequitably enforced in areas with fewer sidewalks, signals and pedestrian crossing areas. Similarly, research shows that areas with less bike infrastructure experience disproportionate ticketing, compounding the effects of racially biased policing and transportation policies.

To showcase the inequitable enforcement of jaywalking laws in Kansas City specifically, BikeWalkKC obtained data from the municipal court (because the city doesn’t have local control over its police department, it’s incredibly difficult to secure arrest data). The data showed a definite racial bias in charges related to jaywalking: 65% of jaywalking tickets were given out to Black residents, even though they make up less than 30% of the city’s population. The other two laws identified as problematic pertained to dirty wheels, which made it illegal to drive a car, bike or other vehicle that deposited mud on city streets, and bike inspections, which allowed officers to stop someone biking if they believed the bike was in a state of disrepair. 

On paper, many bicycle laws — such as those for inspections or others that require people to wear helmets, use bike lights, obtain a bike license or register their bikes — seem like a great idea. After all, inspecting a bike that’s in poor shape might save someone from injury, helmets can protect our heads in the case of a crash, lights help bikers see and be seen, bike licenses can raise money for infrastructure and bike registrations safeguard people against theft. In reality, these laws are widely virtually unknown and rarely enforced. When they do get enforced, it’s usually to the detriment of BIPOC citizens or those experiencing homelessness.

Something like a bike inspection law can be used by police officers as a pretextual traffic stop, or the practice of using a minor traffic stop to investigate a more serious crime. These sorts of stops bring with them a myriad of risks: the disruption of a person’s daily affairs, policing for profit, overcriminalization of already marginalized groups and, in extreme scenarios, even policing killings. There is also evidence that a crime-fighting approach based on traffic stops is largely ineffective.

Importantly, bicycle laws and by association, pretextual stops, also gatekeep bicycling, ensuring that certain populations feel less safe traveling on two wheels, which hurts all of us working in the bike space. Suzanne Hogan is a community volunteer and shop coordinator at the 816 Bicycle Collective in Kansas City, a volunteer-run, DIY recycle bike shop that welcomes everyone and focuses on the empowerment and education of low-income bike commuters. 

“At the shop, one of the big things I hear all the time from our patrons is about bike lights — not having lights is an excuse for someone to get pulled over on their bikes,” said Hogan, noting that other stories she hears are a direct reaction to an unsafe urban bicycling environment. “I've heard many patrons say that they've been stopped by a police officer for violating a traffic law, like say riding on a sidewalk.”

All of this creates mental stress and anguish for these communities and a general feeling of being unsafe when trying to move around. While many of the incidents Hogan hears about aren’t codified in city law, they’re part of a larger culture that polices the mobility of lower-income individuals and BIPOC. Combatting arrested mobility requires a cultural approach (this includes shops like the 816 Collective, which helps build a more inclusive community) in addition to a policy approach, like the one taken by BikeWalkKC.

Following the organization’s success, calls began rolling in from advocates in places like Atlanta, and Denver, asking for advice on how they might recreate such wins in their cities. The guide for decriminalizing mobility was a response to inquiries and is broken up into three sections: The first being an explanation of how we have overpoliced traffic enforcement and how that disproportionately harms certain groups, the second detailing what BikeWalkKC did in Kansas City, and the third is a call to action, asking advocates to learn from what BikeWalkKC did and to apply it to their own communities.

“One of the big takeaways was the importance of building an effective and varied coalition,” said Kelley, noting that in addition to people from transportation, the Kansas City coalition included folks working in housing, livability and sustainability backgrounds. “Another big part is the importance of being willing and able to get the data and the stories earlier in order to help build and strengthen your case.”

Kelley adds that an important part of that story gathering is also guarding your own vulnerability — advocacy often requires people to explain and share parts of their own lived experiences that are difficult and that they are still sometimes working through. Even though advocacy work is important and requires us to use our voices, it’s important to practice self-care and limit the parts of ourselves we share.

“We wrote this guide for other advocates,” said Kelley. “If and when there are other communities that want to take these steps, here’s our detailed account of how you can get it done and do it better than us by avoiding the mistakes we made.”

Kelly and the other authors are also clear that this is a guide, not the guide for taking on traffic laws. Language and terminology will differ from place to place; someone might be looking at laws that are more expansive or more narrow depending on where you are. Even the way BikeWalkKC went through its municipal code searching for certain terms like “sidewalk” and “walking” might be replaced with “pedestrian path” or “crosswalk” elsewhere. Kelley is also adamant that it doesn’t have to be an organization or nonprofit leading the charge — a group of community members can make a difference.

“We want people to understand that there are multiple ways to do this work,” said Kelley. “We don't necessarily think that everyone has to do things the exact same way to get the same results. You can change things to better suit the nuances of the community you’re working in.”

The guide is itself an acknowledgment that the work doesn’t end in Kansas City. Even just outside of town, in Independence, Missouri, 37-year-old Justin Layton was tackled, tased, beaten and ultimately arrested by police in 2020 after being initially stopped for the crime of jaywalking. He’d like to see the entire Kansas City metro area decriminalize jaywalking — the authors of “Taking on Traffic Laws” are thinking even bigger.

“This is not something that just ends with Kansas City and it doesn't just end with BikeWalkKC,” said Kelley. “We want this guide to be a catalyst for similar changes across the country.” 

Check out “Taking on Traffic Laws: A How-To Guide for Decriminalizing Mobility,” from BikeWalkKC and the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. 

Are you or any groups you know of working locally to repeal unjust traffic laws related to bicycling? We’d love to hear from you. Drop us a line: kiran@peopleforbikes.org.

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A How-To Guide for Decriminalizing Mobility