PeopleForBikes’ mission and work to make biking better for everyone and help the United States become the best place in the world to ride a bike wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of our partners. That’s why we’re proud to work with REI to advance safe, fun, and connected places to ride and ensure everyone can experience the joy and benefits of getting outside.

Since 2022, REI’s support has helped PeopleForBikes produce a first-of-its-kind recreational access tool, accelerate bike infrastructure in key states, and improve bikeability in countless communities nationwide. In 2026, REI is helping us go even further with support focused on our Ride LA Together initiative and improving our tools and resources to create more connected bike networks in communities across the U.S.

Measuring Access to Great Places to Ride

In 2022, REI supported the development of our Recreational Bicycling Access Tool, which measures how well people can reach trails, bike parks, pump tracks, and other off-road biking opportunities close to home. Our existing Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA) tool already scores how safely and comfortably people can travel by bike to everyday destinations, and the Recreational Bicycling Access tool extended that framework to measure access to off-road riding opportunities. The project helped define what "good access" to recreational bicycling actually means and provide local leaders a map of where improvements can make the biggest difference.

Infrastructure Wins in California and Michigan

With subsequent support in 2024, PeopleForBikes partnered with nine local coalitions in California and Michigan — including the Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative, the Detroit Greenways Coalition, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition, and Bike East Bay — to accelerate critical bike projects and close longstanding network gaps. That year, PeopleForBikes also supported the passage of $12 billion in state and local funding for bike projects in those two states, a historic Complete Streets mandate in Los Angeles, and reduced speed limit legislation in Michigan.

By the end of 2025, those efforts had compounded. Through our VoteForBikes program, we helped secure $2.2 billion in additional state and local bike and pedestrian funding — including $300 million in Chicago, $273 million in California, and $5 million in New Mexico. We also tracked more than 2,400 local bike projects nationwide and expanded our City Ratings to 2,541 U.S. cities and 360 international cities, supporting communities across the U.S. in making the proper investments to become great places to ride.

2026 + Beyond: Safer Streets, Stronger Networks, More Riders

PeopleForBikes' 2026 REI grant supports our core mission: getting more people riding bikes more often by making biking safer, more accessible, and more connected for people of all ages and abilities. Our three priorities driving our work this year:

• Accelerate the construction of safe and connected places to ride through coalition building, local advocacy, community engagement, and campaigns like VoteForBikes. In Los Angeles, this includes Ride LA Together — a coalition-driven initiative to get more people riding bikes more often and build a safe, connected bike network across the region ahead of the 2028 Olympics with partners including Move LA, Active San Gabriel Valley, the Los Angeles Bicycle Academy, and BikeLA.

• Invest in the people who make this work happen. Through expert-led webinars, policy support, trainings, and practical tools, we're helping advocates, planners, and policymakers to plan, fund, and deliver great places to ride in their communities.

• Continue to strengthen our data and measurement tools — including City Ratings, the Recreational Bicycling Access Tool, and our Bike Project Tracker — so communities can benchmark progress, prioritize investments, and make the case for critical funding.

How You Can Help

Want to help move this work forward? Become a PeopleForBikes Foundation member, explore City Ratings to see how your community scores, and sign up for PeopleForBikes’ newsletter to be the first to know when you can take action for better biking near you. The momentum is building. Every rider, every mile, and every investment counts.