PeopleForBikes is leading the charge to better understand and grow the base of people who ride bikes in America. In support of this work, our new blog series explores what the latest research tells us about who’s riding, how often, and why it matters for the future of bicycling and the bike industry.

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Why Bicycling Participation Matters and What’s Next

Engaging Casual Participants to Grow Bicycling

One of the most exciting findings to come out of the most recent PeopleForBikes Bicycling Participation Study is that the proportion of kids riding bikes increased for the first time since we’ve tracked bicycling in the U.S. While the study doesn’t exactly address why more kids are riding, there are likely several contributing factors.

Anecdotally, we are hearing a lot about kids riding bench style e-bikes. Unfortunately, we don’t have any data that can directly address this hypothesis because we can’t connect sales data to end users. Nevertheless, cities across the country are reporting this trend, and it poses an interesting question for the industry — how do we want to engage kids who start bicycling because of these bench-style e-bikes? One idea is that these kids could be especially open to using a bike as their primary mode of transportation. Imagine how our cities and towns could change if more kids kept riding bikes through their teen years and into adulthood — less traffic, safer streets, healthier people, and stronger communities.

Another factor that may be increasing youth participation are programs aimed directly at getting kids riding as part of their educational experience. The National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) engages middle school and high school students to participate on mountain bike teams. Though these are competitive leagues, unlike other competitive sports, all kids are welcome on NICA teams and get to actively participate. According to their 2024 annual report, NICA reaches more than 25,000 kids each year and research shows that participating in NICA has impacts well beyond the kids themselves, as their friends and family members often start riding or engage more deeply in bicycling as a result of their relationship with NICA kids.

Outride is another example of a program that is actively engaging kids. Outride partners with middle schools nationwide, offering grants and a curriculum that incorporates riding into the school day. According to the 2024 Outride Impact report, there are programs in nearly 400 schools in the U.S. and Canada that serve more than 50,000 kids annually.

Little Bellas engages girls in mountain biking starting in elementary school and extending through young adulthood through mentorship opportunities. Based on Little Bellas’ most recent numbers, they have reached more than 8,500 girls across the country.

Another great example is All Kids Bike, a national nonprofit that brings bike education to kindergarten PE classes through a ready-to-teach program. Each school receives teacher training, an eight-lesson curriculum, 24 balance-to-pedal bikes, helmets, storage racks, and ongoing support. Active in over 1,700 schools across all 50 states, the program teaches 170,000 kids to ride each year and aims to reach over 1 million students throughout the 10-year lifespan of the programs already in place.

These are just a few examples of national-level programs that are working to get and keep kids on bikes. As a founding member of the Youth Cycling Coalition, PeopleForBikes supports numerous youth-focused organizations working in communities across the country to get more kids on bikes. 

One thing is clear, engaging kids across ages and into adulthood creates not only lifetime riders but, as research from NICA shows, an entire network of riders. Investing in kids is a golden ticket to growing the participant base. 

In the next post of this series, we’ll explore how building great places to ride, especially close to home, fuels rider retention, local bike economies, and bottom-line growth for the industry.