In 2020, the Youth Cycling Coalition (YCC), a collaboration between 10 different bicycling organizations, set out to find the ideal location for its inaugural pilot program. The YCC’s model is based on collective action — through place-based programming, we want all kids to access, experience and develop a life-long love of bicycling, the ultimate goal being the integration of cycling into the fabric of local communities. In line with that mission, the team sought a community with a high need for youth programs, as well as a place with the potential to grow a robust youth bicycling movement.

After considering more than 30 locations around the U.S, the 30,000-person city of Morgantown, West Virginia, was ultimately selected.

West Virginia is a state known for its high rates of obesity, poverty and drug use, as well as its low rates of education. From brain drain, opioid abuse and health issues to crumbling infrastructure, struggling education systems and low reporting on quality of life, there’s no shortage of important issues at stake. West Virginia ranks the fourth highest for childhood obesity rates in the nation and more than one-in-four children live in poverty.

In Morgantown, the socioeconomic disparity that exists is severe. According to the 2018 census, the median household income for Morgantown residents is $41,071 a year, substantially lower than the average U.S. median income of $63,179. A school’s free/reduced lunch rate serves as an indicator of poverty among students and by many definitions a “high needs school” can be classified as one having a 30% or more free/reduced lunch rate. In Monongalia County, where Morgantown is situated, the average free/reduced lunch rates across elementary, middle and high schools is 37%.

On top of those socioeconomic challenges, Morgantown remains a difficult place to ride a bike. In the PeopleForBikes City Ratings system, a score of 50 tends to be the threshold for great places to ride — while it jumped six points from 2021, showing significant improvement, Morgantown’s 2022 score is 36. From narrow, shoulderless roadways to a mountainous topography riddled with curves and extreme grades, road riding in the region can be both intimidating and dangerous. Although singletrack and a robust mountain biking culture exist, there remains a lack of diversity in terrain and trail difficulty that serves as a barrier for beginners. The area of greatest need is beginner and family-focused bike trails, alongside riding facilities like skills areas and pump tracks.

Despite the challenges facing Morgantown youth, there is a massive amount of potential for a widespread bike movement. In the last year and a half of partnering with local institutions, the YCC has already seen significant change. The combined efforts from the YCC, the city, county, grassroots leaders and West Virginia University are coming together to improve infrastructure and accelerate the pace of development as a part of an overall vision for the area. Among everyone involved, there’s a palpable sense of excitement and momentum.

The YCC is working in close partnership with the Brad and Alys Smith Office of Outdoor Economic Development Collaborative (OEDC) at West Virginia University. Using education, research, community engagement and asset development, the collaborative creates initiatives to improve the health, economy and future of West Virginians. The YCC and OEDC share a vision for a future Morgantown with a broad and integrated network of cycling programs that serve students throughout their K-12 education. The end goal is a sustainable ecosystem that provides equal opportunities and is inclusive of people of all backgrounds and all walks of life, regardless of their age, gender, race or socioeconomic status.

A big step in realizing this vision is the activation of new infrastructure and riding facilities within close proximity to schools and neighborhoods. Also important is a comprehensive education campaign geared towards the broader Morgantown community using best practices developed by YCC members and partners. Danny Twilley, Ph.D., the OEDC’s assistant VP of economic, community and asset development, sees bicycling as an indispensable part of Morgantown’s future.

“Building off the backbone of our nationally recognized rail trail network, our goal is to have trail access within a mile of every resident in the city of Morgantown,” said Twilley. “When you create this type of access, it has both physical and mental health benefits.”

Studies have shown that on average, that type of access can lead to individuals exercising 45 minutes more per week than those who lack similar access. In a place with stark health outcomes, that difference can be life changing.

“Further, research has shown that when people spend time, at least 120 minutes per week, in nature, they see positive psychological benefits,” said Twilley. “Access is critical to achieving these benefits.”

In January 2020, the OEDC team received an International Mountain Biking Association Trail Accelerator grant, which allowed them to partner with expert trail builders and local entities to create a master bike plan. That plan links existing trails and recreation sites, prioritizing access to schools while also introducing new beginner-friendly, bike-optimized trails. When the City of Morgantown received word of this master plan — and that the YCC had selected their city as its pilot location — they were so enthusiastic that as a result, city planners have since developed a complementary master plan of their own. The trail plan includes a sample platter of different trail types, from shared-use paths to beginner-level directional flow gravity trails.

In addition to the trail development master plan, an ambitious and inspirational project is also underway at the 400-acre Mylan Park. The Mylan Park Action Complex will serve as a regional draw for action sports and will include freestyle areas, advanced jump lines, pump tracks and skill development areas. Funding opportunities have been identified and are being pursued. Planning and engineering work has been completed on the complex.

Working in conjunction with all of these exciting infrastructure projects are the YCC’s members, which are working to engage youth from elementary school through high school around bike-based programming. USA BMX Foundation will bring programming into 3rd-5th grade classrooms this fall. Project Bike Tech is already underway building a classroom at University High School and will offer their first class in the fall. The League of American Bicyclists is partnering with West Virginia University to provide LCI training seminars starting this summer.

In March of this year, Little Bellas launched in Morgantown. The organization provides mountain-bike-based mentoring for girls aged 7-18. Incredibly, after just one season of Little Bellas programming, the Morgantown National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) league has already seen an increase in young female ridership. Cassie Smith, the West Virginia NICA League Director as well as a Little Bellas mentor, has seen firsthand how two YCC programs can support one another and elevate local cycling as a whole.

“Little Bellas is already proving to be a great feeder program for NICA,” said Smith. “After only one season, we had three out of four eligible athletes already registered with the West Virginia league!”

While the youth of Morgantown are up against big challenges, an increasing number have an incredible tool for change at their disposal: the bike. As long as Morgantown continues to center its vision for a brighter future around youth and investing in infrastructure improvements that most benefit families, the payoff will continue to be substantial.

Morgantown’s Bike Strategy Focuses on Youth

According to PeopleForBikes’ 2022 Bicycling Participation Study, the number of youth ages 3-17 who ride a bike at least once per year has steadily declined since 2016. While ridership does tend to decrease with age, this recent downturn in youth ridership is troubling. Thankfully, the nonprofit Outride is working to reverse that trend.

Outride’s Riding for Focus is a middle school rider education program that promotes bicycling as an outlet to support the social, emotional, and cognitive health of students. Through the program, schools are provided with all of the necessary equipment (including a fleet of bikes and helmets), curriculum, and teacher training to get youth riding.

Intended to be implemented during PE class time or in a structured after school setting, the Riding for Focus curriculum features 12 modules to take students from beginner to road-ready riders. Each module is aligned to national SHAPE standards, an organization that serves as the voice for 200,000+ health and physical education professionals across the United States, and includes all relevant materials and activities.

More than 350 Riding for Focus programs have been implemented in middle schools across the U.S. and Canada and benefit the lives of 50,000+ students every year.

In an effort to expand its reach with middle schools serving students from low-income and traditionally underserved backgrounds, Outride is currently accepting applications for Riding for Focus grants, which provides schools with everything they need to get students riding.


The application period for 2024 Riding for Focus grants closes on March 31, 2024.


Visit Outride’s website for more information on Riding for Focus, grant guidelines, FAQs, and to submit your application.

Support the Next Generation of Bike Riders With a Riding for Focus Grant

On December 12, the PeopleForBikes Coalition Board of Directors approved our 2023 Industry Community Grants recipients, totaling $100,000 in funding across 13 grants. The grants will help fund projects that support our focus on building infrastructure that makes communities great places to ride a bike. The projects include several pump tracks, efforts to build safe routes to schools, demonstration projects to promote the importance of protected bike lanes, innovative solutions to combat bike theft in college towns, and mountain bike parks in flat urban areas.

2023 PeopleForBikes Industry Community Grants

Delmont, PA | Trail construction and intersection improvements for a connection to the Westmoreland Heritage Rail Trail. Our funds leverage an additional $18,000 to build a new and vital bikeway for residents and visitors in Delmont.

Sandersville, GA | Funding to construct the first 3 miles of a 250-mile trail system in Georgia, leveraging $6 million in other funding.

Los Angeles, CA | One in a series of “CicLAminis,” a neighborhood-focused open streets event celebrating new neighborhood bike infrastructure. This grant will highlight the specific trail extensions and protected bikeways that improve bicycling locally. 

Ann Arbor, MI | Demonstration project to install and evaluate permeable surfaces on a segment of the Treeline-Allen Creek Urban Trail to create a safe and accessible bike path through a floodplain.

Durango, CO | Demonstration projects of fully protected bike lanes on key portions of a proposed citywide network of low-stress bikeways.   

Saint Johns, AZ | A collaboration with the Legacy Teen Center to build a new pump track that will help launch the Legacy Bike Club. 

Jersey City, NJ | Demonstration project to install and evaluate protected bike lanes in Jersey City to leverage $670,590 in state funding for permanent construction.

Clear Creek Off-Road Bike Association — $7,650

Pearland, TX | Initial construction costs for an innovative mountain bike trail system in an urban park, using shipping containers to create hills in an otherwise flat, low-income neighborhood.  

Providence, RI | Community rides and organizing to win community support for protected bike lanes in low-income communities and leverage $28 million in federal grants.

Tempe, AZ | A "bike bus" to highlight the need for infrastructure that’s safe for children to enjoy on a bicycle and support its construction.

Eugene, OR | An innovative solution to prevent bike theft with a strategy to expand the use of public funding and provide an example for other college towns where bike theft prevents people from relying on a bike for transportation.

St. Louis, MO | Support for the construction of a quick-build protected bike lane on Compton Avenue, a key connection to existing bike boulevard projects in the citywide network.

Kearns, UT | An upgrade to the Lodestar XC Bike Park to enhance the trails and add skills features including adaptive features. Open to the public, the park provides the only training opportunities for students from six high school mountain bike teams.  

PeopleForBikes' Industry Community Grants Program provides funding for projects that make bicycling better in communities across the U.S. Since 1999, PeopleForBikes has awarded more than 400 grants to nonprofit organizations and local governments in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Our investments total more than $3.5 million and have leveraged $775 million in public and private funding for bike-related projects nationwide.

PeopleForBikes' 2023 Industry Community Grants Recipients

When you pass a group of kids on bicycles, it’s hard not to smile — there’s something innately joyful about the sight. There’s also an underlying assumption that everything about the act, from the socialization to the time spent outdoors engaged in physical activity, is good for them. New research affirms that gut feeling.

Published on October 12, 2023, in Frontier in Sports and Active Living, a new study from researchers at Loma Linda University (LLU) reveals the positive impact of cycling education on the psychosocial well-being of students. The research is the result of a collaboration between LLU and the youth cycling nonprofit Outride, examining the impact of Outride’s in-school cycling programs on the mental health of middle schoolers. 

"Our findings were incredibly encouraging,” says Dr. Sean Wilson, LLU professor and senior author of the study. “A large proportion of students had a positive learning experience and continued interest in cycling,” 

“As a learning organization, we really want to understand how bicycling can improve the lives of youth in their communities,” says Dr. Esther Walker, senior research manager at Outride. 

Anonymous surveys were collected before and after the program in 20 schools in North America, with psychosocial well-being quantified using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index and the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17-Y). The former is a short, five-item, self-report questionnaire that assesses positive well-being and primarily assesses for depression, while the latter is a widely used measure of psychosocial functioning, with lower scores representing greater well-being. According to the study, participation in R4F was associated with improved psychosocial well-being among middle school youth in the United States. 

“It was really encouraging to see such a positive student response to a cycling-specific physical education program,” says Fletcher Dementyev, a research fellow at LLU and first author of the paper. “This result motivates us, and hopefully others, to continue investigating and developing cycling as a pathway to improved health and well-being in adolescents.”

“By providing access to bikes, a safe environment to learn to ride, and the confidence to ride independently, we can really help to create healthy pathways,” says Walker. “As youth are facing worrying levels of physical inactivity and mental health challenges, finding those activities that get them excited to participate is really important.”

PeopleForBikes’ 2022 Bicycling Participation Report reflects this trend: While 49% of youth ages 3-17 rode a bicycle at least once in 2022, ridership among younger Americans has continued to drop since 2016.

“Our program data shows that access to bikes at home, as well as safe places to ride, is not equitable across the student population,” said Walker, noting that programs like R4F, which take place during the school day and provide all necessary materials, gives everyone the opportunity to learn a skill they can use throughout their life. "While bicycling can certainly contribute positively to one's day-to-day life, to see large-scale improvements, we need changes in policy and reductions in systematic disparities in access to nutrition, health services, safe environments, and beyond.”

As school systems, educators, policymakers, and healthcare professionals work together to address the mental health challenges facing today's youth, this study provides valuable insights into the potential of cycling programs to enhance the mental well-being of young people across the U.S. University-backed research is showing the benefits that come along with getting more kids on bikes. Communities should listen.  

Interested in learning more? Follow Outride on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date with their work to improve the well-being of youth through research-backed cycling programs.

Research Highlights the Positive Impact of In-School Cycling

Bikes are magical, not only because they efficiently get us where we need to go but because they also allow us to better interact with our surroundings. While a car quickly transports people from one place to another, traveling by bike allows the rider to take in the world around them, helping to ground them as part of a larger community. In fact, according to new research, compared to drivers, people who ride a bike are more oriented towards the common good, which benefits society.  

If your mission is to help connect people to places, then a bike can be a particularly powerful tool. The Center of Southwest Culture (CSC), a nonprofit based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, works to support Indigenous and Latino communities through economic development, cultural, and educational programs — and its programming is firmly place-based. Since 2017, the organization has used bikes to empower youth and reconnect them with their natural and cultural heritage through its Story Riders program. 

“Bicycling is a mode of transportation that allows you to move a bit farther than walking, but it also still has you fully involved in your surrounding community,” says Leila Sonora Murrieta, who coordinates the Story Riders program. “So you see people, you see animals, you see the neighborhood streets — you get to learn your surrounding area while fully being able to move through a space.”

Story Riders was initially launched as an after-school program in Albuquerque’s Barelas neighborhood, a settlement that’s been around since the 1600s and predates the city itself by at least a few decades. The initial goal of the program was to connect the local youth to the stories of the neighborhoods' Indigenous and Latino elders, and it was decided they would conduct those interviews by bike. By 2020, the program had expanded to three different schools, all in historic neighborhoods that were rapidly changing.

“We wanted to be able to just hear these stories about places that you wouldn't get from the traditional school system,” says Marco Sandoval, who directs the Story Riders program. “There was also an urgency to it because all these historic, beautiful neighborhoods, which had been built by brown peoples, were undergoing gentrification. We felt like we really needed to get our youth in touch with these elders.”

In addition to a two-week after-school program, CSC runs Story Riders as a summer initiative for youth aged 9-18. The program, which serves 10 kids at a time and operates for three hours each weekday morning, begins with practical training in bicycle safety and hands-on maintenance. Each child works on a donated bicycle, which they then ride for the duration of the program and are allowed to keep upon completion (participants also receive complimentary gear, including a helmet). For youth who don’t know how to ride, Sandoval and Murrieta teach them using the balance method.

“The first couple of days are just about the bicycle,” says Sandoval, noting that in addition to learning basic maintenance and bike skills, kids also learn how to put sealant in their tires and fix flats. “In New Mexico, cactus makes that an essential part of bicycling.”

After a few days of bicycle instruction, the cohort eventually takes to Albuqureque’s streets, tackling some urban riding but primarily journeying to the Bosque, where 16 miles of paved multi-use trails meander through a cottonwood forest alongside the Rio Grande. Not only does the river play an important role in the lives of New Mexicans but the Bosque, which means “woods” or “forest” in Spanish, provides an oasis of valuable resources in an otherwise arid habitat.

“The Bosque and the river form the spiritual center of Albuquerque,” says Sandoval, adding that the area offers a way to get into nature and away from cars without actually leaving the city. “It’s a public space and we encourage the kids to think of it as their space. We also introduce the idea that public spaces shouldn’t be developed, that they should stay public.”

During the course of the Story Riders program, CSC brings in different leaders in the community, such as artists, herbalists, organic farmers, and elders. Through interactive plant walks along the Bosque, herbalism lessons, garden tours, art projects, visits to historical sites, and storytelling, the youth learn more about their culture and heritage. 

“The Story Riders program focuses on the three Bs: Bicis (or bicycles), Bosque, and Belonging,” says Murrieta, explaining that the aspect of belonging comes into play as children begin to understand more about where they come from and the place they call home. 

Reflecting on the impact of the program, the word that comes up most among past participants and their parents is “confidence.” In line with the research the nonprofit Outride has shared, bicycling can help build confidence among youth, allowing them to get in touch with their body and realize what they’re capable of. It can also help them regulate their emotions — participants are calmer and happier when they’re picked up — as well as perform better academically.

“Kids' overall health is improved just by being outside,” says Sandoval, who was inspired to start the Story Riders program after working in a school. “I was frustrated with our institutions and what they think children need.”

Story Riders makes learning to bike and getting outside easy by eliminating barriers to entry. For historically underserved Indigenous and Latino communities, CSC’s target demographic, providing the gear that’s often inaccessible — the bike, helmet, water bottle, and tools — makes a huge difference. Even more important is the fact that all of the Story Riders leaders are from the community they aim to serve, helping to drive home the message of belonging. 

“When I started cycling, there were no brown people on the trails who looked like me, it was all white people and I felt like an outsider,” says Sandoval. “We want the youth to see leaders that look like them.”

This past summer, Story Riders began introducing trips outside of the city to Forest Service land, and this past October, they launched a course on the Isleta Pueblo with Pueblo Resurgents, a community-governed organization committed to promoting anti-colonial Indigenous agroecology. During a three-week program, youth learned from local artists and elders and explored archeological sites, all on bikes. 

This month, Story Riders is launching an Adelitas class, named in honor of the señoras who fought in the Mexican Revolution. Open to women and taught in Spanish, it will be CSC’s first adult class. 

PeopleForBikes is proud to have supported The Center of Southwest Culture’s Story Riders program with a 2022 grant. For more information on our Industry Community Grants, visit peopleforbikes.org/grants.

This Bike Program Is Empowering Indigenous and Latino Youth

In city council and town hall meetings across the country, there are often the same handful of people who show up for decision-making processes and bike advocacy efforts time and time again. They’re committed and reliable, but they don’t often represent a broad coalition of stakeholders. In fact, it’s often hard to engage a variety of different voices, whether you’re looking for support for your own organization or to drive community engagement around a specific infrastructure project. 

These five techniques will help you go beyond traditional engagement methods to reach a broader, more diverse audience:

Organizing community bike rides is an effective and enjoyable way to engage new people in bike advocacy, raise awareness about the benefits of bicycling, and create opportunities for community members to get involved. Providence Bike Jam, a monthly themed bike ride in Providence, Rhode Island, is a prime example of this strategy. Thanks to a winning combination of bikes, music, lights, and effective promotion, Bike Jam has become what one of its organizers, Liza Burkin, describes as “a monthly dance party on wheels.”

Run by a dedicated team of 15 volunteers, Providence Bike Jam has experienced significant growth since its inception in 2019. Initially attracting around 50-75 participants, the rides now draw up to 400 people. Growth is largely the result of word-of-mouth promotion from the Bike Jam community, which affectionately refers to itself as the Jam Fam. 

“We always tell people, ‘the first rule of Bike Jam is that you have to tell all your friends about Bike Jam’ — it’s the opposite of Fight Club, we want everyone to come,” says Bike Jam organizer John Deignan. “A lot of folks will find it themselves, then next month, they're back with three or four friends. It's a great way to grow a movement.”

Beyond being a joyous celebration of biking, Bike Jam raises awareness around the need to advocate for improved bike infrastructure by strategically including new and proposed bike lanes and trails on their rides. The group also organizes "Bikes Mean Business!" rides that include visits to shops and restaurants along those routes. Elected officials are often invited to join the slow-paced rides, providing them with firsthand exposure to the joy of biking and the community's dedication to the cause.

Minneapolis is just one of the hundreds of communities worldwide where local advocacy organizations host Open Streets events to get community members involved in their work. (Photo credit: Mike Beck)

From Mexico City to Lincoln, Nebraska, hundreds of cities worldwide are embracing Open Streets events, promoting active transportation and people-centered spaces. One of the most renowned examples is Bogota's Cicolvia, which began in 1974 and continues to transform more than 70 miles of streets every Sunday, welcoming cyclists, pedestrians, and rollers alike.

In the U.S., Minneapolis’ event opens major thoroughfares to people by closing streets to vehicular traffic and encouraging free, family-friendly events. The aim is to help people imagine city streets as vibrant, bike- and pedestrian-friendly places. Since 2011, Our Streets Minneapolis (formerly the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition) has hosted more than 50 volunteer-run Open Streets events. In 2023, five different events were organized and attracted some 90,000 people. 

Through strategic partnerships, the events engage community members, raise awareness for bike infrastructure, and advocate for improved transportation systems in Minneapolis. With event funding raised solely through sponsorships, participant fees, and individual donations, each Open Streets Minneapolis event showcases relevant advocacy campaigns, emphasizing the expansion of community imagination and the transformative potential of streets designed for people. According to Carly Ellefsen, communications manager for Our Streets Minneapolis, these events are a critical way to engage community members new to transportation and climate advocacy and help ensure that related campaigns are informed by community needs.

One such partnership with the University of Minnesota Heritage Studies and Public History program resulted in the creation of the Mobile History Museum. This traveling interactive exhibit told the story of the destruction of the city’s Old 6th Avenue North neighborhood during the construction of the Olson Memorial Highway. The exhibit directly connected community members attending Open Streets events to the ongoing campaign to Bring Back 6th and restore the historic neighborhood. Building on this success, the organization plans to use the Mobile History Museum in future campaigns to improve local infrastructure to reconnect neighborhoods. 

TIP: The Alliance for Biking and Walking and Street Plans offer a helpful guide for communities or organizations interested in hosting their own Open Streets programs.

Wenatchee’s demonstration event and pop-up market helped planners and advocates engage the community in a bike lane project. (Photo credit: Smart Growth America Safety Demonstration Projects Report)

3. Build a community-led demonstration project

Demonstration projects engage and educate community members in planning and constructing projects, helping foster a sense of ownership over local projects. They can also expand support for bikes by actively showcasing the benefits and possibilities of bike-centric infrastructure. These projects — everything from temporary protected bike lanes to traffic calming projects — give local advocacy organizations and city planners a sense of what works and allow them to gather feedback along the way.

Wenatchee, a small city in Washington, successfully engaged residents around better infrastructure through a demonstration project near the busy intersection of Orondo Avenue, Methow Street, and Okanogan Avenue. With funding from Smart Growth America and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Active People, Healthy Nation Initiative, Wenatchee created protected bike lanes and improved pedestrian crossings with temporary materials like cones and paint. 

The project’s engagement plan, which was crafted to ensure the inclusion of the neighborhood’s predominantly Spanish-speaking population, included a pop-up market event and local food vendors and artisans. The team's efforts to involve the community in the project helped them expand engagement to include more voices. 

In lieu of a typical practice, NICA coaches in Madison, WI, organized a tailgate around a parks and recreation public meeting, inviting youth to speak to local leadership. (Photo credit: Mike McGarry)

4. Host a tailgate party or barbeque before or after a public meeting

Public meetings can be intimidating and unfortunately don’t have a great reputation for being entertaining. To help counteract these less-fun aspects, local organizations can encourage attendance and participation by creating fun events before or after the meetings. 

To get student-athletes involved in local bike advocacy efforts in Madison, Wisconsin, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) organized a tailgate party with food, snacks, and games before and after a public meeting of the Madison Parks Board. Coaches asked students to participate in the tailgate party and public meeting instead of attending their typical practice session that evening and even helped students register to speak and organize their thoughts. Although no big decisions were being made at the meeting, NICA wanted to show youth how to speak to local leaders and maintain a presence in public. As people left the meeting, many stopped to express thanks for the students’ participation. 

“Bikes are fun, so let’s make advocacy fun,” says Mike McGarry, director of coaching and education at NICA. “We filled the room with youthful energy, which is not typical for these types of meetings. It helped our athletes to see themselves as advocates.” 

In 2015, NYC DOT introduced a Street Ambassador Program where paid community members engage with people to gather feedback on projects and share upcoming initiatives. (Photo credit: EquityNYC)

In St. Louis, Missouri, Trailnet, a local active transportation organization, maintains a Street Team, which educates the community about its mission through one-on-one conversations. This approach helps the organization foster new connections while advocating for a more walkable, bike-friendly, and public-transit-accessible region. Additionally, volunteers play a vital role in recruiting others to support Trailnet's initiatives, whether by joining the organization’s email list, becoming members, or volunteering their time. Through tabling at community events and similar strategies, these volunteers help the organization engage with people from diverse backgrounds and expand its impact. 

Tip: Many other communities and organizations use this approach to boost engagement, including New York City’s Department of Transportation, New Orleans’ Bike Easy, and the Providence Streets Coalition, as well as Philadelphia Vision Zero and Hoboken Vision Zero.

5 Ways to Boost Community Engagement in Bike Advocacy

From recreational amenities like pump tracks and singletrack trail systems to on-street protected bike lanes and bike parking, we know that safe and accessible bike infrastructure is critical to helping people of all ages and abilities enjoy bicycling in their communities. With the goal of getting more projects over the finish line, PeopleForBikes is proud to announce the opening of our 2023 Industry Community Grant applications.

Our grants are intended to support infrastructure that improves a community’s City Ratings score by building connections in low-stress bikeway networks or by improving opportunities for close-to-home recreation. Grants should support the material costs of infrastructure construction or non-material costs directly related and necessary to getting infrastructure built. PeopleForBikes’ industry grants range from $5,000 to $10,000 and our priority is to support efforts where grants of that magnitude make a difference, especially in support of communities impacted by historic disinvestment. 

Previous awards supported the construction of a bike park in El Paso, TX; the conversion of a tennis court into a bike garden in Flint, MI; the organization of protected bikeways in Durham, NC; the building of trails in Gorham, NH, to connect a mountain bike network to the downtown area; and an advocacy campaign in Salem, OR, to create safe, direct, and protected bike infrastructure.

Investments that build or result in permanent physical infrastructure such as protected bike lanes, neighborhood greenways/bike boulevards, bike paths, pump tracks, bike parks, recreational trail systems, or public bike parking.

Investments in temporary physical infrastructure, such as “quick-build projects” that demonstrate potential infrastructural improvements that are intended to eventually result in permanent infrastructure.

Support for organizing efforts or cultural initiatives that build support for specific bike infrastructure projects. Such proposals must show how the support will result in permanent infrastructural improvements. 

Maintenance or operating costs, Cycling education programs, unless education is an element of an event designed to bring attention to an infrastructure project 

Bike recycling, repair, or earn-a-bike programs

Non-profit organizations, including organizations relying upon a fiscal sponsor for their nonprofit status 

Local or state government agencies or federal agencies working locally 

Small businesses, such as bicycle retailers and community-oriented businesses that serve disadvantaged communities

1. Submit a Letter of Interest by October 20, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Only applications submitted through the online form will be accepted. Applicants may revise their submission as many times as they like until the deadline. 

2. Applicants will be notified of the status of their application by November 1, 2023. Finalists will be invited to submit a full application, also using an online form.

3. Final applications are due by November 20, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. PT. 

4. Awards will be announced in early December 2023.

If you have any questions about the grant process, please email infrastructure@peopleforbikes.org. 


PeopleForBikes’ Industry Community Grants program is funded through employee pro purchases, which collect donations from individuals who work in the bike industry and take advantage of pro-pricing discounts on new bikes and equipment. Does your company offer industry pro deals or discounts for athletes, retail staff, and industry employees? Give your customers an opportunity to donate to PeopleForBikes at checkout. For details, visit peopleforbikes.org/giving or email Rod Judd, PeopleForBikes’ director of membership and industry engagement.

Thank you to these brands that currently participate:

Apply for a 2023 PeopleForBikes Industry Community Grant

In 2023, state and local governments across the United States have allocated record funding to support biking initiatives, promote safety, and enhance recreational opportunities. These investments demonstrate a growing commitment to sustainable, active, and more equitable transportation options by building out safe and connected bike infrastructure networks.

Below is a list of some of the most notable funding programs and approved initiatives across 10 different states and various municipalities in 2023.

Funding for Infrastructure and Safety Programs at the State Level

Minnesota: The state of Minnesota allocated an impressive $50 million for biking and walking initiatives, including $40 million in annual funding for general biking and walking programs and an additional $10 million per year for the Minnesota Department of Transportation Safe Routes to School grant. This substantial investment will support the development of infrastructure, safety enhancements, and educational programs. 

New Mexico: With a total of $4,320,000 approved in its latest state budget, New Mexico is investing in numerous biking and pedestrian projects. This includes acquiring land, planning, designing, constructing, and improving pedestrian and bicycle trails in Albuquerque, Las Cruces, and Santa Fe. These improvements aim to enhance accessibility, safety, and connectivity for biking and walking.

Washington: Washington state committed $197 million to biking and pedestrian initiatives through its Move Ahead Washington program. The funding includes $72 million for the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program, $73 million for the Safe Routes to School Program, $25 million for Connecting Communities, and $27 million for the School-Based Bike Safety Education Program. These funds will increase safety measures, improve infrastructure, and promote active transportation.

Hawaii: Policymakers approved a Safe Routes to School bill, an important step in achieving Vision Zero and complete streets policies throughout the state. The bill appropriates $10 million for the next two years to be put towards Safe Routes to School projects and programs. In addition to the funding, the bill also establishes a Safe Routes to School Advisory Committee. 

Florida: Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that allocates $200 million to connect hiking and biking trails to a planned statewide wildlife corridor. This investment will expand Florida's Greenways and Trails System and the SUN Trail Network, creating a vast network of recreational trails spanning 18 million acres from the Florida Keys to the Panhandle.

Funding for Infrastructure and Safety Programs at the Local Level

Anchorage, Alaska: Proposition A ($3,950,000) and Proposition 2 ($945,000) will invest in trail rehabilitation, recreational facility improvements, school zone safety upgrades, and transit facility enhancements.

Colorado Springs, Colorado: Resolution No. 03-23 allocates $240 million over 20 years through a sales tax extension. This funding will support trails, open spaces, and parks, growing access to biking and outdoor recreation.

Shirley, Massachusetts: Voters approved the Community Preservation Act, which will raise $840,000 over 10 years. The Community Preservation Act (CPA) is a smart growth tool that helps communities preserve open space and historic sites, create affordable housing, and develop outdoor recreational facilities (such as trails for bike riding).

Duxbury, Massachusetts: Voters approved an increase in their current Community Preservation Act surcharge from 1% to 3%. This will create $8,902,465 to develop and maintain green spaces, creating more opportunities for biking and other recreational activities.

Harvard, Massachusetts: Residents voted to increase their current Community Preservation Act surcharge to 1.9%. This will add $2,859,541 in funds for community development including bicycle infrastructure.

Funding for State Electric Bicycle Incentive Programs

Colorado: The new statewide tax credit is one piece of a larger climate package — fiscal estimates suggest the program would cost the state around $100 million before it expires in 2033. However, if the state's economy grows by less than 4% in a given year, the e-bike tax credit could be cut in half.

Minnesota: The state allocated $4 million to incentivize the purchase and use of electric bicycles, promoting eco-friendly commuting options.

Vermont: Legislature approved a $150,000 program to incentivize electric bicycle adoption, contributing to cleaner transportation and reduced carbon emissions.

Washington: Legislature created a $7 million e-bike incentive program to encourage the adoption of electric bicycles.

Maine: Although details are still to be determined by the program administrator, this new program should dedicate up to $500,000 from the state’s electric vehicle funding to its new e-bike rebate program.

Just seven months into the year, more than $800 million is helping fund biking programs and initiatives, highlighting the growing commitment of state and local governments to support biking, enhance safety, and promote active transportation. This, in addition to the nearly $13 billion in federal funding that could accelerate the planning and construction of biking and walking projects across the country, will dramatically expand access to safe infrastructure for millions of Americans. 

These investments in infrastructure and incentives will benefit more than just those who use them directly — quality bicycle infrastructure can help reduce the number of cars on the road, therefore reducing traffic and congestion, cleaning our air, and making it safer for everyone to use our streets. More money for bikes translates to more sustainable and healthier communities for all.

There’s Already Record Funding For Bikes in 2023

For the first time since our City Ratings program launched seven years ago, Minneapolis, Minnesota, tops the list of the best large U.S. cities for bicycling with a score of 68. In 2022, the city’s score hovered in the 30s, and its leap to number one speaks to a number of notable changes. 

First, Minneapolis’ data received a massive update — while that’s not the most exciting reason, it’s essential. Our scoring system is informed using data from OpenStreetMap, which is essentially the Wikipedia of street maps, meaning anyone can edit it. If a city’s data in OpenStreetMap doesn’t adequately reflect the breadth and/or quality of the city’s on-the-ground infrastructure, then its corresponding City Ratings score will be lower. Thanks to updates to its OpenStreetMap data, Minneapolis saw its score rise.

That being said, the midwestern city, home to a population of about 425,336 people, has also made huge strides in building out the safe, connected bicycle infrastructure that demands OpenStreetMap updates — and defines the world’s best places to ride. 

“What's really unique about Minneapolis — what's different than many of the other notable cities for bicycling in North America — is that the backbone of our network is probably one of the best urban trail networks in the country,” says Luke Hanson, a senior transportation planner for the city. “Minneapolis' status as one of the top cities for bicycling is both a combination of strategic multimodal investments that include that kind of urban trail network, as well as deliberate complimentary policy guidance over time. Those pieces go hand in hand to create our current bike network.”

A key component of Minneapolis’ cycling urban trail network is the Grand Rounds Scenic Byway, a continuous, 51-mile loop of off-street bike trails that traverses the entire city. For more than 100 years, the byway has been a recreational and transportation resource for people biking, walking, and rolling — a historical network that the city has been able to build off of over time with strategic and complimentary investments primarily along former rail corridors. That includes the Midtown Greenway, the Cedar Lake Trail, the Hiawatha LRT Trail, and the Dinkytown Greenway, which are all repurposed, grade-separated trails that avoid conflicts with motor vehicles and connect some of the most important destinations in the city. 

“All of this has been augmented by a series of initially painted buffered bicycle boulevard facilities throughout the city that provided network-level connectivity,” says Hanson. “More recently, many of these facilities have been improved by transitioning them from traditional unprotected bike lanes to protected facilities in a variety of different design types, utilizing things like protected intersection design and other tools we have available to us.”

Hanson is quick to point to the various policies that have helped Minneapolis develop one of the country’s most robust bicycle networks: its 2011 Bicycle Master Plan, 2013 Climate Action Plan, and 2015 Protected Bikeway Update to the Bicycle Master Plan. The 2015 plan outlined a long-term objective of creating 174 miles of protected bike lanes as part of the city's bike network. In 2019, the city also conducted a neighborhood greenway study to look at ways to transition traditional bike boulevards to make them more comfortable, safer, and more appealing to a wider group of people. Finally, the city’s 2020 Transportation Action Plan provides policy guidance to continue implementing protected and safe bike facilities throughout the city.

Minneapolis currently boasts 21 miles of on-street protected bike lanes and 106 miles of off-street sidewalk and trail miles. By 2030, the goal is to have 141 miles of newer, upgraded all ages and ability bikeways throughout the city, along with a micromobility mode share of 10% (the Climate Action Plan outlines a long-term goal of raising the bicycle commute mode share to 15%). Unfortunately, the loss of the city’s Nice Ride bike share system earlier this year complicates that vision (and is arguably a huge oversight on the part of the city).

“[Mass mode shift] is still a goal and it’s important to work towards that even with the challenge of not having a reliable bike share system,” says Hanson. “What we're trying to establish is a complimentary transportation network where people have options beyond just driving and single occupancy vehicles. In addition to transit, we're thinking through walking, biking, rolling, and other methods to make sure people have transportation options and choices to help us get to those mode shift goals. Marketing is important but we’re reinforcing that with infrastructure.”

Other complementary policies, such as redesigning intersections and reducing speeds, play an equally important role. In 2020, Minneapolis and its twin city St. Paul lowered their default speed limits, switching from 30 to 20 mph on residential streets and 25 mph for larger, arterial, city-owned streets. Lowering speed limits aligns with Minneapolis’ Vision Zero work by reducing the likelihood of crashes and the likelihood of a crash leading to serious injuries or death. Since lower speeds are critically important in places where people are walking, rolling, and biking — which is most locations in Minneapolis — they correspond with higher City Ratings scores.

“Lowering speed limits is a tool but we're also using street design to compliment those lower posted speed limits,” says Hanson. “Traffic calming measures such as raised crossings, speed humps, speed cushions, medians, and narrowing roadways are equally important. Even if they’re not explicitly a bike project per se, they make it safer and more comfortable for people to bike.”

Other things Minneapolis is doing well include leveraging federal grants to fund projects, taking advantage of street resurfacing projects to upgrade infrastructure, and creating a brand new Street Design Guide. According to Hanson, in addition to providing guidance on what an all ages and abilities bikeway should look like, the guide also includes guidance on when to install them (the short answer: on any major throughway undergoing reconstruction). Notably, the city also eliminated parking minimums and made the choice to transition away from single-family housing, choices that contribute to better cities for cycling (it also helps that Minnesota is progressive when it comes to its state transportation policy).

“It's not as simple as the silo of transportation infrastructure — these things build upon one another to make a functional, practical system for people to rely on and use,” says Hanson. “It’s important to acknowledge that there are a lot of additional projects that aren’t bike-specific that work to make biking safer and more comfortable.”

Having worked on bike projects for more than a decade, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Hanson himself is a regular cyclist, relying on his bike for most trips. He credits the local bike culture as a major contributing factor to what makes Minneapolis such a great place to bike. On any given week, there are dozens of social rides throughout the city, including non-drop rides, family-friendly outings, and meet-ups for identity-specific groups. There are organizations that empower people to be comfortable on their bikes through all four seasons, as well as Grease Rag and other groups that provide inclusive environments for bicycle education.

Hanson also credits local advocacy groups and community-based organizations with helping create a safer, more comfortable, and more equitable environment for bicycling. 

“We've found a lot of value in partnering with established community groups and organizations to perform better, more meaningful project engagement,” says Hanson. “Doing so allows us as city staff to better build relationships with residents through trusted community members. Meaningful relationships are a really, really important resource for us.”

In recent years, Minneapolis has also been the site of racial unrest and the need to connect with and prioritize the needs of historically underserved communities has been pushed to the forefront. The city recently created a Racial Equity Framework for Transportation, which acknowledges that certain populations and geographies in the city have borne the brunt of displacement, pollution, and a slew of other outcomes directly tied to an inequitable transportation system. Importantly, this framework can help city planners be strategic and prioritize transportation investments in those same communities.

Hand in hand with those investments is a tangible plan for lowering barriers to bicycling through youth education. Currently, Minneapolis Public Schools are rolling out universal bike education for fourth and fifth graders in two-thirds of the city’s public schools, with plans for it to eventually be district-wide. After all, an all ages and abilities bike network only benefits youth that know how to ride.

“In the last few years, I think we’ve made some really meaningful progress,” says Hanson. “And I also appreciate that there’s always ongoing work to do.”

How Minneapolis Became a Top U.S. Bike City

Growing up as one of the first international adoptees in West Virginia, Mia Fox did not have role models who looked like her in the community, let alone in bicycling. “My parents got me involved in wonderful activities like music and dance,” says Fox. “ I never got to explore sports because I didn't even know that those opportunities were at my fingertips.”

Today, Mia is changing that. As the National Interscholastic Cycling Association (NICA) Girls Riding Together (GRiT) coordinator in West Virginia, Mia is making sure other girls see themselves reflected in the sport and getting on bikes. And she’s seeing results: NICA West Virginia has one of the highest female participation rates in the United States.

“Women and minority groups are out there,” says Fox. “It's critical to connect with schools, local organizations, churches, nonprofits, and the community. Exposure and connection is key.”

GRiT is NICA’s focused effort to get more girls and women into bicycling, with reports showing that girls make up just 20% of NICA participants around the country. Already, with a 34.1% participation rate, West Virginia is surpassing NICA’s national goal for female student-athlete and coach participation rates of 33% by the end of 2023. 

GRiT coordinators plan girls-only events, rides, camps, clinics, and socializing opportunities with a concentrated effort on reaching historically marginalized groups.  “Monthly calls with GRiT coordinators empower each state to formulate ideas, plans, and activities,” says Fox. “Coordinators for each state go out into their communities to draw in those groups.”

Outreach from coordinators is key to reaching new NICA participants, as is elevating youth voices. GRIT coordinators and ambassadors go to schools, nonprofit afterschool programs, churches, and other community-centered locations to showcase the GRiT program. The young GRiT ambassadors are encouraged to share their passion for riding, inviting their classmates and communities to experience the joys and experiences that mountain bikes provide.

“We really listen to our female student-athletes,” says Fox. “They really like scavenger hunts, overnight sleepaway camp, and riding two or three miles while talking the entire time.” 

An avid cyclist, Fox was already organizing Moms on Bikes (MOBS) rides in Charleston, West Virginia, prior to joining the NICA team. As NICA began encouraging more female coaches, MOBS became a great place to recruit new coaches. 

“Once you get the moms to feel empowered and see that trails we’re riding are not scary, they come back the next week,” says Fox. “We show them what we’re teaching the kids to do and that’s how we get them to be coaches.”

Early on, many moms share how they haven’t ridden a bike since childhood. “We take them out on a beginner flow trail and that’s how we flip the switch,” says Fox. “They’re riding the trails, overcoming their fears, and experiencing joy. We ‘coach’ them before our season starts, helping them feel empowered and helping them to become level one coaches.” By the end, many of the daughters start joining the MOBS rides, bringing the experience full circle.

In the U.S. and globally, there’s a noted gender gap that exists in bicycling that can be attributed to a variety of physical, cultural and societal barriers. Fox’s work to build female bike ridership is helping achieve gender parity in NICA and beyond. Beyond gender inequalities, NICA is also addressing the income barriers that prevent youth from accessing mountain biking. “We have the Trek Pathfinders scholarship and a GRiT-specific scholarship in West Virginia,” says Fox. Trek Pathfinder scholarships provide student-athletes from historically underrepresented communities with a mountain bike, helmet, shoes, accessories, and a kit, along with a stipend to cover NICA league membership fees and a full season of racing.

As NICA continues to broaden and diversify the sport of bicycling, the West Virginia chapter of GRiT is a strong example of the leadership and coordination it takes to get more girls on bikes. 

“Being a female minority, you gotta see it to believe it,” says Fox. “You have to see somebody you can look up to.”

Interested in GRiT? Click here to see if there is a NICA GRiT program near you. 

Growing Female Ridership in West Virginia

How do we make sure all people can enjoy the benefits of bicycles and the outdoors? One way is to listen to and learn from leaders who create welcoming, inclusive spaces for people with disabilities. April Katz is one of those people. 

Katz is the founder of the Adaptive and Inclusive Recreation Opportunities of Whatcom County (AIROW) Project, which ensures people of all ability levels are able to enjoy outdoor recreation and bicycling in Whatcom County, Washington. AIROW creates inclusive outdoor opportunities for people with disabilities through a range of low-cost or free programming and gear for adaptive sports, from aquatic sports to hikes and adaptive bicycling.

“Every day I wake up and feel very blessed that I’m doing what I love: building community and breaking down barriers [for people with disabilities],” says Katz.  

This spring, the AIROW Project is excited to launch Riding For Focus, a middle school cycling education program from the nonprofit Outride. Unlike many middle schools teaching Riding For Focus throughout the country, which focus on the general population of a single school, AIROW is catering the program to all middle schoolers in Bellingham, Washington, who are neurodivergent, have autism, ADHD, and/or other cognitive challenges. 

“My vision went broad,” says Katz. “Why just do one school when Bellingham has three middle schools that each have life skills classes [or other programs for neurodivergent students]?” 

In order to better suit the youth they work with, Katz and the AIROW team made modifications to Outride’s programming. 

“My coaches and I are taking Outride’s student handbook and adding more visual pictures instead of words so that it gets straight to the point,” says Katz, who’s also completing her Adaptive Level One Instructor Certification from the Bike Instructor Certification Program (BICP). “You have to grab students’ attention immediately if they have ADD or ADHD. I know — I have a learning disability, Dyslexia and Dysgraphia, which are both neurological disorders like Autism and ADHD.”

As they begin teaching Riding For Focus programming this spring, AIROW is prepared to stay flexible and adapt programming to meet student needs. “Will these teenagers need to start off with balance bikes? We’re ready to take off the pedals,” says Katz. “We're excited to see what it’s going to look like — I already have two girls signed up and it hasn’t been advertised yet.”

In addition to working with middle school teachers and the Bellingham Parks and Recreation Department to implement Riding For Focus, AIROW is collaborating with the health department to reach people who can directly benefit from its programming. “Department of health case managers are helping us really branch out,” says Katz. AIROW has also attended health and outdoor recreation expositions throughout the state at the request of other counties, speaking to the unmet demand for adaptive outdoor sports opportunities throughout the state and the country. 

“[Acquiring adaptive bikes] continues to be one of our biggest barriers,” says Katz. “I found a recumbent bike for $500 on Craigslist and immediately went to meet the lady selling it.” Although AIROW has a small fleet that includes a handful of adult recumbent bikes and one handcycle, youth bicycling equipment has been even more challenging to acquire. After raising $10,000 at a fundraiser last year, AIROW considered spending it on just one youth handcycle (the cheapest one they could find was $4,500). Ultimately, they decided to instead pay coaches and staff, as well as fund other program needs.

Collaboration with Outdoors For All, a Seattle-based adaptive sports organization with a fleet of more than 200 adaptive bikes, has been central to AIROW’s work. Occasionally, Outdoors For All will lend AIROW handcycles to support youth — it’s a mutually beneficial arrangement, as AIROW is helping reach a new community outside of Seattle. As the years go on, Katz hopes to continue building AIROW’s fleet of adaptive equipment. “Our goal is to have a fleet of bikes just like Outdoors For All,” she says. “As a very small nonprofit, this is something we’re trying to bring awareness to and would love some help.” 

AIROW is actively working with the nearby Whatcom Mountain Bike Coalition (WMBC) to identify, advocate for, and improve trail accessibility for adaptive cyclists. Katz and AIROW coaches have worked with the local parks and recreation department to share places where there is limited passing distance or impassable entrance ramps through otherwise locked gates. Together, the AIROW, the WMBC, and the Western Outdoors Center are hosting a Community Accessibility Trail Day on May 21 to continue making Mt. Galbraith, a wildly popular local trail destination, better for all users. 

Interested in getting more kids on bikes in your community? The 2023 Riding For Focus application cycle is accepting applications through April 28, 2023. Click here to learn more. 

Creating a Better World for Adaptive Cyclists

On any given Wednesday during the school year, you can find a pack of more than 150 kids bicycling to Alameda Elementary School in Portland, Oregon. The bike bus, as it's known, represents roughly 33% of the entire school and according to parents and onlookers, it’s a joy-filled, active transportation event that you can’t help but want to be a part of. In their free time, kids practice their bike skills to participate and on Wednesday mornings, they rally their parents to be on time.

This particular bike bus is the brainchild of Sam Balto, or Coach Balto to his students, a physical education teacher and safe streets advocate that leads the charge in a neon vest with pop music blasting alongside him. Passionate about safety and the well-being of our youth, Balto started his teaching career in Boston in 2015. That same year, he launched his first walking school bus, leading a group of ten kids along a route to school. He’s been passionate about Safe Routes to School and active transportation “buses” ever since.

“After that day, I saw the joy of kids walking to school and how different that was than all other days,” says Balto, noting the immediate behavioral change the students underwent. “I also realized that relying on volunteers [to run the buses] is not a sustainable or equitable model.”

When Balto moved to Portland, he started another walking school bus, again taking note of how successful it was but also what a great need there was for volunteers and other forms of institutional support. When the pandemic hit — accompanied by bus driver shortages and a desire to stay outdoors — bike buses took off around the world, with viral videos surfacing in Barcelona, San Francisco, and even nearby Hood River, Oregon. Inspired, Balto decided to form a bike bus for Earth Day 2022.

“We started with 75 kids and one route,” says Balto. “It was a huge success and we decided to keep doing it, so I reached out to parent volunteers to see if they could keep doing it for the rest of the year.”

Volunteers are a crucial part of any walking or bicycling school bus, as they help ensure the bus stays together, everyone moves safely, and that cars keep their distance. Once the parent volunteers assured Balto they were on board, the bike bus began to grow, adding another route and a bigger catchment zone to make it easier for kids and families to join. That first year, the bus grew from 75 to 120 kids in just six weeks.

“Because it was being done consistently, families were able to plan for it,” says Balto, noting that a weekly activity helps justify a parent’s investment from a time and monetary perspective. “Kids were asking for new bikes so that they could join.”

In 2023, the bike bus became a year-round weekly institution and has only been canceled once due to weather (and in that instance, it became a walking school bus). As a whole, Portland’s bike infrastructure is relatively good and the bus route primarily traverses low-stress neighborhood greenways. The element of critical mass and again, its predictability, have helped keep students safe and area residents prepared. In fact, most neighbors come out and cheer the students on.

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