We are developing recommendations on chemical management and a restricted substances list to mitigate risk, and best practices for packaging, waste and end of life issues, climate action and supply chain social responsibility for the industry.

We advance policy mechanisms that streamline bike projects to meet sustainability goals, and  recommend leveraging bikes as a part of the greater solution to climate change, including reinstating and expanding bicycle commuter benefits, funding carbon reduction programs and conducting resiliency planning.

We support congestion pricing and emissions-related penalties as new revenue for transportation program. We are working to be a part of the planning process for short- and long-term transit plans, and pursue bike connections to transit nodes that bring greater mobility value to both systems.

Electric bicycle use is growing rapidly. We are assisting the industry in compliance with electric bicycle battery recycling regulations and vetting downstream recyclers to ensure the batteries are properly managed at their end of life.

Bicycling can play an important role in emergency preparedness plans. We are developing a framework for how bicycling can be incorporated into future disaster preparedness, and advocating for infrastructure that supports these plans, leveraging bikes as a FEMA response by pursuing disaster response provisions outlined in federal bills.

In late July, PeopleForBikes unveiled our newest groundbreaking initiative: The Great Bike Infrastructure Project. This ambitious program will transform communities by advancing pro-bike policies and thousands of bike infrastructure projects in all 50 states, making biking safer and more accessible for everyone.

In the coming months, we’ll take a deeper dive into the specific projects and policies included in the Great Bike Infrastructure Project. For now, read on for a high-level overview of the program. 

At the heart of this new program is a national database featuring an interactive map and list of more than 1,000 bicycle infrastructure projects across the United States. The tool tracks crucial information including each project’s status, state and local advocacy organizations supporting the project, and links to learn more. This first-of-its-kind, easily accessible resource will help people learn about projects in their communities — like bike trails, shared-use paths, protected bike lanes, bike parks, and more — and help ensure they get funded and built. 

Local advocacy efforts are often required to advance these projects, and we encourage you to check out the projects in your area and contact the linked state and local advocacy organizations to learn how you can support getting those projects across the finish line. If you’d like to add a project to our database or correct the details of an existing project, please visit our FAQ page. 

Legislative Strategies for Bike Infrastructure

As part of the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, PeopleForBikes also created a Legislative Guide to assist policymakers and advocates in expanding bike infrastructure for transportation and recreation. As we work to make the U.S. the best place in the world to ride a bike, this comprehensive guide outlines the four most effective legislative approaches to accelerate the construction of safe and connected places to ride. 

The guide includes legislative examples from a variety of communities and states, with tips on adjusting policies to suit your own community’s needs. To help advance these policies in your community, we also included links to existing legislative language to use when crafting your own bills. 

While there is now an unprecedented amount of federal funding available for bike infrastructure, state and local funding are vital to propel more projects forward and provide the 20-50% local match required for most federal grants. Our guide offers examples of more than a dozen different state and local funding mechanisms for bike infrastructure ranging from Tax Increment Financing districts to sales tax revenue and everything in between.

One of the key strategies for advancing bike infrastructure is the implementation of Complete Streets mandates. Complete Streets ensure that all road users, including people walking, rolling, biking, and using transit, have safe and accessible ways to get where they want to go. Our guide provides examples of legislation that include strong and specific requirements for creating Complete Streets, limited exceptions, and clear roles and responsibilities to make Complete Streets mandates effective.

Advance Bike Infrastructure Through Climate Legislation

Our guide emphasizes how state and local climate legislation can facilitate the construction of bike projects. Including bike infrastructure in climate legislation can help reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately contributing to serious environmental and fiscal benefits for communities. Our guide highlights examples of climate legislation in Minnesota, Washington, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, with specific examples of the most effective pieces.

Making streets safer for people riding bikes is paramount to encouraging biking as a mode of transportation and recreation. The guide highlights several strategies for local communities and states to achieve safer streets by reducing traffic speeds, banning right turns on red, and adopting modern design standards. 

PeopleForBikes invites bike industry members, advocates, policymakers, and everyday riders to join us in creating more liveable communities by helping advance pro-bike legislation and bike infrastructure right in your backyard. Together, we can build a vibrant, healthier, and more sustainable future for all.

For more information about PeopleForBikes’ Great Bike Infrastructure Project, visit infrastructure.peopleforbikes.org.

Introducing the Great Bike Infrastructure Project

If you’ve ever attended a town hall meeting to support a proposed bike lane or trail, or simply engaged in a lively discussion about one on Nextdoor, you know it can often be a pretty frustrating process. These days, when discussing anything that involves growth or change, there’s almost always a small, vocal contingent that relies on emotion to argue why something shouldn’t happen. You might know a new bike lane — or another proposed project, like a housing bill that indirectly affects bicycling — would be a good thing for your community, but without data or research to back up your argument, speaking up can feel like a lost cause. 

That’s where our new guide comes in. At PeopleForBikes, we spend our days firmly entrenched in the research and data that supports building better communities for bicycling. We developed this 15-point fact sheet to help counteract misconceptions that often arise when advocating for change, as well as to promote strategies we know work. Bookmark it, print it out, and email it to everyone you know — let this article support you in shifting the larger conversation around the power of bicycling.

This might feel like a given, but if Utah Senator Mitt Romney’s recent remarks are any indication, we’re not all on the same page about the climate benefits of getting more people on bikes. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), transportation makes up 28% of the total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, with 57% of those emissions coming from passenger vehicles. When we build more (and better) bike lanes, the environmental benefits are clear: higher bike ridership, less driving, and an overall reduction in emissions.

Researchers at Carnegie Mellon found that “if even 10% of short car trips during peak afternoon travel were replaced with micromobility, more than 4,800 car trips would not happen, decreasing vehicle miles traveled by more than 7,300 miles a day.” While this would translate to a 2.76% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, it would only be possible with “wide-scale bike lane deployment.” This study confirms similar findings from McGill University that spotlight bike infrastructure in Montreal, as well as research from the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, which found new bike lanes lowered emissions in Guangzhou, China, and Bogota, Colombia.

According to another European study, if 10% of the population were to replace one car trip a day with a bike ride, overall carbon emissions from transportation would also drop 10%. Research done by Portland State University showed that if 15% of car trips were instead taken by electric bicycle, we could see a 12% decrease in transportation-related emissions. Add in the fact that bikes are one of the lowest carbon-emitting modes of transportation, and it's safe to say that any way you look at it, bicycling benefits the environment.

Ask most people why they don’t bike and they’ll likely name safety as a key concern. A nationwide survey from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities found that a whopping two-thirds of U.S. residents would be more likely to bike if they were separated from cars by a physical barrier. There is so much research that shows people will bike if cities build good infrastructure. Overall, the average protected bike lane sees bike counts increase 75% in its first year alone.

Notably, bicycling in Sevilla, Spain, increased 435% when the city added 86 miles of dedicated bike lanes. Even smaller transformations to include protected bike infrastructure can have a huge impact. After buffered bike lanes were installed on Philadelphia's Spruce and Pine streets, bike traffic increased 95%, while intersections in Montreal with protected bike lanes saw 61% more bike traffic than comparable intersections with no bike infrastructure. There’s also evidence that protected bike lanes are better for bike share.

In Cambridge, Massachusetts, a 2022 upgrade brought a two-way protected bike lane to a section of Garden Street, where before there had only been sharrows and door-zone bike lanes. The changes transformed the entire neighborhood: Bike mode-share nearly quadrupled and increased by more than 2%. Even accounting for seasonal dips in ridership, bicycling in the area increased more than sixfold since the separated bike lanes were built.

3. Yes, protected bike lanes are better than sharrows or standard bike lanes

As a rule of thumb, if something’s not going to be comfortable for people of all ages and abilities to ride, then don’t build it.

For decades, U.S. traffic engineers assumed that people on bikes could almost always share the road with cars. But a shoulder — even a striped bike lane — on a street with fast traffic isn’t an appealing place to bike for most people, especially women and less experienced riders. Putting a bike symbol in the middle of a busy thoroughfare does little to make it a place where parents feel comfortable riding with their children.

We now know, based on both U.S. and international experience, what kind of infrastructure designs give people of all ages and abilities the sense of safety, comfort, and enjoyment that makes them want to ride. This includes protected bike lanes, which are located next to the road and physically separated from traffic, as well as things like better lighting, traffic-calming barriers, and well-marked crosswalks. While sharrows might have a place in small towns or on low-stress streets, protected bike lanes should be the default for roadways with speeds above 25 mph or when vehicular volumes exceed 6,000 average daily traffic (ADT).

People living in bike-friendly communities tend to have better health outcomes due to increased physical activity, improved cardiovascular health, and reduced stress levels. A 2015 Columbia University study showed that New York City's $10 million investment in bike and pedestrian improvements resulted in an estimated societal health savings benefit of $230 million. Put another way, every $1,300 New York City invested in building bike lanes provided benefits equivalent to one additional year of life at full health over the lifetime of all city residents. 

According to the British Medical Journal, regular bicycling is associated with a 41% decrease in the risk of death from any cause, a 45% decrease in the risk of cancer, and a 46% decrease in the risk of heart disease. And the benefits don’t stop there: a PLOS Medicine study showed that people who began bicycling regularly after age 50 saw a 20% decrease in the risk of Type II Diabetes. 

5. Bikes lanes and trails are good for business

In response to proposed or newly built bike lanes, it seems like store owners often complain about reduced parking and customers lost. All of the evidence, however, points to the fact that installing protected bike routes tends to boost local shops. For example, after a hugely contested bike lane was installed on Skillman Avenue in Queens, New York, data shows that sales in the stores, bars, and restaurants on the seven-block commercial stretch collectively rose by 12%.

Other streets in New York have seen similar results: After the construction of a protected bike lane on 9th Avenue in Manhattan, local businesses saw a 49% increase in retail sales (on other streets in the borough, the average was only 3%) and a redesign of the city’s Union Square to include a protected bike lane resulted in 49% fewer commercial vacancies, compared to 5% more throughout Manhattan. And it’s not just in New York: In Salt Lake City's Broadway, replacing parking with protected bike lanes increased retail sales. 

There’s also evidence that customers who arrive at retail stores by bike spend the same amount per month compared to people who arrive by car — they tend to make smaller purchases but return more frequently. What’s more, neighborhoods that don’t require a car to move around are more economically resilient. Bike trails and greenways also benefit communities economically by attracting visitors, promoting job growth in tourism-related industries, and revitalizing communities through the "Trail Town" model and Trail-Oriented Development.

6. More bike infrastructure can benefit drivers, too

It’s important to remember that even if the infrastructure is perfect, not everyone will choose to bike. Die-hard drivers can still become bike advocates, however, especially when they realize that the more people ride bikes, the less car congestion there is. 

This was a key messaging point in Austin, where the city completed 115 miles of new bike lanes in just two years. By shifting traffic from cars to bikes and making it easier to reach transit stops, Austin's planned 400-mile protected bike lane network is projected to increase the city's traffic capacity by about 25,000 trips per day at about the same cost ratio as a single expressway widening.

In 2014, a New York City Department of Transportation (NYDOT) study found that after a six-foot buffered bike lane was installed on Columbus Avenue, car volumes were unaffected and that those cars moved 35% faster. According to an NYDOT statement, the “study found that on corridors with protected bike lanes traffic flow was maintained or improved on average because of the enhanced organization of the roadway.”

7. Protected bike lanes and reduced speeds save lives

Time and again, we see that when speed limits fall, safety rises. Because the likelihood of fatality increases exponentially with vehicle speed, even small reductions in speed limits can have an outsized effect. The Highway Safety Manual shows that deadly crashes can be decreased by 17% if speeds are reduced by just 1 mph, while a separate study from Sweden's Lund Institute of Technology found that a 10% reduction in average speed led to 34% fewer fatal crashes. (As an added bonus, there's evidence that lower speed limits improve air quality.)

A widely celebrated success story comes from Spain: When the speed limit on single-lane urban roads was lowered to 18.5 mph, road deaths fell by 14%. For cyclists, deaths were cut almost in half. This is good news as cities nationwide lower speed limits across the board, making streets safer for everyone. 

The even better news? Protected bike lanes reduce speeding and make streets safer for people walking, biking, and driving. After protected bike lanes were installed in New York City, injuries for all road users on those streets were reduced by 40-50%. Similarly, protected bike lanes in Montreal led to a 28% decrease in injuries. This 2019 study of twelve cities also found that protected bike lanes decrease fatalities for all road users. 

8. Bikes help reduce the cost of living and make cities more affordable

In 2021, U.S. households spent an average of $10,961 on transportation, making it the second largest household expense after housing. One in four U.S. adults suffers from transportation insecurity, a phenomenon that often has an inequitable impact on low-income families. Increasing access to low-cost modes of transportation like bikes — and safe places to ride them — effectively reduces this often-overlooked household expense and ensures communities remain affordable for everyone. The Housing and Transportation (H+T®) Affordability Index is a great tool to determine the neighborhood-level housing and transportation costs for your community. 

9. Housing policy and bike policy are intertwined

The right kind of housing policy can make our communities more bike-friendly. When we create transit-oriented neighborhoods, remove parking requirements, allow for more infill housing in existing urban areas, and permit the building of accessory dwelling units and multi-family housing, we naturally start to create places where destinations are closer together and people feel more comfortable biking.

The U.S. is in the midst of a severe housing crisis, forcing residents to live increasingly far away from important destinations. Adopting climate-friendly land use policies promotes a mix of land uses in close proximity to one another. When people’s homes are closer to their basic needs — jobs, grocery stores, schools, pharmacies, etc. — they’re more likely to ride a bike for daily trips. For those who drive, trips are considerably shorter.

10. Parking reform is key to building bike-friendly cities

The U.S. has about 2 billion parking spots, which translates to about seven parking spaces for every car. And parking is expensive for new developers to build — it can cost between $40,000 and $60,000 per parking space — increasing housing costs for everyone and taking valuable space away from development.

What’s more, fewer homes have led to a slew of other intersecting issues: a nationwide housing shortage, an increase in home prices, and growing inequity. Lower-income families who drive less and use transit more inevitably end up paying for infrastructure they don’t need while drivers are subsidized for their car use. 

When parking is required, buildings are forced to spread further and further apart, decreasing an area’s walkability and leading to urban sprawl, which swallows more and more land to sustain the same population. This in turn pushes people to drive more, upping greenhouse gas emissions, while the ensuing traffic makes it harder for everyone to get where they need to go. 

Essentially, this plethora of free car storage is at the root of a number of societal woes. A much better investment is a network of protected bike lanes and trails. Less parking means more proximity — since most people only want to bike one or two miles, the more destinations you have in that radius, the better a place becomes for bicycling. That’s only possible, however, if you’re not required to build big parking lots. Thus, parking reform is key to building bike-friendly cities.

While the federal government currently offers a federal tax credit for electric cars of up to $7,500, nothing similar exists for people buying an electric bike. With a lack of federal initiative, more and more states, counties, and cities across the country are taking matters into their own hands, creating e-bike incentive programs that are as varied in substance as they are geographically. While many programs are relatively new, the data is compelling. 

Launched in the spring of 2022, Denver’s incredibly popular e-bike incentive program has led to some notable results, including $1 million in cumulative annual savings for the city. Researchers also calculated that the program avoided considerable amounts of greenhouse gas emissions, with some 71% of survey respondents claiming to use their gas-powered vehicles less often (those surveyed rode their e-bikes an average of 26 miles per week, replacing 3.4 round trip vehicle trips). Importantly, 29% of Denver e-bike redeemers who completed the program survey indicated they were also new to riding.

12. Shared micromobility is a good investment for cities

Bike and scooter share, known collectively as shared micromobility, is a good investment for cities. When shared micromobility is done equitably, it can help alleviate transportation insecurity and lead to better public health, environmental, and economic outcomes. Unfortunately, not nearly enough municipalities treat shared micromobility as an integral part of their transit landscape or fund it accordingly. That’s a huge miss.

A 2021 study found that bike share systems are a boon for public health, saving the U.S. healthcare system more than $36 million a year on average. Another research paper from that same year looked at New York’s Citi Bike and found that the system — the largest in the U.S. — is a net win for the climate. In Britain, a more recent study found that if one-fifth of car trips were taken by shared electric bikes or scooters, the result would be a more than $1.2 billion boost to the economy.

On paper, many bicycle laws — such as those that require people to wear helmets, use bike lights, obtain a bike license or register their bikes — seem like a great idea. After all, 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. At least that’s all true in theory. In reality, these laws are virtually unknown and rarely enforced. When they do get enforced, it’s usually to the detriment of Black, Indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC) or those experiencing homelessness.

A report from Equitable Cities outlines how prevalent these transportation laws are in the U.S. In addition to the obvious trauma that can make even the most essential trip to the grocery store a fraught affair, these policies limit mobility, opportunity, and access for BIPOC. They also have implications beyond mobility, contributing to adverse social, political, economic, environmental, and health outcomes. There’s also evidence that repealing laws doesn’t have negative effects: A 2023 study also found that after a helmet law was abolished in Seattle, helmet use actually increased.

14. Bicycling is really good for our youth

There are obvious reasons why any bike advocate would want to see more kids on bikes, including the fact that youth are our cities’ future riders and the next generation of community leaders. What’s less often talked about are the holistic health benefits bicycling offers our children. Aside from the obvious physical benefits of increased activity, youths who engage in regular physical activity report fewer depression and anxiety symptoms, have higher self-esteem, and also perform better academically than kids who are inactive. Additionally, Outride’s “Riding for Friends, Fun, and Fitness” report highlights how youth who ride regularly report higher levels of mental well-being and spend fewer hours in front of screens. 

Don’t always focus on bikes — in fact, if you can manage it, your messaging should focus on the benefits to everyone rather than just people riding bikes. This may seem antithetical to the goal of getting more people riding but research bears out this messaging strategy. Make a point to talk about how bicycling infrastructure improves the lives of all, whether or not people choose to bike, by increasing opportunity, relieving congestion, and growing the economy through recreation improvements. 

When discussing bicycle infrastructure, dwell less on the cyclists and instead focus on how infrastructure can help make streets safer for everyone, benefit people’s health, and provide crucial transportation access to jobs and essential services. Your messaging around bikes should always focus on bringing people together and turning drivers into supporters. 

As the leaders in the fight for building better communities, the responsibility for messaging falls on us. To win over diverse groups and achieve a bike-forward agenda, we need to shift the conversation.

PeopleForBikes’ latest initiative, The Great Bike Infrastructure Project, is an ambitious program aimed at transforming communities across the United States by championing pro-bike policies and launching thousands of bike infrastructure projects. The goal of the project is to create safer and more accessible biking opportunities for everyone.

This visionary program comprises three vital components:

1. The implementation of thousands of bike projects

3. Significant investments in local communities 

In this four-part blog series, "A Legislative Playbook to Build More Bikeable Communities," we’ll dive into the legislative arm of our new program, exploring policies that promote safe, complete bike networks while also highlighting states and municipalities that are successfully putting these policies into action.

The policy pillars that make up The Great Bike Infrastructure Project’s legislative arm are outlined in the program’s Legislative Guide. Designed to aid policymakers and advocates in expanding local bike infrastructure for transportation and recreation, this comprehensive guide outlines four highly effective legislative solutions to accelerate the construction of safe and connected biking infrastructure. 

The key strategies featured in the guide include:

Funding for Bike Infrastructure: While there is an unprecedented amount of federal funding available for bike infrastructure, state and local funding are essential to propel more projects forward. Local funding also provides the 20-50% local match required for most federal grants. Our guide offers examples of more than a dozen different state and local funding mechanisms for bike infrastructure, ranging from Tax Increment Financing districts to sales tax revenue and everything in between.


Mandating Complete Streets: The implementation of Complete Streets mandates is a pivotal strategy for advancing bike infrastructure. Complete Streets ensure that all road users — including pedestrians, cyclists, public transit users, and drivers — have safe and accessible ways to reach their destinations. Our guide provides examples of legislation that includes strong and specific requirements for creating Complete Streets, including language that allows for limited exceptions and denotes clear roles and responsibilities to make mandates effective.


Advancing Bike Infrastructure Through Climate Legislation: Our guide underscores how state and local climate legislation can facilitate the construction of bike projects. By including bike infrastructure in climate legislation, communities can help reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately delivering significant environmental and fiscal benefits. We highlight examples of climate legislation in Minnesota, Washington, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, showcasing the most effective components.


Creating Safer Places to Ride: Ensuring streets are safe for cyclists is paramount to encouraging the adoption of bicycling for both transportation and recreation. Our guide emphasizes several strategies for local communities and states to achieve safer streets, including measures to reduce traffic speeds, ban right turns on red, and adopt modern design standards.

In this blog series, we will provide in-depth insights into each of these legislative strategies and demonstrate where we are already witnessing success stories. Promoting safe and connected places to ride remains our overarching goal to get more people on bikes.

Our work at PeopleForBikes to advance bike riding across the U.S. relies heavily on our local advocacy partners in all 50 states. If you are actively involved in improving bike infrastructure in your community, we would love to hear from you and discuss how PeopleForBikes can support your efforts. Please reach out to us at info@peopleforbikes.org. Together, we can make biking safer and more accessible for all.

A Legislative Playbook to Build More Bikeable Communities

PeopleForBikes’ Legislative Guide for Safe and Connected Bike Infrastructure, a component of our Great Bike Infrastructure Project, is a valuable resource for elected officials and local advocates, showcasing the most effective ways to advance bike infrastructure through state and local legislation. To help build more bikeable communities across the U.S., we’ve already explored the how and why behind funding bike infrastructure and mandating Complete Streets policies. In the latest edition of our blog series, we’re reviewing the third legislative strategy to create great places to ride — advancing bike infrastructure through climate legislation. 

The construction of bike infrastructure can play a powerful role in states’ climate policy agendas. With more state-level support behind the construction of bike infrastructure, more people will replace car trips with bike rides, reducing transportation-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the process. 

In the U.S., transportation is the highest emitter of GHGs at 29%, with most of those emissions (57%) coming from passenger cars and light-duty trucks (pickups and SUVs). More bike infrastructure can not only drastically reduce dependence on using vehicles for transportation by making bicycling a safe and attractive choice for people, but it also carries a host of economic, equity, health, and safety-related benefits that support thriving communities. 


Why should states include bike infrastructure in their plans to address climate change?


Bike infrastructure reduces greenhouse gas emissions by reducing vehicle miles traveled. Fifty-three percent of car trips made in the U.S. are three miles or less, and 28% are one mile or less. Transitioning close-to-home trips from cars to bicycles is possible and can significantly reduce the number of miles driven in personal vehicles.

Electrifying vehicles is essential, but it’s not enough. Reports from California, Hawaii, and Minnesota show that states must reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to meet GHG reduction goals. Even with the most optimistic assumptions about electric vehicle adoption, GHG emissions from cars remain too high without reductions in use. 

Active transportation infrastructure expands equitable access to low-cost, sustainable forms of transportation. Studies show that it is six times more expensive to travel by car than by bicycle.


How are states prioritizing bike infrastructure within their climate agendas?


There is a growing policy movement among states (including California, Colorado, and Minnesota) that not only sets GHG reduction targets but also makes requirements to evaluate large-scale transportation projects based on their potential GHG emissions. If a project does not fit within the states’ GHG reduction goals, they either have to modify the project, cancel it, or integrate low-polluting projects such as infrastructure for bikes or transit. 


This policy framework is already successfully shifting money away from high-polluting transportation projects and saving states’ money in the long run. 

Thanks to Colorado’s GHG rule, the state has already shifted $1.5 billion from road expansions to multimodal projects, with $900 million dedicated to expanding bike, walk, and transit networks. 


In 2024, three states (Illinois, New York, and Maryland) proposed similar legislation, and this trend is not expected to slow down. This useful policy tool allows states to meet their GHG reduction goals and helps them re-envision their transportation systems to ones that are safe, equitable, and convenient for all road users. 


What should states consider when prioritizing bike infrastructure within climate legislation?

Include specific VMT reduction targets. Communities cannot meet GHG reduction targets solely through electric vehicles without also reducing the miles those vehicles travel. 

Prioritize expenditures — like bike infrastructure — that provide co-benefits. Replacing short, gas-powered car trips with electric car trips may reduce GHG emissions, but it won’t provide the health, economic, safety, and happiness benefits that replacing those trips with bicycles will. 

Prioritize investments in traditionally disinvested and marginalized communities to help redress past inequities. 

Establish strict requirements for accurate reporting to measure and track the impact of various strategies relative to goals. 

Include transparent accountability measures that allow the public to ensure compliance.

Include electric bicycle (e-bike) incentive programs. Several U.S. states and cities have passed e-bike incentive programs to lower transportation-related GHG emissions. To learn more about e-bike incentive programs, check out our E-Bike Incentive Toolkit.

If you are a bicycle advocate, policymaker, or a community leader, PeopleForBikes wants to help make it easy to champion the inclusion of bike infrastructure in your state’s climate plan. To learn more about the best talking points and access resources and policy examples to advance bike infrastructure through climate legislation, check out our resources below:


Watch our webinar recording on this topic

Review our Legislative Guide for Safe and Connected Bike Infrastructure 

Read our Supplemental Guide for Advancing Bike Infrastructure through Climate Legislation which includes data-backed talking points to help you advocate for change in your community 

Advancing Bike Infrastructure Through Climate Legislation

This past September, as I biked the streets of Lyon, France, I was struck by the signs and signals catering to cyclists. From the small, dedicated bike traffic lights alternating between red and green to a sign indicating that bikes could turn right on a red or even go straight at an intersection, the roads were easy to navigate, even for a foreigner. This dedication to the bicycle has paid off: Yet another sign broadcasts the fact that more than 28 million bike trips have been made so far this year.

My time in Lyon was reminiscent of similar experiences I’ve had in well-known cycling cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Antwerp. The city, situated close to the Swiss border and home to just over half a million people, ranks high in PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings with a score of 81 for 2023. A high score (anything from 80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes that serve people of all ages and abilities. 

It’s one thing to see a network map and read about what makes a city great for bicycling, and quite another to experience it firsthand. 

In Lyon, there’s an abundance of protected bike lanes — separated both from cars and pedestrians — that can accommodate two-way traffic. Greater Métropole de Lyon, which is comprised of 59 municipalities, currently has 1,200 km (745 miles) of cycling facilities, of which 450 km (279 miles) are separated from traffic. Included in that mix is the impressive 1.75 km (1 mile) Crois Rousse multi-modal tunnel built in 2009, which includes a dedicated lane for buses, a sidewalk for pedestrians, and a 3-meter wide bi-directional bike lane, with barriers separating all three.


All of this from humble beginnings, considering that for most of the 20th century, Lyon was a car-centric city. In the 1970s, the first of the city’s bike infrastructure went in, advancing at no more than a trickle until the early aughts, when progress began to noticeably ramp up. By 2005, Lyon launched its bike share system, Velo’v, and began building more bike infrastructure for people to safely use it. Lyon also curbed driving by instituting low-emissions zones, which restrict vehicles according to the city’s air pollution levels, since 2016.

Today, Lyon’s bike lane network continues to grow, thanks in large part to an ambitious $290 million program known as Les Voies Lyonnaises (“The Lyon Routes”), which on completion will consist of 12 bike roads spanning 250 km (155 miles). The overarching goal of this network is to connect Lyon’s downtown core with its satellite, suburban communities to the north, south, east, and west, making it safer and more convenient for both commuters and leisure travelers from outlying areas to get into the city safely by bike. 

As shared by Arthur Bajula, the cycle and pedestrian planning officer for Métropole de Lyon, the city currently has roughly six miles of the new Lyon Routes network built. “We plan to have a third of the project — 90 km or 55 miles — completed or under construction by the summer of 2024,” says Bajula, noting that the network also plays a role in the city’s ongoing efforts to reduce air pollution. “The idea is to strengthen alternative mobility options such as cycling… and to promote cleaner vehicles within low emission zones.”

These numbers point to something of a hockey stick model, with a slow beginning which then ramps up. This echoes the trajectory of the Green Party, which came to power in Lyon in 2020 and has dedicated much of its early years to laying the groundwork for substantial climate work. This includes goals such as reducing C02 emissions by 40%, creating thousands of new ‘green jobs,’ and securing Lyon’s place among the world’s top bike cities. 

Unsurprisingly, part of the delay can also be attributed to a handful of car-centric mayors from other Métropole de Lyon municipalities who have sought to slow down the city’s two-wheel transition.

“There’s a lot of political opposition by certain mayors who are not green,” says Pamela Vennin, project manager with Lyon’s International Relations Department, explaining that the mentality is that citizens need cars to maintain their lifestyles and rights to privacy. “They don't want the cars to have problems.”

Still, in the face of vocal opposition, the Green Party has continued to push ahead, choosing to take space from cars by instituting “road diets” — slashing four or six-lane roads with parking on each side of the street to one or two lanes, with no parking, a bike lane, and wider sidewalks. 

“Some citizens have been pushing back,” says Vennin. “But it's the political will to tackle global warming, starting with mobility.”

Despite some pushback, all signs point to the Lyonnais embracing bicycling. Within the highest traffic areas of the downtown core, protected bike lanes are commonplace. So much so that you need to make a mental note when walking about to always look both ways for bikes when crossing the street. Even in outlying areas where traffic is lighter and there’s less of a need for protected bike lanes, painted lanes with sharrows on shared streets are the norm.

Last year, 72 bike counters tallied more than 42 million trips in Lyon, reflecting the fact that over the past decade biking trips have grown by 10-15% annually. Since COVID, the pace has picked up with 15-20% year-over-year growth. Overall, bicycling has increased by an incredible 370% since 2013. 

With so many cyclists, the city is also working to actively expand its bike parking infrastructure. In 2020, Lyon had 15,000 bike racks and according to Bajulaz, the goal is to quadruple the number of bike racks to 60,000 by 2026. For secure parking, such as bike garages, the goal is to increase the number of spaces tenfold, from 1,500 in 2020 to 15,000 by 2026.

In addition to the expanding network of bike lanes and places to park, other initiatives have helped pave the way for more widespread bike adoption. For instance, the Velo’v bike share program has been a tremendous success, with 422 stations serving 22 of Greater Lyon’s municipalities and more than 10 million rentals in 2022. In my time there, stations were prevalent and obviously well-used by both tourists and locals alike.  Shared micromobility becomes even more critical when you consider that one in three residents doesn’t even own a car — a statistic underscored by the fact many locals use Velo’v for commuting. 

Lyon is also making an effort to remove financial barriers to mode shift through its bike purchasing program, whereby any city resident is eligible for a grant of up to 1,000 Euro (about $1,053) towards purchasing an e-bike, a cargo bike, a folding bike, or an adaptive bike. The city also loans some 10,000 bikes, many of them reconditioned, to students or young adults seeking jobs between the ages of 18 and 25 through its Free Velo’v program. Most unique perhaps, is Lyon’s Les Auteliers de l’Audace, a bicycle repair training and resale program that recruits residents without a job as a way to help them reintegrate into society. 	

City officials are also working to make it easier for residents to take their bikes on public transit. “It is now possible to bring your bicycle on trams outside of peak hours,” says Bajulaz, adding that bikes are also allowed on the metro, funiculars, and trains. “We are also experimenting with bringing bikes on certain buses.”

Lyon’s civic leaders remain cognizant of everyday challenges that intersect with the city’s biking experience, ranging from getting more residents on board and comfortable with biking to discouraging drivers from parking or driving on road space dedicated to bikes. Or, as I experienced firsthand during my tour, the prevalence of bikers riding too fast or aggressively, which impacts the safety of both pedestrians and other cyclists. 

Still, compared to most North American cities, Lyon is an exemplary place for bicycling. With a solid network already in place and a population that’s already attained critical mass, the city’s key players are thinking bigger. The planner Bajulaz continues to draw inspiration from other top cities while Lyon Mayor Grégory Doucet is aiming for a city that is “100% walking and cycling.”

The other challenge and opportunity is that, with just three years left in their term, the city’s ruling Green Party feels a sense of urgency to get as much biking infrastructure built as possible before the next election. The concern is that if they don’t win, opposition parties will be less willing to continue advancing the substantial cycling work already underway, or, possibly, to begin prioritizing drivers. 

For now, that outcome is hard to imagine. Biking through Lyon’s streets, some of which have been around since Roman times, one feels as if they’ve landed on the right side of history. Everywhere you turn, there are people on bikes as well as clusters of bikes parked adjacent to where residents work and play. Increasingly, there are streets with few, if any, cars.

Mark Douglas Wessel is an urban journalist and communications consultant whose writing focuses on what we can do to create a more sustainable, more liveable world. For more of his work, go to: www.markdouglaswessel.com

What It’s Like To Ride in a Top-Rated Bike City

In the most bicycle-friendly cities in Europe, women ride their bikes for transportation in nearly equal proportions to men. In the Netherlands, women bike more than men. Unfortunately, that’s not true in the United States, where women account for just 28% of bike commuters according to the 2019 American Community Survey. Are American women different, with less tolerance for risk than their European counterparts? Or are American streets just that much more dangerous? 

Earlier this month,  the temporary city in the Black Rock desert of northern Nevada, built by participants of the annual Burning Man festival, provided an ideal experiment to show what could happen in an American city with a bicycle-centric transportation system. Over the course of a week, about 70,000 people coalesce in roughly three square miles, a population density similar to central Minneapolis. For years, its residents have found that bicycling is the best way to get around the city. 

According to traffic counts at this year’s festival, people on bikes made up 86% of traffic. (For those curious, about one-fifth of those were e-bikes or other electric devices like skateboards). Although there were plenty of cars (almost one per minute), they traveled slowly, barely over the 5 mph speed limit. Nobody was afraid of getting hit by a car, even though there was not a bike lane or a traffic control device in the entire city. 

With so many bikes and safe, but chaotic, interactions among bicyclists and between bicyclists and cars, the streets of this “American” city looked much like the streets of Amsterdam — albeit with a lot more sand and mud. 

And regarding gender? American women are no different than Dutch women, at least when it comes to transportation choice. In Black Rock City, ridership among women was roughly equal to or even greater than ridership among men. While attendees identifying as female only accounted for 42% of the population, they accounted for 45% of the bicycle riders. It was a revelation for many women. Qualitative surveys conducted by the Burning Man census team discovered that women mentioned “bicycles” about four times more than men in open-ended questions about what they remember as special from Burning Man. 

Another amazing impact of slow car traffic is that people hardly noticed them. Cars, including small electric “cars” such as golf carts, were essential to the functioning of the city. They included golf carts for people with disabilities, heavy machinery for servicing camps and latrines, and government pickup trucks and squad cars. When asked to estimate how many cars were sharing the roads with them as they biked, participants drastically underestimated the number of cars. Most were surprised that as many as 42 cars per hour traveled on the roads with them. 

Black Rock City shows the massive potential of centering bicycling in a city’s transportation system:

It provides unprecedented mobility for women, who will bike as much as men if the streets are safe. 

Nearly everyone (17 out of 20, in this case) will choose bicycling if it’s safe and the fastest way to get around town. 

Making the streets safe means protecting people from cars.

Limiting the number of cars and reducing speeds allows for an efficient transportation system without the need for lanes, signs, or signals. 

Black Rock City shows that Americans of all genders are happy to rely on bicycling if it’s safe. Yes, the temporary city in the desert has the advantage of being built from scratch, while permanent cities have centuries of habits and infrastructure to contend with. However, it’s built completely from scratch in a matter of weeks. It should not take us decades to rebuild our permanent cities to make them safe for bicycling.

These lessons from Black Rock City show the importance of the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, PeopleForBikes’ new program transforming communities across the United States with infrastructure that enables people of all ages and abilities to comfortably ride a bike for everyday trips. We need to permanently rebuild American cities to create gender equity, access for everyone, mobility convenience, and joy. Burning Man participants build a city of 70,000 in a few weeks. Let’s not take too long to rebuild American cities. 

Nevada’s Annual Experiment in a Temporary, (Nearly) Car-Free City

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

When in Washington, D.C., Congressman Earl Blumenauer doesn't drive. That’s an incredible feat considering Blumenauer is 75 years old and has served as a Democratic representative for Oregon’s 3rd congressional district since 1996. For decades, the congressman has commuted to Capitol Hill and around town by bike, living his values while simultaneously advocating for bicycling at the national level.

During his tenure, Blumenauer founded the Congressional Bike Caucus, fought to extend commuter benefits to cyclists, and co-sponsored the introduction of the E-BIKE Act in 2021, which though it has yet to pass, has inspired a proliferation of e-bike incentives at the state level. This Congress, Blumenauer reintroduced the E-BIKE Act alongside the Bicycle Commuter Act, which would offer tax benefits to Americans commuting to work by bike, and the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Act, which would unlock Highway Safety Improvement Program funding for projects that connect two pieces of safe cycling infrastructure.

Blumenauer’s efforts have also directly improved his daily commute: Over the course of two years, he successfully lobbied to get two miles of protected bike lanes built on Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol, a powerful symbol of integrating bicycling into our nation’s the transportation ecosystem. 

“The key for me has been to take the bicycle, the most efficient form of urban transportation ever designed, and be able to try and help people understand its power,” says Blumenauer, who regularly positions bicycling as a way to create a healthier, more sustainable, and more equitable world. “The ability to be able to make that case, to engage people, to show what a difference cycling makes — that’s something I'm very proud of.”

Blumenauer was a featured speaker at PeopleForBikes’ recent SHIFT‘23 conference in Bentonville, Arkansas. We interviewed the congressman ahead of the conference to talk about federal support for bicycling, the need to close the de minimis loophole, and — in line with this year’s conference theme — all things electric bikes.

Your focus has always been on leaving a better world for our children. Can you speak to that and how a push for bicycling makes sense in that context?

The bicycle is such a powerful tool and we need to make sure that it is integrated in both domestic and foreign policy. As I’ve said, the bicycle is the single most efficient form of transportation ever designed. It liberates young people, it costs relatively little to access, it's better for congestion, and it allows the rider to burn calories instead of fossil fuel, something that is important if we're going to fight climate change. There are also a great number of positive economic impacts.

There's so much money that is, for example, consumed parking cars. We have some estimates that there are six, eight, ten parking spaces or more for every vehicle. Those spaces give the illusion that we provide “free parking” — well, that is paid for with higher rents, more air pollution, and problems with stormwater runoff. Parking spaces cost $8,000-12,000 per parking space, and if it’s structured parking, we’re talking about $20,000-30,000 per space. “Free parking” is extraordinarily expensive.

You can easily park eight, nine, or ten bicycles in a space that would just be one car. And part of what we are finding is that people who bike are actually better customers. If you're biking at 10 or 15 miles per hour, you're more likely to pull over and explore something. You're more likely to have lunch or shop as opposed to when you're whizzing through a neighborhood at 40 miles per hour.

We know that parking reform is key to building bike-friendly cities, but I think it's hard for the average person to see the connection. How do we talk about bicycling more holistically in the context of some of our nation’s most pressing issues?

When parking is removed, that makes it much easier to finance and build affordable housing. There are so many of these elements that are ingrained in the way that we do business. Less parking means more choices and healthier air. You have to show people the impact the bicycle can have.

More bike utilization gives us a way for us to reduce the challenges for housing. It's a way to reduce congestion since every bicycle that's next to you when you pull over a stoplight is a car that’s not in front of you. Bikes provide a healthy alternative to cars and the more people take advantage of it, the more they're sold, which naturally helps build momentum.

What do you think are the chief impediments when it comes to getting people to bike in the first place?

A big part of it is having safe cycling infrastructure. Traffic safety is a huge problem in this country and the carnage on the road is really painful. The more we invest in improving that cycling infrastructure, the more people will actually use it. The bicyclist and the pedestrian are the indicator species of livable communities.

People for Bikes

Promoting Sustainability

Advancing Tactical Initiatives to Achieve Environmental, Health and Corporate Sustainability Goals in the Bike Industry

Identifying the Role of Bikes in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation

Creating Policies and Funding that Streamline Bike Projects and Access to Transit to Meet Sustainability Goals

Partnering on Voluntary Electric Bicycle Battery Recycling Programs

Positioning Bikes and Electric Bikes as Tools for Disaster Recovery

People for Bikes