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.

The Nerd Collective is a collaboration between Ryan Atkinson, president and co-owner of Workstand; Matt Tucker, director of client development at Circana; Peter Woolery, managing member of Bicycle Market Research; and Liam Donoghue, bicycle industry senior research manager at PeopleForBikes, who meet each month to develop data-backed insights on the bike industry’s most pressing issues.

Kids’ bikes don’t represent a particularly large percentage of dollar sales through the independent bicycle dealer (IBD) channel, leading to a generally smaller industry focus on its performance compared to other bike categories. However, the kids’ bike category is still an important metric for the growth of our industry. 

Kids’ bikes represent more than half of bicycle unit sales as measured by Circana, accounting for 57% of bike units sold across the total measured market in 2023*. It is important to note that the lion’s share of unit sales flow through the rest of market (ROM) channel (e.g., big box stores, sporting goods stores, etc.). For every kids’ bike sold at IBDs in 2023, the ROM channel sold 20.* 

Kids' bike sales are also an important barometer for the future of the market. As we know from PeopleForBikes’ COVID Participation Study, those who ride bikes as children are more likely to ride as adults than those who don’t. In this installment of our market trends series, the Nerd Collective looks at whether the sales patterns for kids' bikes differ from those of adult bikes. (spoiler alert — they do!)

Looking at the seasonal trend for unit sales of adult bikes (all bicycles excluding kids') in 2022 and 2023, it is clear that June and December are the strongest months, accounting for 14% and 12% of annual unit sales respectively. Further, 42% of adult bicycles are sold between March and June. 

For kids’ bikes, December is by far the strongest month, accounting for 25% of annual unit sales in 2022 and 2023. Also, the peak season for adult bikes (March through June) only accounts for 35% of annual unit sales for kids’ bikes.

The holiday spike in kids' bike sales is primarily driven by the ROM channel, where December accounts for 26% of annual unit sales in 2022-2023 compared to only 14% in the IBD channel. In December 2023, 40% of all kids’ bike units were sold online, an 8% over the first 11 months of the year.*

While the vast majority of those online sales happened at ROM stores, the holiday sales pattern is also strong for IBD e-commerce with December accounting for 20% of annual kids’ bike unit sales in 2023 and 21.5% in 2022.** In both years, roughly 3% of IBD kid’s bike sales in December took place online. This data suggests that there is opportunity for IBDs to boost sales of kid’s bikes during the holidays, particularly through leveraging online, e-commerce purchasing options. 

Conversely, the pattern of kids’ bike sales looks very different in the used marketplace, where there is no holiday sales peak.*** One interpretation of this observation is that potential sellers hold on to used bikes for their children to ride until they receive a new one as a holiday gift. Alternatively, it may be that the price gap between new and used kids’ bikes is particularly small during the holidays because of promotions and/or because potential sellers want to give their kids a new bike instead of a used bike during the holidays. 

It is worth noting that the used market is particularly strong for kids’ bikes, where the barriers to purchasing used and online are likely much lower than for other bike categories. In fact, kids’ bikes have the second lowest stock-to-sales ratio (behind e-bikes) with the average selling price (ASP) being very close to that observed in the ROM channel. It may be that the used market is so robust for kids’ bikes because sellers aren’t concerned about recouping costs and/or because kids move through bike sizes quickly. If the latter is true, the used market represents an opportunity to keep kids riding throughout their childhoods with a larger availability of affordable options.  

The U.S. is a uniquely strong market for kids’ bikes. Based on a CONEBI report of the European market, kids’ bikes accounted for about 20% of bikes sold in 2020. In the U.S., kids’ bikes accounted for about 57% of bikes sold across the total market measured by Circana in 2023.*

Why is there such a large difference between the U.S. and Europe, especially when taking Europe’s larger population into account? Some of the reason owes to how easily and inexpensively a U.S. shopper can buy a bike for their child, either online or while they’re doing the rest of their department store shopping. While the sentiment is certainly changing in large parts of the U.S., kids’ bikes are still often viewed as toys rather than a transportation option to get the family from home to school or other destinations.

We also know that not as many American children continue to ride as adults compared to their European peers. Based on PeopleForBikes’ 2022 Bicycling Participation Study, more than half of kids 14 or younger rode a bicycle at least once in the previous year. That participation rate drops to 42% at ages 15-17 and continues to decline throughout adulthood, down to just 18% among those ages 55+.  This points to a big opportunity to grow ridership  in the U.S. by not only getting more kids on bikes but keeping them riding through adulthood.

While youth-focused organizations like NICA, Little Bellas, Outride, and Safe Routes to School play a critical role in getting and keeping kids on bikes, the data suggests that the biggest drop in participation happens right around driving age. Given that, technological innovations like e-bikes may offer a new opportunity to engage teenagers. 

Those 8.2 million kids who get a new bike each year will be the next generation of riders propping up our industry in the next decade, so it’s imperative to keep as many of them riding as we can.

Have a question for the Nerd Collective to answer in a future blog? Submit it here.

*Based on Circana/Retail Tracking Services, US Cycling POS Monthly

** Based on Workstand IBD eCommerce sales data

***Based on Bicycle Market Research data on peer-to-peer used marketplaces (eBay, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, Mercari)

Tracking Seasonality and International Sales Trends of Kids’ Bikes

When Britton Zoggs and her husband Arthur moved to the Broadmor neighborhood in south Tempe, Arizona, they did so for their daughter. They wanted her to live close enough to bike to elementary school. What they didn’t expect is how that decision would change their lives by being reunited with the joy of bicycling. But that’s exactly what happened when their daughter joined the Broadmor Elementary School Bike Bus last year. Sponsored by the Tempe Bicycle Action Group and organized by a group of local parents, the bike bus shuttles about 20 kids from a handful of collection points along a busy road to Broadmor Elementary School. 


“We had stopped biking once we settled down, but we got bikes to be able to join our daughter on the bike bus. We had forgotten how much fun it is! Now, we ride all the time around the neighborhood and are healthier and just happier,” said Zoggs. As is obvious from the faces of the children as they bike to school, her daughter and her classmates love it. “She’s totally confident on her bike. She wakes up early, without an alarm, on bike bus days. She’s so excited.”

Connection is the common theme expressed by everyone on the bike bus. “By biking with kids to school, they get to observe the world around us, and be more connected to our neighborhood,” said Hannah Moulton Belec, one of the organizers of the ride. “Doing that by car, you’re sitting in that long line of traffic and — not to mention the cost and the emissions — you’re just not connected to your neighborhood. It’s an alienating way to travel through your neighborhood.”

Kendra Flory and Moulton Belec organized the ride in 2022 out of frustration with the slow pace of safety improvements on College Avenue, the busy street that leads to the elementary school. It was designated as a “bicycle boulevard” in Tempe’s General Plan, but speeds were high and there was no urgency to change that. “There was a sense that it was an impossible problem, and that it wasn’t as bad as it could be. There was no urgency,” said Moulton Belec. Thankfully, the Bike Bus changed that. 

“It was one of the only things we actually could do to prove there was a demand for the type of infrastructure we wanted to see on College Ave.,” she said. 


Since then, city officials have expedited improvements on College Avenue. There is a new pilot protected bike lane, traffic calming devices, and colorful pavement murals that slow drivers. More are in the works.

In 2023, PeopleForBikes’ Industry Community Grant Program awarded the Tempe Bicycle Action Group $5,600 to highlight the connection between children's safety and the infrastructure that results in slower speeds.


As a result of the bike bus and a push for more safe places to ride, the culture is changing in Tempe. The city manager now meets with the ride organizers and other bicycle advocates regularly to get their input on potential infrastructure grant applications. Kids are biking to school on days even without the bike bus.

“Anytime we’re around the best cycling communities, like Amsterdam, you can feel the positivity,” said Zoggs. “We want to live in communities that prioritize bike lanes, even if we’re not riding bikes. It’s one of the first things we look at because of what it says about the community.” 


Zoggs is optimistic about the future of Tempe and grateful for PeopleForBikes’ support. “It gives us hope that you came here to support the bike bus. It makes us thrilled about living here in Tempe.”

Reconnecting With Joy: How a Simple Bike Bus Transformed a Neighborhood and Its Families

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.

People for Bikes

Youth Bicycling

PeopleForBikes at Work on Youth Bicycling

News

Your Bike Advocacy Playbook

Tracking Seasonality and International Sales Trends of Kids’ Bikes

Reconnecting With Joy: How a Simple Bike Bus Transformed a Neighborhood and Its Families

Morgantown’s Bike Strategy Focuses on Youth

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

PeopleForBikes' 2023 Industry Community Grants Recipients

Research Highlights the Positive Impact of In-School Cycling

This Bike Program Is Empowering Indigenous and Latino Youth

5 Ways to Boost Community Engagement in Bike Advocacy

Apply for a 2023 PeopleForBikes Industry Community Grant

There’s Already Record Funding For Bikes in 2023

How Minneapolis Became a Top U.S. Bike City

Growing Female Ridership in West Virginia

Creating a Better World for Adaptive Cyclists

How a Bike Bus Inspired a State Bill

Help Get More Kids on Bikes

55 New Schools Commit to Youth Cycling

The Best New U.S. Bike Lanes

2023 Outride Fund Applications Are Open

A Bicycle Garden Grows in Michigan

People for Bikes