TBAG Report from the National Bike Summit

Tempe Bicycle Action Group was represented this year at the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. by Robert Chacon and Joe Perez. This year’s event was the biggest turnout to date with 48 states represented and over 800 participants. Arizona also had our largest showing with representatives from all areas of cycling in our state.

We went to the hill and talked with our representatives regarding cycling and the need for funding to keep the progress and momentum going. We may not have changed the world but we showed Washington D.C. that we mean business when it comes to transportation funding specifically as it pertains to cycling.We were able to talk with lots of people from all over the country about cycling issues ranging from how to raise funds for bike programs to how to organize politically to show our local politicians we mean business.

Another thing that was discussed at this year’s summit was the unification of 3 large cycling advocacy organizations League of American Bicyclists, Bikes Belong and Alliance fr Biking and Walking this alliance could prove to be very helpful for cycling.

One of the speakers at a breakout session was the Executive Director of the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and as he was speaking about the great program that his group was working on in San Diego he mentioned his college years at ASU cycling and how they led him to this place. After the session I had a chance to talk with Andy he expressed that TBAG was also a part of his college experience. We also had a chance to ride around the city and took a group ride with a local shop called Bicycle Space http://bicyclespacewdc.com/ About 100 of us took over the streets of downtown D.C. with music blasting into the night. We were also able to try the Bike Share program in D.C., what a great program can’t wait till we get them here in Arizona. The weather was great the Cherry blossoms were out the museums and monuments are free and bikes are readily available what more can I say.