National Bike Summit, 2024

The League for American Bicyclists hosted another great edition of the National Bike Summit in DC this year from Tuesday, March 19, through Thursday, March 21, 2024. Visitors were encouraged to join some of the many bike tours organised by DDOT to experience the protected bike lanes, new projects, bike trails, neighborhood bikeways, and much more. The conference was officially opened with a keynote by Veronica O. Davis, who has done amazing things for Houston, Texas to make cycling a safer and accessible mode of transport. Her speech was followed by a presentation by Shailen Bhatt from the Federal Highway Administration. The FHWA launched an Active Transportation Infrastructure and Investment Program, worth $44,5 million. Their main message was that there are lots of people who already cycle and lots of people who will never be convinced to start cycling. However, there is a huge group in the middle that can be convinced to bike as long as it is safe.  

Margot Daris from the Dutch Cycling Embassy had the opportunity to give a presentation about ‘Slow Roads: Dutch Design Applied in U.S. Cities’. She was accompanied by three cities where we recently hosted ThinkBike Workshops. Anna Kelso from Fort Collins, Ky Plakson from Reno, and Will Handsfield from DC joined the session to share their first-hand experiences of working with the DCE. Margot started the presentation with the Dutch cycling history and how that eventually led to the road hierarchy system that we use in the Netherlands. There are numerous elements that can be adjusted to create a safer road system for all users. Rather than relying on a single solution, it’s about making small adjustments across various aspects to achieve a positive outcome. Anna talked about the hardware, software, and orgware solutions we came up with for Fort Collins and how the engineers and urban planners now speak the same language when they are working on a project. Ky presented about the expended protected bike lanes in Reno and how they were able to learn from practices in DC because both cities had hosted a ThinkBike. Finally, Will presented about the traffic circles DC was able to build after the three workshops they organised with the DCE. Eventually, the session was standing room only and it was amazing to see how many US cities want to increase the number of cyclists in their cities. To watch the full session, please go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qicOyRXZUr4  

The conference was closed by a truly inspiring story by the Bicycle Nomad, Erick Cedeno. He has cycled multiple great distance trips, but his most notorious ride is The Underground Railroad. He pedaled from New Orleans, LA to Niagara Falls, NY. Trailblazing through rough terrain often alone for long periods of time and encountering hundreds of new lives in towns in between. Erick followed the Drinking Gourd through a maze of tunnels and safe houses in a journey to experience what it was like for slaves to find liberation. After Erick’s touching story, he led a bike ride with 200 participants through the streets of DC to close the conference.  

We would like to thank the League of American Bicyclists, and especially Bill and Amelia, for hosting another great edition of the National Bike Summit. We’ll see you next year!