Editor’s Note: Over the next week, the Bicycle Coalition will be showcasing our Year-in-Review, which is also available at BicycleCoalition2016.org
Early on in 2016, the Bicycle Coalition got some welcome news: Sarah Clark Stuart would be taking over as Executive Director of the organization.
Stuart had been serving as the Coalition’s Acting Executive Director since November 1, when former Executive Director Alex Doty left the organization to serve as head of the League of American Bicyclists.
She came into the job from the Deputy Director position, where she served for seven years.
Since joining the Bicycle Coalition in 2009, she has been a key player in the Bicycle Coalition’s key accomplishments: mobilizing new funding for the region’s trail system, such as the $23 million TIGER construction grant; organizing a coalition to promote the regional trail network as “The Circuit”; advancing Philadelphia’s Complete Streets policy and the requirement that new construction projects include bike parking in the City’s code; and coordinating research and analysis of several reports on bicycling in Philadelphia.
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Also early in 2016, Women Bike PHL — a project of the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia which aims to inspire more Philadelphia women to ride bicycles and build community among those who do — released a survey conducted by Sport Industry Research Center (SIRC) at Temple University.
Through its outreach on social media and at community events, the group has grown to have just over 3,800 members and continues to grow.
Members swap success stories and vent frustrations, and give and receive advice about the ins and outs of urban biking. How the survey came about is a good example of the group’s sense of community in action.