Transportation equity, Vision Zero, retrofitting the suburbs. These are some of the big ideas that will propel bicycling in 2015 and beyond — and that all who attend will delve into at the National Bike Summit, March 10-12 in Washington, D.C.
With a theme of Bikes+, attendees will explore how bicycling can add value to other movements and how we can find strong, new partnerships that help us build a bicycle-friendly America for everyone. Register today to get the early bird rate (which ends January 31st.)
The National Bike Summit is the biggest annual advocacy event in the U.S. with hundreds of bicycling advocates, retailers and club riders convening in Washington, D.C. to push Congress to build a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone. And, for the fourth year, the Summit will include the National Forum on Women & Bicycling, a full day focused on closing the gender gap in U.S. bicycling and advancing female leadership in the movement.
Bikes + Big Ideas = National Bike Summit 2015! Be there. Learn more and register today!
So what kind of speakers will be there?
- Maya Rockeymoore: The President of Center for Global Policy Solutions and director of Leadership for Healthy Communities, Rockeymoore is an expert in equity in policy, specifically in health care. At the Summit, Rockeymoore will be discuss targeted universalism in policy and how that relates to transportation equity. The principal is aimed at using a universal idea, like “health care for all,” and applying that policy to all communities. This plays out by ensuring affordable, accessible health care in communities where it doesn’t already exist and ensuring people have transportation options to get there. Read more.
- Leah Shahum: Leah Shahum had a jarring realization in 2013. In the wake of a particularly fatal year for bicyclists and pedestrians in San Francisco, it became clear to the Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition that the slow, piecemeal approach to create safer streets wasn’t moving nearly fast enough. It was time to redraw the lines of the debate, shift the cultural compass for the city, the public and advocates to no longer accept traffic deaths as tragedies out of their control. So, at the start of 2014, the SFBC launched a Vision Zero campaign, calling for a reduction of all traffic deaths to zero in 10 years. Read this interview with Shahum.
- Ellen Dunham-Jones: At first glance, Ellen Dunham-Jones doesn’t seem to fit the part. A car-free architect. An urban designer with a focus on sustainability. Even her colleagues have asked her incredulously: “What are you doing out in the ‘burbs?!” Dunham-Jones is one of the nation’s leading experts on “Retrofitting Suburbia” — in fact, she wrote the book on the topic. But she thinks outside the (big) box (stores). She’s become a leader in reimagining the auto-centric suburbs, a chronicler of innovative reuses and champion for design solutions that revitalize our postwar communities. At the Summit, she’ll give the movement a glimpse into the suburban renaissance and help us brainstorm how bicycles can play a part. Read this interview with Dunham-Jones.
The Summit’s first day features the National Forum on Women & Bicycling, an event created by our Women Bike program that has grown in just three years to nearly 450 attendees in 2014. Building on its success by digging deeper, the Forum will focus on a Big Idea that will drive change at all levels: creating more diverse leaders, and proposing new systems of leadership to infuse more creativity and innovation into the bike movement.
Don’t miss the opportunity to network with hundreds of bike leaders and be part of the Big Ideas that will propel the movement in 2015 and beyond. Early registration ends January 31, so sign up today. Learn more at www.bikeleague.org/summit.
Lobby Day is March 12th!
After the Summit conference, attendees will trek up to Capital Hill to lobby their members of Congress on Thursday, March 12th. If you are interested in going to Lobby Day only, please contact Steve Taylor, who is organizing the Pennsylvania delegation meetings. It’s a great way to meet staff, members of Congress and get to know other Pennsylvania bicycle advocates.