The Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia launched a new program called VeloLingo. VeloLingo is engaging and mobilizing immigrant, refugee, and underrepresented communities throughout Greater Philadelphia and South Jersey around safe biking through education in print online and in person!
Through VeloLingo and thanks to lead support from the William Penn Foundation, the Bicycle Coalition has offered free Learn to Ride Classes and beginner group rides in Spanish to over 150 participants through partnership with organizations including North 10, Juntos, Tookany/Tacony-Frankford Watershed, Riverfront North, Esperanza, the Mexican Consulate, and more.
Along with these classes, VeloLingo is thrilled to be announcing and sharing with all of Greater Philadelphia a new set of bicycle education materials offered in 5 commonly spoken languages of Philadelphia and the Greater Philadelphia area: Haitian-Creole, Vietnamese, Russian, Mandarin & Spanish.
VeloLingo’s new 6,000 brochures are the perfect size to stick on bicycle racks. Each of these cards has safety tips and is available in one of our 5 languages, with English on the opposite side. You can find these cards for free at local libraries as well as other community organizations.
You can also find this information on our website (if you go to our menu Programs- Bike Nice Drive Nice you will be able to access this information in all 6 languages)
- Bike Nice Drive Nice English
- Bike Nice Drive Nice Mandarin
- Bike Nice Drive Nice Spanish
- Bike Nice Drive Nice Haitian-Creole
- Bike Nice Drive Nice Vietnamese
- Bike Nice Drive Nice Russian
Along with printed materials, VeloLingo released a 4-minute bicycle safety video offering tips for safe biking in the region. This video is available in 6 languages and was created by PWP Video. The video can be found on our Youtube page as well as on our website.
There’s even more information about VeloLingo on Instagram: @biking4beginners with content available in 6 languages. If you start from the first posts on the page it will explain everything you need to know to bike around Philadelphia, from where to get a bike and everything you need to start riding! It also covers different laws and types of roads in the city, as well as some great places to ride.
VeloLingo is not just online but out in the community. The VeloLingo Outreach Ambassador Program is made up of 5 ambassadors to represent the 5 non-english commonly spoken languages who will be trained in our educational material and distribute them to organizations and neighborhoods in the region.
If you or your organization are interested in any of these great free materials please fill out this Google form and we will get back to you shortly!