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Change in Motion
2015 Yearbook
What is Change in Motion?
2015 was a year of mobilization at PeopleForBikes. It was a year of more people, more places and more influence. We all want more appealing, safe and convenient places for bikes. Let’s take a look at our recent accomplishments in pursuit of this goal.
01.
More People
More than a million individuals speaking up for better biking
02.
More Places
Building and improving bike lanes, paths and trails across the nation
03.
More Influence
Generating support for bicycling from powerful changemakers
Our grassroots army got bigger and stronger.
More People
In 2015, our individual membership grew to 1,168,011 people united for bikes.
We rallied our supporters 38 times. They responded to action alerts by sending by more than 35,000 letters in support of bicycling to state and federal officials.
The 2015 National Bike Challenge ended on September 30. The five-month campaign achieved record participation—more than 92,000 riders logged almost 38 million miles.
Dig Deeper
Kurt Searvogel, of Little Rock, Arkansas, tracked his record-breaking 75,270 miles in 2015 with the National Bike Challenge!
Learn how we helped
read more
In April, we released an inspirational 102-second spot called Shed The Monster. This video received more than 2.5 million views!
Take Your Bike to Dirt
During the summer, we challenged our supporters to ride off the beaten path and we provided tips and tricks for every kind of rider. More than 11,000 people pledged to take their bikes to dirt.
Click on a poster to view larger
Our traveling field staff visited 60 events in 23 states and recruited more than 17,000 new members between May and October.
We continued our work to develop more places for bikes—the key to getting
more people riding more often.
Green Lane Project
With our support, cities across the country continue to innovate to make bike riding a part of everyday life for more and more people.

Our effort to build better places to ride inspired the construction of 82 new protected bike lanes in 2015. We helped leaders in our six Green Lane Project focus cities—Atlanta, Boston, Denver, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Seattle—carve out safe and comfortable lanes on busy streets. It’s happening everywhere: St. Louis, Detroit, Modesto, and Lincoln joined the growing list of cities putting new protected bike lanes on the ground.

We helped advance protected bike lane designs from fringe ideas to mainstream as several states and the federal government incorporated them into engineering manuals. We celebrated the country’s first protected intersections in Salt Lake City, Davis and Austin.

Dig Deeper
A few years ago, a survey of downtown Denver employers revealed that their No. 1 obstacle to recruiting workers was the lack of developed bike infrastructure.
Learn how we helped
read more
Community Grants
From protected bike lanes to multi-use paths and sweet singletrack, our Community Grants Program provides direct and tangible support for better places to ride.

We awarded 22 grants in 2015 for a total of $220,000. Total cash support we provided in 2015, including community grants, event sponsorships and funding for other national bicycling non-profits: $1,080,100.

PeopleforBikes awarded $300,000 to six bike sharing organizations to improve marketing, outreach, education, and access in underserved communities. The Better Bike Share Partnership is helping to build equitable and replicable bike share systems to serve low-income populations.

Dig Deeper
Students at The Learning Community Charter School in Rhode Island studied the feasibility of biking to school and came to a conclusion: they needed protected bike lanes.
Learn how we helped
read more
We led changemakers on a ride to a future where everyone
benefits from bicycling.
Business Network
We hosted five executive fly-ins where we brought some of the most powerful people in the bicycling industry to Washington, D.C. to advocate for better biking.
In December, we preserved bike funding in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST) which is the number one source of federal funding for local bike projects, both on road and off—providing at least $820 million a year for investments in roughly 2,300 projects. FAST is the first long-term transportation bill approved by Congress since 2004. This was a significant win for bicycling in America.
Dig Deeper
We led an executive fly-in for a group of powerful bike-industry women executives to lobby for bicycle funding in Washington, DC.
Learn how we helped
read more

We pushed for the passage of tax credits for individuals for things like bike share passes, helmets and other bike gear, lower tariffs for suppliers on bike components, and we lobbied for full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund to protect open space.

We helped the U.S. Conference of Mayors host their first-ever bike summit in Madison, Wisconsin, monitored 22,000 bike-related bills in conjunction with the Bicycle Product Suppliers Association (BPSA), and contributed to the passage of model electric bicycle legislation in California.

Dig Deeper
Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced a four-year, $100 million plan to make Colorado “the best state for biking.”
Learn how we helped
read more
Participation Study
In 2015, we released the data from our U.S. Bicycling Participation Benchmarking Report.

34%

of Americans ages 3+ rode a bicycle at least once in 2014.

54%

of adults in the U.S. perceive bicycling as a convenient way to get from one place to another.

53%

of adults in the U.S. would like to ride more often.

52%

of adults in the U.S. worry about being hit by a car while riding a bike.

46%

of adults in the U.S. say they would be more likely to ride a bicycle if motor vehicles and bicycles were physically separated.

Study Tours
We took 94 leaders from 11 U.S. cities on week-long study tours of the Netherlands and Denmark to showcase world-class biking cities. We sent the delegates home inspired and ready to lead the complicated business of transforming their streets.
The delegation from Memphis, Tennessee focused on the power of bicycles to bring new energy to economically challenged neighborhoods through community bike rides, learn-to-ride programs, and investments from the city to provide safe and comfortable connections around town. Community leaders and city staff created a powerful action plan to unlock the power of bikes to build better cities.
"I think we've realized that we don't have to be so theoretical in our work. Pilot projects let you quickly put a substantial change on the ground in your city."
Kyle Wagenschutz
Delegate from Memphis, Tennessee
Change in Motion
Share our 2015 PeopleForBikes story with your friends, family and community. Help bring better bicycling to everyone.
Join The Army of 1,174,605 People
Mobilizing more people, we’ll gain more influence and build more great places for bikes. That’s where we’re headed in 2016 and beyond. We hope you’ll join us.
Thank you for your support of biking.
A Record Breaking Ride
Kurt Searvogel, of Little Rock, Arkansas, rode 33,093 miles in the 2015 National Bike Challenge (that’s an average of 215 miles per day!), which was more than enough to earn him the top spot overall.
He rode an additional 42,177 miles during the rest of the year, and recorded 75,270 miles total in 2015—setting a new annual cycling distance world record.
Read full story
Growing an Idea Into Reality
A few years ago, a survey of downtown Denver employers revealed something interesting: for many companies, the No. 1 obstacle to recruiting workers was the lack of bike infrastructure. That discovery led the Downtown Denver Partnership to send its executive director on one of our study tours to Copenhagen, then direct her team to lead a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for designing protected bike lanes on Arapahoe and Lawrence streets.
The campaign worked, and proved to City Hall that the downtown community would welcome better biking. In November, two new lanes boosted the low-stress network planned for the heart of the city.
Read full story
Getting Schooled
Students at The Learning Community Charter School in Central Falls, Rhode Island evaluated how easy it was to bike to school and came to a conclusion: they needed protected bike lanes! PeopleForBikes’ grant will help the school, along with city and community partners, build 1.5 miles of protected bike lanes that will link seven schools, a park and a playground. PeopleForBikes has now awarded at least one grant in all 50 U.S. states and Washington D.C.
To learn more about grant projects in your area, visit the PeopleforBikes Get Local pages.
A Capitol Success
One of our most memorable 2015 events was an executive fly-in held in early November. Led by a group of powerful bike-industry women executives, this particular D.C. trip proved timely because two amendments were being considered on the floor of Congress that would have stripped bicycle funding. This well-timed lobbying effort, along with many other PeopleForBikes initiatives, helped to secure the passage of the FAST Act.
Elevate Riding in Colorado
The Interbike trade show, an annual bike business highlight, was particularly memorable in 2015. During his speech at the PeopleForBikes industry breakfast, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper announced a four-year, $100 million plan, with the goal of making Colorado, “the best state for biking” in the U.S. The plan includes infrastructure building, trail development and continuing support of the Safe Routes to School program.