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Entries tagged: Bikes Belong Foundation

For many, the 2010 National Bike Summit had a clear highlight. Ray LaHood, the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, didn’t just show up and give lip service to the assembled bicycle advocates. He literally jumped on a table, broadcasting in enthusiastic form his commitment to elevate biking and walking to equal status as the automobile. Not surprisingly, LaHood’s message — and theatrics — drew media headlines and made an impression in the halls of Congress.

Now you can broadcast your message to Congress in dramatic form, too — no table-leaping required.

The National Bike Summit was also the start of the PeopleForBikes.org campaign. The ingeniously simple idea came from the Bikes Belong Foundation, an organization funded by the bicycle industry to improve funding, infrastructure and policies related to biking. The reality: Social and political change are built on strength of numbers. The idea: Unite one million voices across America to show Congress there’s a big, broad, vocal constituency that cares about bicycling.

“Every day, millions of Americans ride for their health, for the environment, for their communities, and for the pure joy of bicycling,” the group’s president, Tim Blumenthal, said in a press release launching PeopleForBikes.org. “But until now, only a fraction of riders have stood up to help improve bicycling in America. PeopleForbikes.org is going to change all that. We’ll build on the expert work of existing bike advocacy groups – our partners – to develop a powerful movement with the clout and influence to get things done. That means promoting bike-riding on an individual level, but also sending a unified message to our elected leaders, the media, and the public that bicycling should have their full support.”

And here’s the beauty of the Bikes’ Belong campaign. It’s not complicated. To be part of this tidal wave of public opinion, you don’t even have to change out of your pajamas. You don’t need to travel to the nation’s capital. You don’t have to write a letter or buy a stamp. Just surf on over to the Web site. Give your name and email. Take the pledge.

That’s it.

Over the past six months, PeopleForBikes.org has built an army. Lance Armstrong signed the pledge and even sported the campaign’s decal on his bike during the Tour de France. The beer makers at New Belgium Brewing Company invited PeopleForBikes.org to join their popular Tour de Fat festivities in cities across the nation. Even beyond the bicycle world, marketing magazine Fast Company took a shining to the campaign, touting PFB’s “ingenious bike branding campaign that presents a refreshingly sunny view of life on two wheels.”

With more than 7 million media impressions, the PFB movement is building. It took the campaign more than four months to hit 50,000 signatures. But then, last week, this announcement hit my inbox: “PFB tops 100,000 pledges in support of bicycling!”

“Only a month ago, we were at 60,000 pledges,” Blumenthal wrote in the message. “We’ve nearly doubled in the last 30 days — that’s major momentum!”

Which begs the question: Are you for bikes? Can you spare 20 seconds for safer streets that accommodate bicyclists? Will you add your name to this Million Cyclist March?

It doesn’t matter if you ride a mountain bike or a city commuter; if you bomb down remote dirt trails or carefully navigate crowded urban streets; if you use your bicycle as your primary means of transportation or just dust it off for the weekend joy ride. Even if — no, especially if — you don’t ride a bike at all, because you don’t feel safe two-wheeling around your community, this campaign is for you.

Sign the pledge now.