We get  governments to work with equity and transportation community groups to rethink how public spaces are built and protected so that people feel welcome to spend time outside. We encourage cities to repurpose police budgets for transportation initiatives and rethink enforcement related to traffic violations on bikes.

We work to ensure that transportation projects don’t cut neighborhoods off from access to jobs and services and include access for bikes and to transit. We fight for equitable investment in all communities and work to reform transportation planning to be more inclusive.

All communities must be engaged, where they are, in transportation planning projects. We advance ways that communities are defined within the permitting process, especially environmental justice components of projects, and elevate robust community engagement as an asset to local and state officials.

We identify federal research that could study access to quality and safe bicycle infrastructure near underserved communities and encourage broad reporting on where the needs are most urgent. We conduct research and polling to justify funding for low-cost access to transportation and position our City Ratings program as a tool for cities to build equitable networks that serve underserved and BIPOC communities.

We advance electric bicycle purchase incentive programs by finding public partners to establish bicycle purchase incentives as a tool to achieve climate goals, improve transportation equity and improve air quality. We are also expanding private sector encouragement programs to provide financial access to bikes and education.

Bicyclists enjoy Salt Lake City's Jordan River Trail where the newly completed Parley's Trail provides a safe freeway crossing for the east and west side of the city. Photo Credit: Sweet Streets

With the release of our seventh annual City Ratings, featuring 2,300 U.S. cities for 2024, PeopleForBikes is celebrating cities that put in the dedicated work in recent years to improve their score and make biking better in their communities.

Salt Lake City is one of our 2024 Cities on the Rise, raising their score from 46 (out of a possible 100) in 2020 to 52 in this year’s ratings. Our research shows that a score of 50 is the tipping point to becoming a great place to bike for most cities, and Salt Lake City is proof that when the right investments are made, bicycling becomes better for everyone.


“We’re really starting to fill out our street network,” says Troy Saltiel, an executive board member of Sweet Streets, a local group that educates and advocates for people-first planning and safe mobility options for people of all ages, abilities, and incomes. “Our streets are large, which is hard, but we’re putting in more bike lanes as streets are repaved. We’re also filling out our neighborhood byways, greenways, and bike boulevards that all fit into our network.”

Saltiel points to one project in particular as a major recent win for the city — the 9 Line Trail. Built along an abandoned railway line, the off-street, multi-use path stretches from the west to east side of the city parallel to the 900 South thoroughfare and connects numerous neighborhoods, giving residents a safe option for traveling by foot or bike as well as an accessible recreation corridor.


The 9 Line Trail along Liberty Park, where it crosses 700 E, an urban highway. Photo Credit: Sweet Streets

In the fall of 2023, Salt Lake City also celebrated the completion of one of its most significant public works projects to date — the 300 West Reconstruction Project — which was named one of PeopleForBikes’ Best New Bike Lanes of 2023. The project features a separated, two-way, 10-foot-wide bike lane; upgraded sidewalks; and more than 200 new trees to provide shade and serve as a buffer between people on bikes and the roadway.

Both of these infrastructure projects complement the city’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Master Plan, which was approved by the Salt Lake City Council in 2015. The plan outlines Salt Lake City’s impressive goal of expanding its network to include 220 miles of bikeways by 2035. While that may seem like a heavy financial lift for the city, the plan states its bike network expansion can be built for the same amount of money as widening just 1.3 miles of freeway.


Saltiel also says infrastructure improvements aren’t the only work being done to improve bicycling in Salt Lake City. Sweet Streets played a major role in advocating for the city’s “20 is Plenty” campaign, which successfully pushed the city council to pass an ordinance lowering speed limits on 70% of city streets from 25 to 20 miles per hour.


When asked what advice he had for other cities looking to improve biking on their streets, Saltiel’s answer was simple — get involved in the community.


“You need to get out and know your community and bring that community together,” he says. “Get people comfortable on bikes and give people a place to gather and create a low barrier to entry.”

Bicycle Collective, a statewide nonprofit organization, is doing just that for residents of Salt Lake City.


“We’re what we call a ‘do it yourself with help’ shop,” says Thomas Cooke, a digital strategist for the community-based bike shop that offers tools and workbenches for residents to work on their own bikes. “Annual memberships are $100 with unlimited bench time and for non-members, bench time is $5 an hour. We have professional mechanics on hand that are there to help as well as refurbish donated bikes that are either resold at affordable prices or given to those in need.”

Bicycle Collective recently celebrated the grand opening of their new shop space, conveniently located at the intersection of the 300 West separated bike lane and the 9 Line Trail, allowing community members to easily access the space by bike.


“We have four shops in Utah, and our Salt Lake City one is in an 18,000 square foot building. Our old one was only 3,000 square feet,” says Cooke. “With the ability to receive more bikes and work on more bikes, we can do more for the community. Last year we gave away 1,349 bikes through local partners and sold about 1,500, with the average price under $300.”


Looking ahead, Saltiel says Salt Lake City looks to begin work on its Green Loop — a greenway/park multimodal space that encircles the city’s downtown hub. Wide, five-lane streets will be reduced down to two lanes with the rest of the space converted to park space with other amenities like bike lanes that go all the way around the city. To no surprise, the community aspect will play a large role in the project.

“Sweet Streets isn’t just about walking and biking, we’re about community,” says Saltiel. “We’re not just here to install a bike lane, we want to see the community out enjoying their public spaces, and streets are public spaces.”

Investments in Infrastructure and Community Make Salt Lake City a Great Place to Bike

The Better Bike Share Partnership, a collaboration between PeopleForBikes, the City of Philadelphia, and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), is proud to announce its second cohort of Living Labs focused on creating replicable programs for improving shared micromobility in BIPOC and low-income communities.

A strategy launched in 2020, BBSP Living Labs are testing grounds for innovative solutions. The program helps fulfill the partnership's mission of identifying barriers to bike share and developing strategies to address those barriers. The Living Lab approach provides time, flexibility, and gives grantees the opportunity to create lasting change, specifically to make their micromobility systems more equitable by increasing access to and use of bike share. 

Learn about our previous Living Labs and their achievements.

The new cohort includes bike share systems housed in and operated by a variety of organizations and companies. They operate in mid to large-sized cities and are diverse in their system size.

City of Tucson, Arizona — Tugo Bike Share

Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority — Metro Bike Share

City of Philadelphia — Indego Bike Share

BBSP received 30 letters of interest from partnerships of cities, bike share operators, and community-based organizations looking to pilot, expand, replicate, or scale strategies and tactics to break down barriers to bike share in historically marginalized communities. 

Over the course of two and a half years, BBSP is committed to disbursing $200,000 to each Living Lab, covering costs associated with programming as well as technical support, scholarships, and travel stipends for relevant conferences. Grantees will also convene virtually every month to share learnings and build camaraderie as a cohort. Check back often as we showcase the work of each Living Lab.

Read the full press release below to learn more about each project.

Better Bike Share Partnership Announces Second Cohort of Living Lab Partners Focused on Equity

The Better Bike Share Partnership (BBSP), funded by The JPB Foundation to build equitable and replicable shared micromobility systems, is pleased to announce the selection of its second cohort of Living Labs. A collaborative between PeopleForBikes, the City of Philadelphia, and the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), BBSP will provide four organizations with funding, support, and additional resources to develop best practices for creating access to shared micromobility and increase use of shared micromobility in historically marginalized communities. 

Each Living Lab identified barriers to bike and scooter share for BIPOC and those living on limited incomes in their cities. The organizations will spend the next two years working with local partners and community members to address these barriers.

“As a Living Lab, each grantee will have the time and flexibility to test strategies and implement new ideas so that BIPOC and lower-income communities can more easily access and use their bike share systems,” said  Tangier Barnes Wright, deputy director of shared micromobility at PeopleForBikes. “They will be part of a cohort of organizations advancing equity in shared micromobility and we look forward to learning from their work.”

Building on the work of Philadelphia — the first BBSP Living Lab city — the 2024 cohort will grow partnerships, lead with community engagement, expand already successful work, and test and refine strategies to bring bike share and historically marginalized populations together.

Here are the 2024-2026 Living Lab projects:


Through a community-led planning effort, Tugo Bike Share will collaborate with community-based organizations to determine how to reinvest resources to serve the south and west sides of Tucson more equitably. Through more equitable station siting and in-person engagement, Tugo will assess utilization rates in previously underserved areas and engage with community organizations and residents to better understand barriers to access and bike share adoption. The group will also work with partners and underserved communities to create a process that incorporates feedback, represents community needs, and builds capacity to better support and advocate for future bike share system expansion or electrification.


Equitable Outreach and Engagement in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh’s bike share system, POGOH, will work with community partners to develop a local engagement plan to address low ridership and awareness in the Homewood neighborhood. POGOH will address barriers to biking and mobility by building connections with Homewood students and families through a youth ambassador program, community rides, learn to ride courses, and programming with Safe Routes to School. By hiring neighborhood outreach associates to engage residents in bike share expansion, POGOH will create lasting opportunities for Homewood residents of all ages and skill levels to engage in biking and bike share. POGOH’s Living Lab work will take place alongside planned system expansion over the next two years.

Community-Led Coalition for Equitable In-Fill and Expansion of

This coalition of community partners will promote local involvement and trust in bike share for communities that, for the first time, will be directly served by Metro Bike Share. Through partnerships with community-based organizations, Metro Bike Share will implement educational programming and expand outreach efforts to create a process for sustained engagement, fostering community ownership in bike share initiatives. The project scope includes pre-station siting community engagement in central and westside Los Angeles as well as service area gaps. The Living Lab work will help ensure Metro’s planned bike share expansion is achieved while centering community members and equity.  

The City of Philadelphia, in collaboration with Bicycle Transit Systems and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia, remains steadfast in its commitment to the equitable growth of the Indego bike share program. As Indego expands, it will use community input to continue refining its engagement initiatives which currently include the Indego Community Advisory Council, local mini-grants, Wheels to Work, Indego Community Ambassadors, and bike safety education and encouragement programs. Indego’s goal is to ensure communities within their service area can access the benefits of bike share and that community members’ voices are heard.

Meet the Better Bike Share Partnership's New Living Lab Grantees

While prioritizing sustainability at conferences is not a new concept, including bike share in conference sustainability efforts is certainly less common. Thanks to our generous 2024 Bicycle Leadership Conference (BLC) sustainability sponsors Revelyst and Ortlieb, as well as Tugo Bike Share in Tucson, Arizona, PeopleForBikes is helping expand access to active transportation opportunities by providing 500 annual bike share passes to Tucson residents who qualify for Tugo’s equity pass program, TugoForAll.


The Bicycle Leadership Conference is the bike industry’s annual event where top leaders and decision makers come together to chart the course of the bike business. The event features a perfect blend of inspiration, education, and action, allowing for peer-to-peer conversations aimed at moving our industry forward. 

Tugo Bike Share is the City of Tucson’s bike share system. A docked system with more than 300 bikes, Tugo provides a sustainable option for getting around the city. The system contributes to making Tucson a thriving and accessible place for residents and visitors alike.


This year’s BLC sponsors understand the connection between sustainability and biking and their generous support is making it possible for Tugo to increase the number of BIPOC and low-income Tucsonans who can get to where they need to go without a car.

"The City of Tucson is excited and grateful to have PeopleForBikes supporting shared micromobility in Tucson. By providing this funding, the city will put more Tugo For All annual bike share passes into the hands of those who rely on low-or-no-cost mobility options to access their everyday destinations. Eliminating that initial cost barrier is a key step to ensure our bike share system can be embraced by more Tucsonans," said Ben Elias at the City of Tucson Department of Transportation and Mobility.


Better biking means accessible biking. Bike share systems across the country are leading the way creating access to bicycling by attracting, including, and serving people from diverse backgrounds. Systems like Tugo are building community engagement processes and systems that serve everyone, as well as advancing equity and sustainability through programs that make bike share nearly free for those who qualify. 

PeopleForBikes is grateful for the generosity of Revelyst and Ortlieb, our new partnership with Tugo, and the opportunity to promote sustainability at our conferences in a new and meaningful way.

In order to make our vision of transforming America into the best place in the world to ride a bike a reality, PeopleForBikes is committed to supporting local bike advocacy efforts in communities across the country. To maximize your impact and success, advocates must have a message that resonates with local residents, authentically engages new advocates and the larger community, and builds broad coalitions of support. 

From successfully communicating your message to adopting inclusive approaches to road safety, our Guide to Effective Local Bike Advocacy covers the most essential tactics to help grow bicycling in your backyard. Informed by years of advocacy investments in communities of all sizes, we designed this guide to set your local advocates and advocacy organizations up for success. 

To support your organization's development, assess your strengths, and identify areas for improvement, we also created a self-evaluation scorecard. By honestly evaluating your organization's performance in critical areas, you can create targeted strategies to enhance your impact.

Access PeopleForBikes’ Local Advocacy Self-Evaluation Scorecard

Lead with issues everyone can relate to, even those who don’t bike. Successfully implementing bike infrastructure and policy changes hinges on your ability to garner support from people who might not bike often or at all. The great news is that most people are on board with building quality bike projects, especially when they are part of broader investments like improved roads, sidewalks, parks, and public transit. Why? Because it means more options for getting where you need or want to go, more opportunities for outdoor recreation, and safer streets for everyone, no matter how they choose to travel. 

Start with the problems that bicycling can help solve: road safety for all road users, transportation affordability, public health, economic development, tourism, sustainability, and access to jobs, education, and recreational opportunities. Create talking points that highlight your community's challenges and show how bicycling can be a part of the solution to addressing them. When you focus on value-driven messaging, you’ll gain more support. 

Check out our Bike Advocacy Playbook and supplemental guides for creating bike infrastructure through legislation for talking points and data to help you get started. 

Advocate for a complete transportation network, not just a bike project. When advocates establish and promote a vision for fully connected, comfortable transportation networks, more community members support their work. Complete networks allow everyone, whether they’re walking, rolling, or biking, to move around their community with safety and ease by including safe and comfortable sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, shared-use paths, slow-speed streets, and convenient access to recreational opportunities and transit options. Getting community members to understand the importance of a single bike project can be challenging. By presenting the project within the context of a larger, citywide vision, you’ll help folks connect the dots. 

Learn about the importance of low-stress bike networks and how they impact PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings scores.

List your highest priority projects and policies on your website and highlight them through email, social media, and in-person or virtual meetings. If your organization can only accomplish five things this year, what should they be? What projects and policies are critical to making your community better for bicycling? Publicly sharing your priorities helps unify your supporters around clear goals and lets everyone know how they can best assist you in reaching them.

Community engagement is vital to building bike projects and passing pro-bike policies. While genuine and fair community involvement varies from place to place, some methods work everywhere and are key to increasing trust and equity.

Engage early, often, and in creative ways to establish a continuous dialogue within the community. A proactive approach to engagement is key. The first time community members hear about a bike project should not be when it is about to be implemented. Embrace engagement methods like Open Streets events, inclusive community rides, canvassing teams, and field ambassadors that attend community events to meet people where they are instead of expecting them to come to you. This approach demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and enhances the effectiveness of your engagement strategies by reaching a broader audience.

Check out 5 Ways to Boost Community Engagement in Bike Advocacy.

Make sure your meetings are accessible. Are your meetings held in locations and at times that accommodate all individuals, making them feel welcome and capable of attending? Have you thought about child care, food, translation services, and wheelchair access? Ensuring inclusivity in the logistical aspects of your engagement efforts is a fundamental step toward fostering more diverse and representative participation.


Develop a diverse, inclusive coalition. In building a coalition, it's crucial to consider the composition of your group. Take a moment to reflect on whether your coalition primarily consists of confident "avid cyclists" or if it includes a diverse representation of casual riders, women, people of all ages, and individuals reflecting the broader demographic spectrum of your city. If the latter is not the case, your local advocacy group may need to work towards being more inclusive to address your community's varied needs and garner broader support. 

Effective advocacy coalitions also collaborate with voices outside of bike advocacy. Pedestrian advocacy groups, public transportation advocacy groups, youth groups, climate justice advocates, and even allies from places like the skateboarding community can all be valuable partners. For local advocacy organizations to grow and thrive, embracing diverse perspectives, even from those who may not currently engage in biking, is essential. By finding common ground and fostering a coalition that spans a range of interests, you can create a more robust movement advocating for improved recreational and transportation opportunities accessible to all.

Adopt an inclusive approach to road safety. While making our streets safe is a top priority, relying solely on enforcement doesn’t address people’s varied experiences with law enforcement. Advocates have the opportunity to push for an environment where biking is safe and accessible for everyone — including people of all ages, abilities, incomes, and backgrounds. An inclusive approach to road safety considers the various factors that contribute to a person's experience, fostering a biking culture that is welcoming and accommodating to everyone in the community.

Work with community members to ensure infrastructure investments are done in an equitable way across all neighborhoods. To achieve this, it's essential to identify the locations where your community has already constructed bike projects as well as areas that have suffered negative impacts from highways and unsafe pedestrian infrastructure. If neighborhoods have experienced exclusion or bike projects have mainly been built in affluent areas, it's imperative to actively work toward creating an equitable distribution of investments. This may involve reevaluating project locations in collaboration with local community members from impacted areas and advocating for more resources in historically underserved areas to understand and rectify those decisions' negative impacts on the community. 

USDOT’s Reconnecting Communities Program funds projects in disadvantaged communities that enhance access to employment, education, healthcare, food, and recreation; promote equitable development; and reconnect neighborhoods by removing or mitigating the impacts of highways or other transportation facilities that previously created social and physical barriers. 

You can utilize USDOT guidance to understand what neighborhoods are considered disadvantaged in your area. 

Mayors and other local elected officials greenlight projects and shape community vision. City, state, and county staff develop projects and policies and execute plans. You’ll need good relationships with all of these stakeholders to get things done. Looking for an effective way to garner their support? Invite them to go for a walk or hop on a bike. Spending time together on a ride (or two feet) offers firsthand insights into your community's challenges and opportunities and is a great way to build trust and lasting relationships. 


Cultivating positive relationships with local media is crucial to gaining fair and positive coverage of your projects and policies. Actively engage with reporters covering transportation or community issues. Provide them with well-researched information on the positive impacts of bike projects and policies and help facilitate access to community members who can speak to these issues. Be ready with clear and concise messages highlighting the community benefits for all road users, utilizing statistics, case studies, and local anecdotes. Organize media events or press conferences to showcase progress and encourage community members to share their first-hand experiences. By maintaining open communication with media representatives, you can become their go-to person and influence public perception to support your priorities.

Having a Level 5 leader is crucial for your organization’s success. Coined by Jim Collins, Level 5 leaders blend personal humility and an often quiet nature with unwavering determination and find success in getting people to follow a cause. Collins' research reveals a consistent pattern: The most successful companies have Level 5 leadership during transformative periods, challenging the sometimes-held belief that larger-than-life personalities are necessary for significant change. This leadership style is particularly relevant in an advocacy setting where the focus should be on the collective cause and community well-being. Moreover, the relentless determination inherent in Level 5 leadership is crucial in navigating the challenges of bike advocacy. 

Read Jim Collins’ Good to Great to learn more about Level 5 leaders.


LEGISLATION THAT GETS MORE BIKE INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT + MORE PEOPLE RIDING

Support transformative policy changes. One of the best ways to create a stronger advocacy base in your community is to get more people riding bikes by building safer and convenient places for them to ride.

PeopleForBikes’ Legislative Strategies for Safe and Connected Bike Infrastructure identifies the most effective state and local legislative changes that lead to great bike infrastructure. It includes diverse examples from communities and states across the country, including links to existing language and tips for adjusting language to suit your community’s needs. The four priorities identified in the guide are as follows:  

Passing state and local funding mechanisms for bike infrastructure

Advancing bike infrastructure through climate legislation

Improving road safety through reduced vehicular speeds, new design guidelines, and intersection safety improvements

Our supplemental guides include data-backed talking points to help you advocate for these changes in your community.  

UNLOCK YOUR COMMUNITY’S POTENTIAL WITH PEOPLEFORBIKES’ TOOLS + RESOURCES

Join Our Email List — Stay up to date with our newsletters and advocacy alerts to support biking in your community. 

City Ratings — Measure your community’s progress in becoming a great place for bikes and benchmark against other cities worldwide.

National Bike Project Tracker — Make sure your priority projects are in our public database of planned and proposed bike projects so we can connect local supporters to your work.

Legislative Guide to Advancing Bike Infrastructure — Dive into state and local strategies to create safe and connected bike infrastructure. Our supplemental guides include more details, including talking points to help advocate. 

SPRINT — Increase your City Ratings score and turn high-stress streets into low-stress streets using our SPRINT framework.

Your Bike Advocacy Playbook — Explore our 15-point, research-based fact sheet to help you push for change in your community.

VoteForBikes — PeopleForBikes can promote pro-bike measures on your local or state ballots.

Advocacy Alerts — Rally PeopleForBikes’ supporters around projects and policies in your community.

E-Bike Smart — Use our rider education program to help people of all ages and experience levels learn best practices for safe, responsible riding. For more information, check out our other e-bike tools and resources, including our E-Bike Incentive Toolkit and Model E-Bike Legislation framework. 

Community Grants — Apply for PeopleForBikes funding to support a local bike project near you.

PeopleForBikes’ Guide to Effective Local Bike Advocacy

This past September, as I biked the streets of Lyon, France, I was struck by the signs and signals catering to cyclists. From the small, dedicated bike traffic lights alternating between red and green to a sign indicating that bikes could turn right on a red or even go straight at an intersection, the roads were easy to navigate, even for a foreigner. This dedication to the bicycle has paid off: Yet another sign broadcasts the fact that more than 28 million bike trips have been made so far this year.

My time in Lyon was reminiscent of similar experiences I’ve had in well-known cycling cities such as Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Antwerp. The city, situated close to the Swiss border and home to just over half a million people, ranks high in PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings with a score of 81 for 2023. A high score (anything from 80-100) indicates that most common destinations are accessible by safe, comfortable bike routes that serve people of all ages and abilities. 

It’s one thing to see a network map and read about what makes a city great for bicycling, and quite another to experience it firsthand. 

In Lyon, there’s an abundance of protected bike lanes — separated both from cars and pedestrians — that can accommodate two-way traffic. Greater Métropole de Lyon, which is comprised of 59 municipalities, currently has 1,200 km (745 miles) of cycling facilities, of which 450 km (279 miles) are separated from traffic. Included in that mix is the impressive 1.75 km (1 mile) Crois Rousse multi-modal tunnel built in 2009, which includes a dedicated lane for buses, a sidewalk for pedestrians, and a 3-meter wide bi-directional bike lane, with barriers separating all three.


All of this from humble beginnings, considering that for most of the 20th century, Lyon was a car-centric city. In the 1970s, the first of the city’s bike infrastructure went in, advancing at no more than a trickle until the early aughts, when progress began to noticeably ramp up. By 2005, Lyon launched its bike share system, Velo’v, and began building more bike infrastructure for people to safely use it. Lyon also curbed driving by instituting low-emissions zones, which restrict vehicles according to the city’s air pollution levels, since 2016.

Today, Lyon’s bike lane network continues to grow, thanks in large part to an ambitious $290 million program known as Les Voies Lyonnaises (“The Lyon Routes”), which on completion will consist of 12 bike roads spanning 250 km (155 miles). The overarching goal of this network is to connect Lyon’s downtown core with its satellite, suburban communities to the north, south, east, and west, making it safer and more convenient for both commuters and leisure travelers from outlying areas to get into the city safely by bike. 

As shared by Arthur Bajula, the cycle and pedestrian planning officer for Métropole de Lyon, the city currently has roughly six miles of the new Lyon Routes network built. “We plan to have a third of the project — 90 km or 55 miles — completed or under construction by the summer of 2024,” says Bajula, noting that the network also plays a role in the city’s ongoing efforts to reduce air pollution. “The idea is to strengthen alternative mobility options such as cycling… and to promote cleaner vehicles within low emission zones.”

These numbers point to something of a hockey stick model, with a slow beginning which then ramps up. This echoes the trajectory of the Green Party, which came to power in Lyon in 2020 and has dedicated much of its early years to laying the groundwork for substantial climate work. This includes goals such as reducing C02 emissions by 40%, creating thousands of new ‘green jobs,’ and securing Lyon’s place among the world’s top bike cities. 

Unsurprisingly, part of the delay can also be attributed to a handful of car-centric mayors from other Métropole de Lyon municipalities who have sought to slow down the city’s two-wheel transition.

“There’s a lot of political opposition by certain mayors who are not green,” says Pamela Vennin, project manager with Lyon’s International Relations Department, explaining that the mentality is that citizens need cars to maintain their lifestyles and rights to privacy. “They don't want the cars to have problems.”

Still, in the face of vocal opposition, the Green Party has continued to push ahead, choosing to take space from cars by instituting “road diets” — slashing four or six-lane roads with parking on each side of the street to one or two lanes, with no parking, a bike lane, and wider sidewalks. 

“Some citizens have been pushing back,” says Vennin. “But it's the political will to tackle global warming, starting with mobility.”

Despite some pushback, all signs point to the Lyonnais embracing bicycling. Within the highest traffic areas of the downtown core, protected bike lanes are commonplace. So much so that you need to make a mental note when walking about to always look both ways for bikes when crossing the street. Even in outlying areas where traffic is lighter and there’s less of a need for protected bike lanes, painted lanes with sharrows on shared streets are the norm.

Last year, 72 bike counters tallied more than 42 million trips in Lyon, reflecting the fact that over the past decade biking trips have grown by 10-15% annually. Since COVID, the pace has picked up with 15-20% year-over-year growth. Overall, bicycling has increased by an incredible 370% since 2013. 

With so many cyclists, the city is also working to actively expand its bike parking infrastructure. In 2020, Lyon had 15,000 bike racks and according to Bajulaz, the goal is to quadruple the number of bike racks to 60,000 by 2026. For secure parking, such as bike garages, the goal is to increase the number of spaces tenfold, from 1,500 in 2020 to 15,000 by 2026.

In addition to the expanding network of bike lanes and places to park, other initiatives have helped pave the way for more widespread bike adoption. For instance, the Velo’v bike share program has been a tremendous success, with 422 stations serving 22 of Greater Lyon’s municipalities and more than 10 million rentals in 2022. In my time there, stations were prevalent and obviously well-used by both tourists and locals alike.  Shared micromobility becomes even more critical when you consider that one in three residents doesn’t even own a car — a statistic underscored by the fact many locals use Velo’v for commuting. 

Lyon is also making an effort to remove financial barriers to mode shift through its bike purchasing program, whereby any city resident is eligible for a grant of up to 1,000 Euro (about $1,053) towards purchasing an e-bike, a cargo bike, a folding bike, or an adaptive bike. The city also loans some 10,000 bikes, many of them reconditioned, to students or young adults seeking jobs between the ages of 18 and 25 through its Free Velo’v program. Most unique perhaps, is Lyon’s Les Auteliers de l’Audace, a bicycle repair training and resale program that recruits residents without a job as a way to help them reintegrate into society. 	

City officials are also working to make it easier for residents to take their bikes on public transit. “It is now possible to bring your bicycle on trams outside of peak hours,” says Bajulaz, adding that bikes are also allowed on the metro, funiculars, and trains. “We are also experimenting with bringing bikes on certain buses.”

Lyon’s civic leaders remain cognizant of everyday challenges that intersect with the city’s biking experience, ranging from getting more residents on board and comfortable with biking to discouraging drivers from parking or driving on road space dedicated to bikes. Or, as I experienced firsthand during my tour, the prevalence of bikers riding too fast or aggressively, which impacts the safety of both pedestrians and other cyclists. 

Still, compared to most North American cities, Lyon is an exemplary place for bicycling. With a solid network already in place and a population that’s already attained critical mass, the city’s key players are thinking bigger. The planner Bajulaz continues to draw inspiration from other top cities while Lyon Mayor Grégory Doucet is aiming for a city that is “100% walking and cycling.”

The other challenge and opportunity is that, with just three years left in their term, the city’s ruling Green Party feels a sense of urgency to get as much biking infrastructure built as possible before the next election. The concern is that if they don’t win, opposition parties will be less willing to continue advancing the substantial cycling work already underway, or, possibly, to begin prioritizing drivers. 

For now, that outcome is hard to imagine. Biking through Lyon’s streets, some of which have been around since Roman times, one feels as if they’ve landed on the right side of history. Everywhere you turn, there are people on bikes as well as clusters of bikes parked adjacent to where residents work and play. Increasingly, there are streets with few, if any, cars.

Mark Douglas Wessel is an urban journalist and communications consultant whose writing focuses on what we can do to create a more sustainable, more liveable world. For more of his work, go to: www.markdouglaswessel.com

What It’s Like To Ride in a Top-Rated Bike City

When you pass a group of kids on bicycles, it’s hard not to smile — there’s something innately joyful about the sight. There’s also an underlying assumption that everything about the act, from the socialization to the time spent outdoors engaged in physical activity, is good for them. New research affirms that gut feeling.

Published on October 12, 2023, in Frontier in Sports and Active Living, a new study from researchers at Loma Linda University (LLU) reveals the positive impact of cycling education on the psychosocial well-being of students. The research is the result of a collaboration between LLU and the youth cycling nonprofit Outride, examining the impact of Outride’s in-school cycling programs on the mental health of middle schoolers. 

"Our findings were incredibly encouraging,” says Dr. Sean Wilson, LLU professor and senior author of the study. “A large proportion of students had a positive learning experience and continued interest in cycling,” 

“As a learning organization, we really want to understand how bicycling can improve the lives of youth in their communities,” says Dr. Esther Walker, senior research manager at Outride. 

Anonymous surveys were collected before and after the program in 20 schools in North America, with psychosocial well-being quantified using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index and the Pediatric Symptom Checklist (PSC-17-Y). The former is a short, five-item, self-report questionnaire that assesses positive well-being and primarily assesses for depression, while the latter is a widely used measure of psychosocial functioning, with lower scores representing greater well-being. According to the study, participation in R4F was associated with improved psychosocial well-being among middle school youth in the United States. 

“It was really encouraging to see such a positive student response to a cycling-specific physical education program,” says Fletcher Dementyev, a research fellow at LLU and first author of the paper. “This result motivates us, and hopefully others, to continue investigating and developing cycling as a pathway to improved health and well-being in adolescents.”

“By providing access to bikes, a safe environment to learn to ride, and the confidence to ride independently, we can really help to create healthy pathways,” says Walker. “As youth are facing worrying levels of physical inactivity and mental health challenges, finding those activities that get them excited to participate is really important.”

PeopleForBikes’ 2022 Bicycling Participation Report reflects this trend: While 49% of youth ages 3-17 rode a bicycle at least once in 2022, ridership among younger Americans has continued to drop since 2016.

“Our program data shows that access to bikes at home, as well as safe places to ride, is not equitable across the student population,” said Walker, noting that programs like R4F, which take place during the school day and provide all necessary materials, gives everyone the opportunity to learn a skill they can use throughout their life. "While bicycling can certainly contribute positively to one's day-to-day life, to see large-scale improvements, we need changes in policy and reductions in systematic disparities in access to nutrition, health services, safe environments, and beyond.”

As school systems, educators, policymakers, and healthcare professionals work together to address the mental health challenges facing today's youth, this study provides valuable insights into the potential of cycling programs to enhance the mental well-being of young people across the U.S. University-backed research is showing the benefits that come along with getting more kids on bikes. Communities should listen.  

Interested in learning more? Follow Outride on Instagram and Facebook to stay up-to-date with their work to improve the well-being of youth through research-backed cycling programs.

Research Highlights the Positive Impact of In-School Cycling

Policy

Fostering Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Breaking Down the Barriers to Making Public Spaces More Welcoming

Positioning Access to Bike Networks and Transit as Integral Parts of Land Use and Housing Development

Promoting Government Transportation Policy Reform to Foster Robust Community Engagement

Directing Federal Funding for Research and Data That Highlights Inequities

Developing Purchase Incentives for Bikes and Electric Bicycles