Transportation Icons Call Bike Advocates “Unstoppable”

Reader Contribution by Staff
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Wearing his signature bow tie and Velcro strap around his pant leg, Congressman Earl Blumenauer arced his arms over his head and brought his palms together as if beginning a yoga workshop, not a plenary address. Looking out at the more than 700 bicycle advocates gathered at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC, the Democrat from Oregon barely cracked a smile as he asked the crowd to repeat after him.

“How many people are stuck in traffic right now to ride a stationary bike in a health club?”

To the general public that might sounds like a daily annoyance. To the attendees of the National Bike Summit, it sounded sadly ridiculous.

Each year, the League of American Bicyclists orchestrates a convergence of hundreds of bike advocates from across the country. For three days we network with other grassroots leaders, learn about federal transportation issues and deliver our bike-partisan message directly to our members of Congress. Each year the circumstances and politics are different but the aim is the same: Pushing for a nation where riding a bicycle outside is so safe and so conducive to daily transportation that the notion of spinning aimlessly inside is nothing more than the punchline of an ironic joke.

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