A year ago Emily won the opportunity to give up her car for a year and go by bike. Yes, she won the opportunity and much more when she signed onto the Bike Lane’s Going Bike Bike Challenge. Little did she know one year later she’d be saying that she rode across the country.
When Emily applied to the Bike Lane Challenge, she was driving her car approximately 100 miles a week, including a 14 mile commute to work five days a week. She admitted most of her car trips were 4 miles or less. Emily was able to identify the challenges we all face when making the decision to go by bike; such as the time it takes to go by bike, what to do when you face inclement weather, and simply the challenge of how to carry lots of stuff. Other factors are the lack of safe bike routes and lack of easy to use bike facilities at work. But Emily has spent the past year breaking down those barriers and helping others through her blog.

Just the other day Emily wrote the following, It’s taken me almost a year, but I finally reached the 3,000 mile mark this afternoon on the bike. Three-thousand miles. I’ve virtually ridden across the country, as from my home in Arlington, VA to Eureka, CA is 2,954 miles. I’ve virtually made it across the country, from sea to shining sea and there were times I didn’t want to keep going, and times I couldn’t wait to get on the bike as well. This Saturday will be the one-year anniversary of the start of my Go By Bike Challenge, and I’m glad I took on the challenge, and looking forward to keeping it up for at least the next year, because like with any journey, half the fun is not knowing what’s around the corner and sometimes the surprises that are waiting there for us.
Great work Emily. You are certainly an inspiration to all of us. Thanks for taking the Challenge and sharing your story. Read more about Emily’s last year of Going by Bike More often.

6 Employees 31 Days 0 Cars
Our latest heroes come from Shererville, Indiana where 6 employees of Trek Store Schererville will be participating in a month–long car-free challenge to see who can go all 31 days of May using only a bike for trips 10 miles or less. What started as Chad, the General Manager’s curiosity to replace some of his own daily trips, has resulted in a fun 31 day challenge for six employees. Here’s their oportunity to find out first-hand what the benefits and barriers are to traveling by bike. They plan to share their new-found wisdom so others can learn from their experience. As Chad noted in an email, we are just normal people, on normal bikes, riding normal routes and of course with the normal problems people face. Our guess… these six normal people find it much easier to go by bike then they think. Meet the six employees and follow their story on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CarlessMay. And if you have a fun Bike Month Challenge happening in your community, I’d love to hear about it.

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood named the National Bike Summit as a catalyst for his recent proclamation that declared an end to favoring motorized transportation at the expense of the nonmotorized. Lahood’s initial statements came following the 2010 National Bike Summit, and outlined new DOT plans for livable and sustainable communities. LaHood specifically stated that bicycling and walking should be given the same consideration as motorized transport in state and local transit projects. This is clear proof that the voices of America’s cycling advocates are not falling upon deaf government ears, and that a bicycle friendly America is an obtainable goal.

Trek would like to extend an enormous thank you to the 108 Trek Retailers who showed up at the 2010 National Bike Summit, as well as the League of American Bicyclists for organizing the event. Your efforts are going noticed, and your support is greatly appreciated.
Read the New York Times article and become a fan of Ray LaHood on Facebook
Photo Credit to:

In Washington DC last week at National Bike Summit, Bikes Belong launched peopleforbikes.org, a campaign to unite one million voices for the future of bicycling. Because as we know, there is power in numbers. The presentation received very positive reviews: In the five days that followed, more than 3,700 people pledged their support and close to 6,000 people viewed the “If I ride” video on YouTube.

So please visit peopleforbikes.org, and help Bikes Belong gather pledges and support from your local customers.

Not until I worked at Trek did I get to know an incredibly nice bunch of people at a company called Sram. Sram is out of Chicago and they make parts for bikes, with a speciality in componentry for mountain and road bikes.

F.K.Day was Vice President of Sram and in that role he co-founded an organization called “World Bicycle Relief.”   WBR is now his full time vocation.

WBR got started in response to the 2005 tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean. Sram and Trek Bicycle partnered with World Vision Sri Lanka to provide 24,000 locally produced bicycles to people in extreme need. The result of this simple gesture was an accelerated recovery for the region. Where cars could not go because the roads were destroyed, people could use bicycles to restart their businesses. Sram kept WBR an independent agency to monitor results and the results –2 years after the disaster–were incredible:

- 88% of recipients depended on bicycles for livelihood activities
- Bicycles can save a household up to 30% of its annual income for transportation costs
- The bicycle program enabled households to resume livelihood, education and service activities

The program was so successful that WBR turned its sights to another area in need, Zambia. The goal is to get 23,000 bikes to this nation that is reeling from aids. The bikes will take aids workers into remote villages with necessary medicine and education.
Without the bikes, healthcare information would not reach these people. Simply put, World Bicycle Relief works. For about $134 a person can “buy” a bike that will get shipped to Zambia. WBR works to document the impact of the bikes which in turn can impact other areas.

A bicycle: a simple solution to complex problems. Bravo, F.K. and to all of Sram and the WBR team. Thanks for the inspiration and showing that tough problems can be handled effectively with good team work and a great vision.

You can find stories and wonderful photos of the program here: www.worldbicyclerelief.org.

Meet Eric Bjorling, also known as “Hootie” to all his colleagues and friends. Bjorling, 25, is a promotional wizard, all around team player and he was the mastermind behind “Project M,” also known as the launch of One World, Two Wheels.

It was August 2007 in Madison, Wisconsin and all Trek staff were anticipating John Burke’s first presentation of the One World, Two Wheels program. No one more so than Hootie who was given the task of assembling, storing and transporting 1,000 Lime bikes for the dealer show. Mille is Latin for thousand, thus “Project M.”

The presentation was a hit — it ended with a standing ovation at the news of Trek’s pledge of $1,000,000 to the Bicycle Friendly Community program and $600,000 to International Mountain Bike Association. At the end of the presentation, Burke surprised the 1,000 dealers in attendance by telling them they could opt to ride a bike to the off site dinner location. All 1,000 dealers took to the streets of Madison led by Burke himself. It was a school of cyclists, moving in a long, winding line down East Washington stretching at least a kilometer long.

When asked how he felt upon taking on Project M, Hootie had this to say: “The first thing I thought was ‘I’m going to need a whole lot of aspirin.’ The second thought was of who I was going to have to get to help me complete the tasks. You can do anything if you have the right team.”

There were a few hitches along the way but Bjorling is a problem solver. Building, storing and moving 1,000 bikes and helmets brought a few challenges but an even bigger one was getting the permit for the ride. True to form, Bjorling found good partners.

“I cannot send enough love to the Madison Police Department, said Bjorling. The route we took was revised because the Midwest Shriners were having a parade nearby at the same time. I had these horrible visions of a mini-car/camel/bicycle pile up but in the end, the camels were the least of our worries. The Police were patient with our riders and riding at night with a police escort through the city was something I’ll never forget. Everybody we worked with at the city offfices was great.”

The entire Trek company of dealers and employees could not have been prouder at the accomplishment of Bjorling which made the launch of One World, Two Wheels one of a kind. Thanks, Hootie.

To read about the launch of the One World, Two Wheels program from a Trek staffer who blogged about the launch, click here: http://bicycledesign.blogspot.com/2007/08/1000-limes.html

If you’d like to follow Hootie’s adventures, click on his blog”Life in the Bike Lane.” Check it out here: http://trekbikes.typepad.com/rec_and_fitness/2008/02/tag-backs.html

James Oberstar, a member of the U.S. Congress, has been the driving force behind legislation that created Rails-to-Trails and Safe Routes to Schools, initiatives that are now growing in communities across America.

Oberstar keeps a bike in his Washington apartment to use when he’s at his D.C. office and he has several at his Minnesota home. Most weekends he can be found at charity rides talking and mixing with his constituents and encouraging them on the ride.

Oberstar has led an evolution of thinking among his congressional colleagues in Washington; thinking that includes bicycles in transportation bills, bikes in city street planning and safe routes to schools.

Read more >

Say Louisville and immediately the Kentucky Derby comes to mind. The city is known world wide for hosting the “most exciting two minutes in sports.” While the Derby and Louisville are well over a century old, the city has stayed fresh by welcoming new ideas and no one personifies that more than the city’s mayor, Jerry Abrahamson.

Two years ago, Abrahamson set a goal of making Louisville a Bicycle Friendly Community, the designation given by the League of American Bicyclists. Louisville applied and earned the designation of a “Bronze” community.

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David Enigenberg, owner of the Trek Store of Schereville, Indiana, got some great news in November.

After three years of building support for a bike path to connect Schereville to the neighboring town of Crown Point the Indiana DOT announced that Crown Point and Schererville would receive a combined $1.5 million from the Indiana Department of Transportation for multi-use trails. The project also includes signage, landscaping, a gateway shelter and parking.

Enigenberg was on cloud nine when he got the news. “I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to give up.” His persistence in showing up and speaking up for the trail at meetings and lobbying for the trail paid off. The trail will run near schools, shopping and business so kids and adults will be able to ride or walk the trail to get to work or school.

Enigenberg isn’t stopping at this trail and plans to continue to advocate for cycling whenever he can.