It’s the kind of unexpected message from a friend every bike advocate loves to get: where can I buy a bike? Thanks to the work of local advocacy organizations, bike shops can remain open as “essential businesses” in many places across the country. That’s critical for frontline healthcare providers, restaurant workers, grocery store employees and others who commute to work via bike--and it’s great news for the rest of us coping with the coronavirus pandemic with the physical and mental health benefits of biking. 

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This May, the League is still celebrating National Bike Month, because bicycling is more essential to our lives than ever—and because we could all use some bike joy to look forward to.

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Since states and local jurisdictions began recommending or ordering non-essential businesses to close, there has been confusion in some places whether bike shops were officially "essential" businesses that could stay open. The League had been advising bike advocates that federal guidance which indicated "employees who repair and maintain vehicles, aircraft, rail equipment, marine vessels, and the equipment and infrastructure that enables operations that encompass movement of cargo and passengers" should cover bike shops.

As states and cities are considering which businesses are essential, most are finding – initially or eventually – that bicycling is essential.

With the continued spread of COVID-19, the need to build places that support everyone’s access to healthy, safe, activity-friendly ways to get to everyday destinations has come into sharp focus.

In this midst of this pandemic, cities and communities are seeing a surge in biking for transportation and for physical and mental health. We can act to ensure these are not momentary gains for safe streets and a healthier nation.

Today, the League and Uber announced a new safety partnership towards building healthier, sustainable, vibrant communities.

At the core of the League's vision for a Bicycle Friendly America are healthy, sustainable, vibrant communities. With the continuing spread of COVID-19 and to live our values, the League has made the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 National Bike Summit and all associated side meetings.

"Just as a cycling trip through the Netherlands in in 2013 inspired us to eventually relocate to Amsterdam with our three younger children, giant dog, and crazy cat, the Summit inspired me to take much greater action on the cycling advocacy front."

Join the League in telling NHTSA to update their car safety testing to emphasize upgrades that would reduce pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities.

When the Senate released their transportation bill last Summer, the League was relieved to see it included a number of items we had been pushing for: funding and policy improvements to Transportation Alternatives, a focus on bicycling and walking fatalities, as well as better planning tools. It also included the first ever climate title in a transportation bill. It was a great bill for bicycling.

The League is partnering with OurStreets to give people biking a way to collectively document the dangers posed by drivers stopping in bike lanes and driving aggressively.

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It’s a foundational belief at the League: when more people ride bikes, life is better for everyone. One way we know bicycling improves lives is that it contributes to the overall health of our nation: our neighbors, ourselves, and our fellow Americans across the country.

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With the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Business awards, a family could fly from their home in Tampa to visit the Grand Canyon and patronize hundreds of bike-minded businesses along the way. Today, the League of American Bicyclists honored 103 organizations with new Bicycle Friendly Business awards and renewed or upgraded 50 others.

Most days, you can find the League doing meetings on Capitol Hill. Typically, we're doing one-on-one meetings, but today, I was joined by experts from Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, the Center for Auto Safety, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, Transportation for America, and the New York City Department of Transportation to for a congressional briefing for staffers on how automated vehicles can make Americans safer.

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This New Year, encourage the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to resolve to build more separated bike lanes by telling them that this game-changing, proven, effective, simple, and yet under-utilized innovation should be part of the next Every Day Counts deployment.