Local Conversations Across North America Are Looking at Their Towns on Two Wheels

Portland’s “bike bus” swept headlines last year, showcasing to millions of Americans that biking can be a safe, viable, and fun way to commute to class. The weekly initiative, spearheaded by Sam Balto (known as Coach Balto to his students) nearly doubled from 75 to 120 students from the start to the end of the school year. 

While Balto chooses safe routes, many of them don’t necessarily possess the markers of what many would recognize as “bike infrastructure.” White lines and flex posts are absent for most of the bike bus’s route. While the bike bus underscores a growing demand for safe cycling routes in Portland, it also shows that nurturing a bike culture can happen whether the lines are painted or not.

Across the country, Local Conversations—local groups who meet to talk about the Strong Towns approach and put it into action where they live—are leading similar efforts to encourage biking in their community. They’re bringing forth the change they want to see, not just waiting for it to happen.

Kids enjoying a bike ride to school together in Springville, Utah. (Source: Jonathan Duncan.)

Showing Kids in Springville, Utah, That Biking Is Empowering

A few years ago in Springville, Utah—situated just south of Provo—Jonathan Duncan started biking to school with his kids, inviting others in the neighborhood to join. For Duncan, there’s safety and camaraderie in numbers, but those numbers don’t have to be large to be effective. For him, a successful bike pool is much like a carpool, which he defines as two or more people riding together.

Now, several years of Duncan’s modest bike pooling have made him a recognizable figure: “Oh, you’re that guy that bikes to school with the kids every day!” 

His hope is that if you focus on the children, the way his and many other bike pools across the country have, they’ll remember the feeling of empowerment well into adulthood and usher in a new generation of moving around. “Kids love the idea of getting themselves places and not needing to rely on their parents,” Duncan shared. “And parents love the sudden freedom they find when they no longer have to fight the lines to drop their kids off in the car. The children are empowered, the parents are liberated.”

Building Awareness on Two Wheels in Steubenville, Ohio

City pride is at the heart of Strong Towns Steubenville. Back in July, Jacob Hyman, its founder, and Andrew Henry, the county health commissioner, collaborated on a way to share that pride while offering an opportunity for community members to imagine what a better Steubenville could look and feel like: Cycle The City.

Cycle The City was a community ride whose route loosely followed the Steubenville Heritage Trail while dipping into pockets of downtown. “This is a trail network that we’ve had in town for some time, but there hasn’t been a lot of activity on it,” Hyman told The Weirton Times.

Hyman’s hope was that the ride would bring awareness to the trail and, in doing so, increase demand for infrastructure to support biking to and alongside it. “Seeing the city from the wheels of a bike gives a whole new perspective of it and helps you care about it a lot more,” he added. 

“Our goal here is to grow a bicycle community in Steubenville in the hopes that we will have a more bicycle-friendly town,” Henry told the same outlet. “If you look at any community that has made a rebound economically, cycling is a key part of that fabric.”

The Family Bike Jam, spearheaded by members of Strong Towns Steinbach. (Source: Strong Towns Steinbach.)

Showing Steinbach, Manitoba, That Biking Is an Option

In Steinbach, Manitoba, a ride pioneered by Strong Towns Steinbach likewise got some local news attention. The Family Bike Jam, as the Local Conversation called it, drew in a diverse crowd of all ages for a leisurely ride around the city. For Chris Kahn, the event not only served as a fun way to explore the neighborhood and build community; he’s hoping the exposure could convince Steinbach’s residents to consider two wheels as a viable alternative to getting around by car.

At the same time, he recognizes the barriers to that, which he’s hoping community rides like this can begin addressing. “The quickest route isn’t always necessarily the most enjoyable route or even the most comfortable route,” he told Steinbach Online. “So that's another thing that we'd like to draw attention to is, if people are wanting to bike, if we can show that there's interest in cycling in town, maybe there should be some infrastructure to support that.” 

At some point in time, Jonathan Duncan, Jacob Hyman, and Chris Kahn graduated from taking notice to taking action. Rather than wait to see change, they became its agents. You can do the same in your own town and you don’t have to do it alone.

Check out what Local Conversations are happening near you:

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