Encouraging youth bike education and bicycling in Minneapolis

Last week I was fortunate enough to attend the 3rd National Safe Routes to School Conference in Minneapolis, where over 600 enthusiastic walking and bicycling advocates from around the country convened to discuss ideas, share resources, and talk about projects being implemented to safely increase walking and bicycling to schools. Prior to attending the conference, I had recently taken a personal interest in expanding our efforts to promote more youth bicycling. From organizing a walk and bike to event at Anne Darling Elementary, to collaborating with Traffic Safe Communities Network of Santa Clara County to kick off the Safe Routes to School program in Sunnyvale with a Family Fun Ride. It’s great to see how kids love to walk and ride their bikes to school. Our mission is to make sure they do it safely and more often.

Another bonus of attending the conference in Minneapolis is personally experiencing what the number-one-rated bicycling city in the US, according to Bicycling Magazine, has to offer. I took advantage of their Nice Ride bike share system and explored some of their over 120 miles of bikeways.

From riding along the Mississippi river.

To circling Cedar Lake trail –- one of the states’ ten thousand plus lakes.

The conference and trip was inspirational, and gave me a glimpse of the things we can achieve as we continue to advocate for more bicycling in the Bay Area. Stay tuned for upcoming volunteer opportunities as we seek to expand our efforts to promote more Safe Routes to School programs.