Bike Champions of 2022

We’re excited to announce the San Mateo County and Santa Clara County Bike Champions of 2022! Congratulations to Amol Patwardhan and Ari Feinsmith. Thank you both for being such dedicated supporters of the bike movement. Read on to see all that they do! To Pledge to Ride for Bike Month, you can click here.

San Mateo County Bike Champion of the Year - Amol Patwardhan

At the age of five, Amol Patwardhan first learned how to ride a bike, though it wouldn’t be until later on in life, that he would discover the explorative nature and joy that comes along with cycling. In his college years, when he would bike across the 545 acres of his campus in Mumbai, Amol quickly learned the utmost importance of safe roads for cycling. Coupled with his awareness of the impacts of motorized vehicles, Amol became committed to using his bike instead of a car when he moved to San Diego. If a bicycling was not an option, then he would find his way through public transport. Today, he rides his bike for groceries, errands, recreational riding, and commuting 14 miles roundtrip to work. With his wife, they are a one-car household, though rarely does the car get used. Friends, family, and colleagues who are new to the bike realm, often seek out his help on types of bikes, safe roads to commute, safety precautions, amongst others. To this, he dutifully and happily answers the call. His loving wife introduced him to the world of group rides, where he would take sweep responsibilities and swiftly repair any flat tires. He hopes to encourage his community to find the empowerment that comes with cycling. Not only is cycling a fraction of upkeep cost for motorized vehicles, but more importantly, there is a great freedom that anyone can have while cycling –a freedom which cannot necessarily be found by car. His hope is that one day, in the not-too-distant future, cycling will be regarded as much more than a recreational outlet, but instead an integral part of life. By incorporating bicycling into our daily lives, it’ll perhaps be the global shift away from our dependence on fossil-fuel based vehicles and be the positive impact our planet needs.

Santa Clara County Bike Champion of the Year - Ari Feinsmith

Ari, in all senses of the word, is a tireless champion of cycling infrastructure. When Ari began community college, he started commuting by bicycle for the first time. He experienced the lack of safe bicycle infrastructure in his city, Sunnyvale, CA. From this, Ari wanted to make cycling safer in his city and get more people riding, so he joined the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC). At age 19, Ari became the Team Leader of the Sunnyvale Team of SVBC, AKA Bike Sunnyvale, which you can visit the website here. Over the course of the last 2 years, Ari has made a massive impact. He has led 11 successful advocacy campaigns to lobby the City Council to improve street design for bicyclists and get bicycle-friendly city policies, including making Active Transportation a “City Priority,” getting a traffic lane on his street temporarily converted to a pedestrian/bicyclist pathway, extending it for another year, and passing a study issue to investigate making it permanent. He also successfully lobbied to get important bicycle improvements added to Sunnyvale’s bicycle plan.

Over the pandemic, Ari realized that there were many potential riders who had bikes sitting in disrepair in the garage. To get more people riding, Ari led 8 Free Bicycle Repair events in Sunnyvale, garnering many attendees including the Sunnyvale Mayor and a City Councilmember. He and his team of volunteers have fixed 328 bicycles and an elderly man’s walker. Ari also organizes community bike rides and tables at events where he educates people about the importance of stress-free bicycle infrastructure and encourages them to become members of SVBC. Through his work, Ari has seen how events can bring a community together and create so much joy. Ari’s bicycle advocacy has inspired him to major in Civil Engineering and pursue a career in transportation, where he will strive to make streets safer for all. He plans to transfer to UC Davis in Fall 2022.