SBC Goes to the Bike Summit in our Nation’s Capital

Bicycling Means Business was the theme of the National Bike Summit this year and Harrisonburg was very well represented with 6 delegates attending. The Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition was excited to sponsor City and County staff to attend the summit. Kyle attended from the bike shop and gave a presentation about Harrisonburg on behalf of the Shenandoah Valley Bicycle Coalition. Of particular interest to the fellow Summit attendees was the 2012 decision by the City of Harrisonburg to spend $1 Million on Greenways (Bluestone and Northend).

In Sixth Congressional District bicycle retail stores bring in $10.8 Million in annual gross income and employ over 220 people. Due to the weather we were unfortunately unable to meet with congressman Goodlatte. Instead we are working on scheduling a meeting with him here in our district.

Over the past few years Washington D.C. has worked very hard to become one of the top bicycling cities in the country. If you haven’t ridden a bike around the city in the past three years you really should get your two wheels up there and check it out. Every year for the past few summits one of my favorite parts has been to see the latest and greatest bicycle infrastructure project that the city has installed. Three years ago it was the Pennsylvania Avenue center bike lanes and the 15th street contra-flow lanes, next year it was the Metropolitan branch trail, and this year it was the L Street Bike Lanes.