Bicycle summit gears up to create bike-friendly Grand Rapids

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

A coalition of bicycle enthusiasts is gearing up to host Bike Summit I, an event it hopes will be the catalyst for making Grand Rapids a League of American Bicyclists (LAB) Bicycle Friendly Community. The coalition, Bike Grand Rapids, aims to get more residents riding bicycles for recreation and transportation.

LAB's Bicycle Friendly Community program recognizes communities that offer numerous safe bikeways, secure bike storage centers, and bicycle education programs. Bike Grand Rapids has asked that metro Grand Rapids to be designated as a Bicycle Friendly Community by demonstrating achievements in bicycle-related engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement, and planning.

Bike friendly cities attract young talent seeking vibrant, sustainable communities in which to live and work. Portland, OR is one example where urban workers are finding they don't need to own vehicles, freeing up discretionary spending for non-auto-related items. Some workers have even become bicycle industry entrepreneurs.

"The summit will include breakout planning sessions for on road, off road, education and advocacy," says Kevin McCurren of Bike Grand Rapids. McCurren was involved in a similar program in Louisville, KY before he moved to Heritage Hill last summer.

"At the breakouts we'll talk about which roads you want to ride on, which need bike-friendly improvements, improving trails and easy connections to parks, and what programs we have now and what programs we want," he says. "We'll hopefully get some concrete ideas to keep this going."

Featured speakers include Bill Nesper, director, Bicycle Friendly Community program; Ann Freiwald, consultant, Alta Planning and Design, a national leader in bicycle, pedestrian and greenway design; and Suzanne Schulz, planning director for Grand Rapids and Green Grand Rapids.

The summit runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 24 at Grand Valley State University's Loosemore Auditorium. Click here for the agenda or to register.

Source: Kevin McCurran, Bike Grand Rapids; Green Grand Rapids

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].