Hey all,
I'd love to hear stories of community bike shops explicitly involved in bike advocacy. I interpret "bike advocacy" pretty broadly but am thinking along the lines of fighting for bike lanes, changing bike-negative laws, pushing for complete streets policies, etc.
I'm spending some time thinking about the role of community bike shops in the bike advocacy movement. One theme I've been reflecting on - and I welcome people's thoughts, comments, push-back, etc - is this. The bicycle advocacy movement is limited in its potential in part because of the lack of diverse community leadership and participation from traditionally under-represented communities (we/they are a bunch of old white men). Community bike shops have an incredible diversity of experiences and connections to traditionally under-represented communities, but a lack of intentional engagement in policy work limits community bike shops' ability to have a broad-reaching and long-term impact. I'm trying to understand how really grassroots organizations can have a more broad-reaching impact - and where community bike shops have succeeded (or failed) in using our networks to involve people in influencing legislation or government investments.
I welcome any stories that in any way touch on the relationship between community bike shops to advocacy initiatives!
Jason Tanzman Cycles for Change