Wisconsin Bike Summit
Please join the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin for the 2010 Wisconsin Bike Summit on April 21st and Lobby Day on April 22nd in Madison.
Last year at the 2009 Wisconsin Bike Summit over 450 bicycle leaders from around the state gathered in Madison to celebrate Wisconsin bicycling. We learned how bicycling can be a simple solution to our state’s health, economic and mobility challenges. We learned that Wisconsin is uniquely positioned to be one of the world’s great bicycle places. Most importantly, we asked our legislative leaders to support a more bicycle-friendly Wisconsin through the following legislation: increased funding for bicycle infrastructure, one of the country’s first state-wide Complete Streets statues, and an anti-dooring law to protect bicyclist’s position on the roadways.
Within 60 days of the 2009 Summit all three pieces of legislation were signed in to law by Governor Doyle. We joined together, we asked, and we created a more bicycle friendly Wisconsin!
The 2010 Wisconsin Bike Summit is going to be even bigger and more exciting. We’ve expanded the program to include informative and interactive breakout sessions:
* “From Planning to Implementation: Safe Routes to School Programs in Action” lead by Wisconsin’s Safe Routes to School expert practitioners.
* “Bicycle Friendly Wisconsin” lead by the national expert Andy Clarke, President of the League of American Bicyclist. The session will also include lessons learned from Milwaukee and La Crosse leaders.
* “Building Community Partnerships for Effective Bicycle Trails Advocacy” lead by La Crosse’s Human Powered Trails.
* “How to Build an Economic Case for Your Community to Develop & Maintain Mountain Bike Trails” lead by the Chequamegon Area Mountain Bike Association.
* “Wisconsin Mountain Biking Forum” organized by the Wisconsin Off-Road Bicycling Association, Human Powered Trails and the International Mountain Bicycling Association.
These sessions will be followed by a plenary session at 6 p.m. Our keynote speaker is Andreas Røhl, the head of the City of Copenhagen’s Bicycle Program. In central Copenhagen residents and visitors take over 50% of all their trips–to work, to the store, running errands–by bike. Andreas is going to share Copenhagen’s inspiring story and show us a path to make Wisconsin among the world’s great bicycling places.
Click here to see an inspiring BBC interview, “Cycling is like brushing your teeth,” with Andreas.
Click here for a fun music video on Copenhagen Cycling.
Following Andreas’ presentation, Chris Fortune, president of Saris Cycling Group, will lead a panel of Wisconsin political, business and civic who will have just return from a tour of the great cycling cities in Europe. The panel will include trip attendees Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, UW Associate Vice Chancellor Al Fish, and others. Their stories of great bicycling in Europe will certainly inspire us to continue creating world-class bicycling in Wisconsin.
Summit and Lobby Day registration is only $25. More detail can be found on the Bike Federation of Wisconsin website here or in the attached document.
