National Cycling Advocacy Comes to Town

This week cycling advocates, retailers and enthusiasts rolled into town for the National Bike Summit. The purpose of the summit is to bring people together to help discover and discuss how to make cycling safe, easy and accessible to anyone. While the center of the action took place in Washington, Arlington played a starring role in the experience of many involved.

While the summit officially kicked off on Tuesday in the district, it started for 25 of the participants in Boston last Friday. Professional cyclist Tim Johnson led a ride from Boston to D.C., stopping at shops, parks and street corners along the way to help spread the message that "Bikes Belong." Many from the Arlington cycling scene rode up to meet his group at Proteus Bicycles in College Park, Md., and helped escort the riders down to the National Mall. By the time they arrived, they'd added another 75 riders to their numbers.

Of course, most of the action took place off the bike. At the conference center, sessions ranged from communicating the economic impact of cycling to the best practices for bike-sharing programs. Arlington's Capital Bikeshare, or CaBi, program was repeatedly held up as a model, as was the county's growing capacity to objectively measure the increases in bike and pedestrian traffic on our most popular cycling routes.

As with any conference, the learning wasn't confined to the sessions themselves. Many participants stayed in Arlington, and throughout the day you could hear people describe how much they wished their hometowns had something like the Custis Trail. One participant from Houston declared it "amazing" that he could walk out of his Rosslyn hotel, jump on a CaBi bike, and pedal over to the conference.

Today, most of the conference participants are descending on Capitol Hill to ask their representatives to support dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the pending transportation bill. Arlington's delegation is to meet with U.S. Rep. Jim Moran's staff, and will be thanking him for his support of cycling. In contrast to many of his colleagues, Moran has consistently gone the extra mile to support cycling.

In a way, Arlington's efforts to become more bike-friendly are paying dividends to cycling beyond its borders. They're also bringing more people into Arlington – people want to come and see and experience what we've accomplished.

Let's keep at it and give them a reason to come back next year.

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The conference is nearly over, but the fun continues Thursday night in Arlington. Revolution Cycles will be hosting a ride with mountain biking legend Gary Fisher Thursday night. The ride departs from their City Hub shop in Crystal City at 7:30 p.m.