Planet Bike Staff Volunteers at Free Bikes 4 Kidz Madison

Posted on May 5th 2019 | Advocacy, Better World, Bike Life,

In 2008, Terry Esau started Free Bikes 4 Kidz (FB4K) out of his garage in Minnesota. The mission was to “Give kids in need access to a bike they can call their very own.” With that unassuming goal, FB4K has made a huge impact! The organization has expanded with satellite chapters in eight state […] read more...

2018 Bicycle Friendly Universities Announcement

Posted on Nov 30th 2018 | advocacy, Bicycle Friendly University, league of american bicyclist, News,

The League of American Bicyclist (LAB) has announced their new and renewing Bicycle Friendly Universities (BFU) for 2018. This year’s awards bring the total of colleges and universities that have bicycle friendly designations to 193 institutions nationwide. The program was launched in 2011 to help higher educati […] read more...

Brighten Up Your Community

Posted on Nov 21st 2018 | Advocacy, Bicycle Friendly University, Bicycle lights, Day light savings, Learn, Light giveaway,

This blog is written by Carly Adams at the League of American Bicyclists The end of Daylight Saving Time can do more than give you a case of the winter blues. When it gets dark earlier in the evening, commuters are at increased risk of getting in a cra […] read more...

Bicycle Friendly Driver Program

Posted on Jul 16th 2018 | Advocacy, Learn,

The League of American Bicyclists has been teaching bicycling skills and building riding confidence to people nation wide through their League Cycling Instructors(LCIs) since the 1970’s. Now the League is taking that program one step further in developing a Bicycle Friendly Driver Program t […] read more...

Six Great Reasons to Join the National Bike Challenge

Posted on Apr 25th 2018 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, Events,

Thinking about signing up for the National Bike Challenge this year? There are six days remaining before the start of the National Bike Challenge so with a little help from our friends at the League of American Bicyclists  we made a list of six great reasons to join! (All photos are provided by participant […] read more...

2018 National Bike Summit recap

Posted on Apr 4th 2018 | Advocacy, Blog, Events,

This blog is a guest post from our friends at the League of American Bicyclists:  Now that we’re a few weeks out from the 2018 National Bike Summit ( #NBS18 on social media) and we’ve had a chance to share the presentations, photos and videos, we wanted to take a look back at some of the highlights of […] read more...

Planet Bike Awards $24,000 to Six Bicycle Advocacy Groups

Posted on Apr 3rd 2018 | Advocacy, Better World,

We have awarded $24,000 to six bicycle non-profit organizations. The recipient organizations are working to provide programs that attract people to cycling and infrastructure projects to move bicycling forward across the country. We award grants based on three focus areas: People, Places and Policy. Our advocacy goa […] read more...

Local Bike Advocacy

Posted on Feb 7th 2018 | Advocacy,

What does bicycle advocacy look like? There are thousands of answers to that question. Each month the Downtown Madison, Inc. (DMI) Bicycle Committee meets to receive updates on what’s happening in the Madison bicycling world. The goal is to communicate what needs to happen to move bicycling related projects forw […] read more...

Free Bikes 4 Kids Madison Receives Community Grant

Posted on Jan 4th 2018 | Advocacy, Events, News,

The Madison Community Foundation has recently announced their Mad About Bikes community grants. These grants celebrate Madison’s bicycle culture and focus on increasing bicycle access for everyone in the community. Free Bikes 4 Kids Madison has been awarded a portion of this years grant that will see the program […] read more...

Badger Rock Middle School Launches Riding for Focus Program

Posted on Oct 23rd 2017 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

Last week Badger Rock Middle school in our home town of Madison, WI was one of 20 middle schools across the country to receive a Biking for Focus grant from The Specialized Foundation. The grant provided 20 bikes, helmets through the Specialized Foundation and curriculum that was developed with Stanford University. […] read more...

Youth Bike Summit Recap

Posted on Oct 19th 2017 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

A few weeks ago we posted a blog about the 7th annual Youth Bike Summit (YBS) that took place on October 6th – 8th in Arlington, VA. Planet Bike has been a long-time supporter of the YBS and we are always excited to see the results and growth of the summit each year. Keynote presentation session […] read more...

Transportation – The Future is Now

Posted on Oct 11th 2017 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

I had the pleasure to attend and present at 1000 Friends of Wisconsin’s recent Transportation: The Future Is Now conference in Madison, WI. In a nutshell, I spoke to how Autonomous Vehicles will slowly create a bump and then a tidal wave of biking and walking in our communities. Once a person replaces their old car wit […] read more...

Light Brigade Initiative

Posted on Oct 5th 2017 | Advocacy, Blog,

This past weekend Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MassBike) launched the month-long Light Brigade Initiative. Massbike has a fundraising goal of $10,000 over the month of October to provide at least 1,000 Planet Bike lights to bicycle riders in need. This initiative helps raise awareness about steps that bicycle ri […] read more...

Youth Bike Summit 2017

Posted on Sep 29th 2017 | Advocacy, Blog, Events,

Planet Bike is once again a lead sponsor of the 7th annual Youth Bike Summit (YBS).  The Summit takes place from October 6th-8th in Arlington, VA. Over 500 young people and adults will gather to learn and share ways to transform our communities by empowering and developing youth bicycle leaders. Photo Cred […] read more...

400 bikes, 70 locks, thousands of smiles

Posted on Apr 7th 2017 | Advocacy, Bike Life,

March 29, 2017 was the culmination of six month’s hard work by Andy Quandt to bring Free Bikes 4 Kidz to Madison, WI. We gave away 400 bikes and helmets, 70 Planet Bike locks, and thousands of smiles. Turning run down bikes into gold feels good. Nigel Hayes of the Wisconsin Badgers men’s basketball team was on h […] read more...

More kids on bikes

Posted on Mar 29th 2017 | Advocacy, News,

Planet Bike has been a long-time supporter of youth cycling initiatives. We are thrilled to be a sponsor of the National Youth Cycling Research Initiative. Read below to find out more information on this exciting new project:The Youth Cycling Alliance (YCA) announces the National Youth Cycling Research Initiativ […] read more...

Backbone of bicycle education

Posted on Mar 18th 2016 | Advocacy, Blog,

The League of American Bicyclists 2016 National Bike Summit brought together over 500 people from across the country and society to talk bikes. For the first time in a long time, this year’s Summit welcomed and highlighted League Cycling Instructors (LCIs), the backbone of bicycle education in the United States. LCIs […] read more...

Don’t get nasty. Get bicycle friendly

Posted on Mar 18th 2016 | Advocacy, Blog, Events,

The League of American Bicyclists’ Bicycle Friendly America program is growing up. The BFA program ranks states, communities, businesses and universities as Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum in terms of bicycle friendliness. At the 2016 National Bike Summit (March 7-9, 2016) the League began an extensive listening pe […] read more...

Soglin Spotting

Posted on Mar 17th 2016 | Advocacy, Blog,

The National Bike Summit brings many people together who share a love of bikes and how they help make our cities great places to live. I was pleased to see that Madison Mayor Paul Soglin was on the Summit agenda. Again. Madison, WI is built on an isthmus between two lakes. Planet Bike is headquartered in Madison a […] read more...

2016 National Bike Summit

Posted on Mar 14th 2016 | Advocacy,

The League of American Bicyclists 2016 National Bike Summit has concluded in Washington, DC. This year more than 535 bicycle advocates and industry folks from across the United States converged in DC to discuss the future of the League and the bicycling movement, federal lobbying and much more. As was noted duri […] read more...

Radical parking

Posted on Mar 10th 2016 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog,

When I visualize a big city, one of the things I see is cars: cars on the road, cars in parking lots, cars on the sidewalk and cars underneath all new condo buildings. I was in Washington, DC this week for the National Bike Summit. I was lucky enough to borrow a bike from my friend Jeff so was able to explore the ci […] read more...

Bike Path Courtesy

Posted on Aug 10th 2015 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, Learn,

It’s summertime and the living is easy. You’ve likely noticed that your neighborhood paths are teaming with activity. The path that rolls past my front door is a human highway of cyclist, rollerbladers, joggers, dog walkers, birders and skateboarders. The nicer the day, the more the path bustles. To celebrate bicyclin […] read more...

Traverse City Bikes to School Day

Posted on Apr 22nd 2015 | Advocacy,

I’m continually impressed with Traverse City’s Norte in their ability to get kids riding their bikes in all kinds of weather. They’re currently gettin ready for their Bikes to School Day on May 6 but check out these stats from the last week! […] read more...

Don’t make bicyclists more visible…

Posted on Apr 20th 2015 | Advocacy, Bike Life,

Make drivers stop hitting them. Eben Weiss, aka The Bike Snob, had an interesting article in last weeks Washington Press. It may seem a little shocking at first, but the more I think about it, he kinda has a point. What do you think? […] read more...

Better Than New

Posted on Apr 7th 2015 | Advocacy, Better World, Video,

All of us here at Planet Bike are huge fans of Patagonia; our brands really mesh well together. This is definitely next level and super awesome! […] read more...

Advocacy Action Alert – Wisconsin

Posted on Feb 5th 2015 | Advocacy,

Repost from the Wisconsin Bike Fed: Governor Scott Walker has introduced a two-year state budget that has tremendous negative implications for cyclists and for biking safety. The Governor’s budget (Senate Bill 21) would: -Repeal Wisconsin’s successful Complete Streets law. The law requires that bicyclists and pede […] read more...

So long, and thanks for all the lobster

Posted on Jan 13th 2015 | Advocacy,

It is with bitter sweet feelings I share that Jeff Miller has decided to move on from the Alliance for Biking & Walking. You can read the announcement here. Planet Bike has been a primary supporter of the Alliance for more than a decade. In that time, I have seen Jeff transform the Alliance. Prior to Jeff’s tenure […] read more...

2014 in Review

Posted on Jan 5th 2015 | Advocacy,

For the past nineteen years we have collaborated in many meaningful bicycle advocacy initiatives across North America. This year was no exception as we continued to partner with advocates on key national initiatives as well as many locally-targeted programs that focus on getting more people on bikes. On the national l […] read more...

WisNic Partners

Posted on Sep 23rd 2014 | Advocacy, Better World, Bike Life, Blog,

WisNic Partners works to enhance the quality of life in Wisconsin & Nicaragua through people-to-people programs promoting cultural awareness & sustainable community development. Planet Bike has partnered with WisNic for the past few years in supplying them with some of our refurbished product returns. It’s gre […] read more...

Protected Intersections

Posted on Jun 23rd 2014 | Advocacy, Bike Life, Blog, Video,

This is definitely an interesting concept for intersections. What do you think? Would you support protected intersections? Judging by the comments not everyone thinks it’s a good idea. Protected Intersections For Bicyclists from Nick Falbo on Vimeo. […] read more...