A Bicyclist-Friendly Massachusetts

During April's Earth Day we asked bicyclists to join us in trading a car trip for a bike ride. The more car trips we convert to bicycle trips through our advocacy, the smaller our collective carbon footprint becomes. 

We’ve been shining bright across the commonwealth this winter with our #LightsBrigade program. From the South Coast to the Connecticut River Valley to the North Shore, we’ve been handing out free sets to lights to cyclists across the commonwealth. We’re thrilled to announce, for the first time, we’ll be extending the program through the summer!

Starting this spring, #LightsBrigade by Bkin will be shining across Massachusetts. Thanks to the generous support of Bkin we will be able to pass out lights to more cyclists who need to #BrightenUp, helping them ride safer on warm summer nights. 22 News WWLP reported on the program expansion and the future is looking bright for this popular intiative.

If you would like to volunteer to host a #LightsBrigade event, please reach out to bikeinfo@massbike.org. We are always looking for volunteers from across the commonwealth to help us make sure every rider is bright.

Our 30 Days of Biking Challenge has been so much fun and we've enjoyed sharing our daily trips on Facebook & Instagram. Everyone who logged 30 days of rides in April on the MassBike Love to Ride Group was entered to win a Rover Rain Cape from Cleverhood. 

We're shifting gears a little with our May Bike Challenge: Bike to Work, Bike to School, Bike Before Your First Meeting.

In May, we're challenging you to commute one day a week by bike or to take a bike ride before your workday starts once a week to simulate a bike commute. Log your trips on the MassBike Love to Ride Group to be entered to win some MassBike prizes.

The House of Representatives is scheduled to begin debate on April 26th on the Fiscal Year 2022 budget that begins on July 1st. 

Over 1100 amendments have been filed for consideration, including several important bike-friendly amendments that we hope will be adopted.

Amendment #1039: Commuter Transit Benefits (Rep. Vitolo)

• This amendment aligns Massachusetts law with federal law on commuter pre-tax benefits, and expands the tax deductions for monthly transit passes to include RTAs, and will provide benefits for a bikeshare membership, for buying a bike including electric bikes, for bicycle improvements, repair, and storage.

Amendment #164: Mass in Motion (Rep. Sabadosa) 

• This amendment supports healthy eating and active living through the Mass in Motion program by increasing funding for Mass in Motion to $1 million in the FY22 state budget.

Why take action?

Both Amendment #1039 and #164 are crucial to MassBike’s work, as we strive to encourage more bike commuting to work as we come back from the pandemic, and we partner with Mass in Motion communities throughout Massachusetts to support community bicycling initiatives including our mini-grant program which was funded through this program.

Taking action is easy, and your representative wants to know what you think:

1. Find your Representative by following this link: https://malegislature.gov/Search/FindMyLegislator
2. Request that they add their name as a co-sponsor to amendments #1039 and #164, which would help create a greener, more equitable and more sustainable bike-friendly Massachusetts.
3. Say thank you! And let us know how it went by emailing us at bikeinfo@massbike.org

Links:

• News link to #LightsBrigade
• MassBike Love to Ride Group
• Find your Representative

As MassBike welcomes in the New Year, we first must acknowledge what this past year meant for us and for so many people who faced loss and tough challenges. We have all been forced to look at the world with new eyes, and to ask hard questions about how we treat each other and build a better world together. For MassBike this meant continuously pivoting our work to face the headwinds and manage each moment to maintain momentum for bike advocacy across the state. Through it all, we kept rolling. Below are a few notable inflection points that defined our year.

In March, we quickly needed to change the way we advocate. Beginning the week before our scheduled lobby day in Washington D.C. at the National Bike Summit we decided to go all virtual, and in the following months we discovered how the power of Zoom allowed us to shrink the geographic distance, giving constituents from across the state direct access to their elected officials and their legislative aides. Together we connected on countless webinars featuring all sorts of bike-themed topics: bike authors, legislation and bike lawyers, bike-packing, and basics of bike maintenance; keeping you engaged even as we were all apart behind our own screens.

We weren’t sure how to respond to COVID, but we did know we had to be there to keep you riding – for essential workers getting to their jobs, and also for everyone’s physical and mental wellness. Unfortunately, Governor Baker’s decision to close bike shops as part of COVID restrictions meant MassBike’s role was to convince the highest power in the state that bicycles are also essential vehicles for transportation. By rallying you, our members, we engaged legislators in all corners of Massachusetts from the Berkshires to PTown, who successfully reversed the State’s decision, and bicycle repair is now considered an “essential service” and your local bicycle shop can stay open to serve riders in the current bike boom.

This year we leaned on our coalition partners, who were doing the real wheels-on-the-ground work for social justice and transportation equity. We partnered with the Mass in Motion program to offer mini-grants to six partner organizations and supported cities and towns as they worked with MassDOT to implement open streets, so people could ride, walk, and visit their downtowns free from cars.

In September, we finally celebrated Bike Month after pushing back the festivities from May. We paired with MassCommute to run bicycle challenges and rallied hundreds of riders, dozens of advocacy groups, and employers from across the state to encourage bicycling and host mostly virtual bike “events” to keep us rolling together. 

Along with the advocacy work, MassBike also grew as an organization. With the help of our committed board of directors, we brought on two new staff members, hosted a robust annual meeting, and revised our mission statement and rebranded our Connecticut River Valley Chapter based on a new vision brought into focus by this tumultuous year.

I heard a line in April that has stuck with me: “Everyone is talking about getting back to normal. Well, normal wasn’t that good for us, and frankly we were on a track that was pretty awful for everyone. So, coming out of this, let’s build a new normal, a better normal, one that is more just, more equitable, more resilient, and makes a healthier world.”

So, here we stand, looking toward 2021 with a vision of hope that is forged through this work. In a hard year, we discovered a newfound appreciation for bicycling and its ability to engage all people to create a better world. And we have momentum, but we have to keep pedaling into the headwinds. 

Here’s to a new and better year!

Links:

• MassBike Homepage
• Bay State Bike Month
• 2020 Mini-Grant Recipients