SO much is happening close to home and around the world relating to the extraordinary intersectionality of bikes with economic, environmental, and social resilience during the biggest bike boom in generations — and this unprecedented moment in history.
As a bike native who was there in the original “boom where it happened,” and as your Metro Atlanta Bicycle Mayor, I’m trusting the journey (as always) to proactively lead me to serve where I can be of most help.
As always, I continue my daily leaps of faith and look forward to the day when riding a bike does not require one.
Here is my executive summary after three months in this eight-hour-a-week pro bono role.
Below are the ways I am considering bearing witness, taking action, and providing both my professional skills and personal passions through February’s next three weeks. As you can see, this 30-hour estimated time commitment (not even counting the National Bike Summit) more-than-fills my 24 hours available (8 hours a week x 3 weeks) and will thus likely need to be prioritized further, with some of these points being shifted to March. (Note: I don’t count my usual daily blog posts and research-focused rides in the total donated hours as I would have been doing them anyway.)
If you would like me to be involved in additional meetings or provide other communications deliverables for your municipality, organization, or company, please see my rates here.
Here goes:
Attend the meeting called by the Mayor of Sandy Springs, Georgia, as a result of continued advocacy work by a citizen, fellow League Cycling Instructor and fellow road violence survivor named Neil Fleming, to which I was invited following an article I wrote (Man Charged with 7 Counts After Killing a Man on Bicycle in Sandy Springs, GA) (1 hour); DONE. SEE POST WITH UPDATE HERE.
Attend the meeting arranged by BYCS of all womxn in the Bicycle Mayor and Leaders Program around the world (about 32!) to discuss gender and cycling, and a separate meeting of all 110 global bicycle mayors (3 hours);
Attend the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition’s quarterly briefing (1 hour);
Provide feedback and support for a new multiuse path coming on a segment of this road in Dunwoody, Georgia (recently turned down for Bicycle Friendly Community certification), and the potential (finally — my email to city hall is coming up on its one year anniversary in March) for temporary pop-up infrastructure on select segments of currently-non-NACTO-compliant roads (which are all of the main roads with 35mph-or-higher posted speed limits in this city, which are unavoidable to actually go places); bear witness at related city council meeting (2 hours); continue to encourage someone (anyone!) to take the lead at Bike Walk Dunwoody. (See Are You the Next Joe?) DONE. UPDATE: I wrote and sent an email to mayor and city council and attended the meeting. There are good people trying hard, but the road is continually uphill with no real traction. I am officially tapped out of that now, unless contracted.
Interview unsung heroes and write/publish more stories about people making it more welcoming to ride bikes in Metro Atlanta, specifically Clayton County (which is my county-by-county focus in February — see this post about it for an overview of some great things happening there) (6 hours) DONE. Meet Charlton Bivins, Chair of C4: The Clayton County Cycling Club!
Create one or two new self-guided bike tours as a PeopleForBikes ambassador (6 hours)
Complete my TikTok series of joy-based bike education and inspiration, merge it with my existing proprietary class (available already is so many fun ways), and prepare it for additional free mass distribution in March and April to encourage and support more women and girls on bikes leading up to National Bike Month in May (6 hours) TikTok series DONE. See all 74 (which takes a total of maybe 20 minutes and provides you with a ton of info) on TikTok at pedalpowerwithpattie. Am now working on the best way to merge it with my existing classes.
Provide tips to encourage cities and companies to plan their National Bicycle Month activities and outreach for May 2021 (2 hours) THIS GOAL HAS BEEN MOVED TO MARCH.
Begin creating a public service announcement campaign for National Bike Month. THIS GOAL HAS BEEN MOVED TO MARCH.
Continue encouraging citizens who contact me from around Metro Atlanta to become Bicycle Mayors of their cities or counties (2 hours) ONGOING.
Attend the National Bike Summit February 28-March 1 (join me!).
That brings me to March 4, which as you know, is my very favorite day of the year and this year we’ll be Marching FORTH in a big way.
And that’s that. Sun’s risin’ soon, and there’s rubber-hits-the-road work to be done. Hope to see you out there, Traveling at the Speed of Bike!
Oh, final reminder. Buy my book (there’s a free book club discussion guide and an audio excerpt at that link as well — let me know if you want me to answer any questions for your book club; I’m currently booking May). Buy the Artsy Bike Face Mask. All proceeds are used to help more women and girls ride bikes, and that benefits literally everyone.
Note: I am out of the biz of trying to match people with used bikes. Something super painful happened beyond my control and I will not put myself in that position again (although I’m sure good will come from that turn of events). If you have a used bike you don’t want, please donate it to a co-op, a nonprofit serving those in need, or someone in your community via social media or neighborly conversation. You may want to listen to Chapter 2: The Bike in the Attic first, however (from my book — click to listen to a segment for free at the bottom of this link). You may not be done with that bike yet.
Traveling at the Speed of Bike 