The first-ever Wisconsin Bike Summit kicks off today. It’s really exciting to think about cyclists from all over the state coming together, getting organized, and having our voices heard by our state legislators. The Bike Fed of Wisconsin is putting on the event, and today advocacy leaders from the League of American Bicycles, Bikes Belong Coalition, and the Bike Fed will talk to Summit-goers to get them fired up about all the good things bicycles can do for their local communities, the state of Wisconsin, and for the country. Traffic congestion. Air pollution. Obesity. The bicycle really can be a simple solution to complex problems.

Tomorrow we head to the Capitol to meet face-to-face with our respective representatives. We have three “asks” on the docket: 1) a commitment to increase funding for bicycling infrastructure and maintenance from 1.4% to 3.0% of all transportation dollars; 2) support for “Complete Streets,” which in essences requires that all new road construction takes into account bicycle traffic as part of the road plan; and 3) support the “car-dooring” legislation currently up for a vote; right now, in Wisconsin, if a motorist opens the door of his parked car and takes out a cyclists, by law, it’s automatically the cyclists fault; this new legislation would remove the automatic culpability from the cyclists and instead allow the investigating authorities to assign the blame where it rightly belongs in each particular instance—cyclist OR motorist.