The Washington DC Annual Bike Summit is a cheer-for-all for bikes and bike people.   The Bike Summit is two days of seminars on what is happening around the country where bikes are concerned  and a few receptions in between.

If you’ve never been to the bike summit–or any summit for that matter–but you ride a bike I recommend you take the three days vacation next year and trek to the bike mecca of Washington.  The atmosphere was downright friendly with five or six hundred cyclists from all walks of life coming together around a topic we all love.  There were people in suits and jeans and people in bike jerseys.   It was a small comet of similar interests and the results were nothing short of stellar.

In three days I met people from every state.  They came to learn and to speak to their legislators and in some cases, to learn to speak to their legislator.  

 If you’ve never paid a visit to your congressman/woman it is much easier than one might imagine.  The Longworth building houses a lot of legislators and as soon as you are inside you see that you belong.  Groups of people representing their causes gather outside of legislative offices, waiting to be heard. 

 We elected these people, so they have to listen to us.  How beautiful is that? A group of ten of us from Wisconsin stopped in Congressman Ryan’s office and we laid out our case to the legislative aide that Wisconsin has a vibrant bike industry that contributes $10 billion to the Wisconsin economy and provides thousands of jobs.    We asked for support of upcoming  legislation that can add more funding for bicycle infrastructure.  we asked for bikes to be considered in all transporation bills. 

 My personal request to both Congressmen was that they ride to work.  That got the same raised eyebrow look both times.  I suggested that if Ryan and Kind start riding they could start a “bike pool” with  Congressman Blumenauer (D-Oregon) and James Oberstar (D-Minnesota) .

 That would really be a sign of change, wouldn’t it?

I learned that there are a lot of bike advocates in this country who showed up to speak to their legislators about making sure bikes get their fair share of the transporation pie.  Right now, that slice is mighty small but that means there’s no where to go but up.