One Street News

September 2010

Vol. 3, Issue 8

  1. Uganda, Here We Come!
  2. Las Vegas for Interbike and Social Bike Business
  3. Resources – Bike Fort Collins’ “You Know Me” Campaign
  4. Hot Topics – AAA Demands Elimination of Bicycle Funding!
  5. Supporter Spotlight – Cyclists for Cultural Exchange

Uganda, Here We Come!

A small grant has enabled a trip to Uganda and the long-awaited meeting of leaders of two nonprofit bicycle organizations. Since December 2009, Sue Knaup, Executive Director of One Street, a U.S.-based international bicycle advocacy organization, and Denis Rubalema, Director of Ride 4 a Woman (R4W) in Uganda, have been communicating through email. Mr. Rubalema first contacted Ms. Knaup to tap into One Street’s organization management coaching services. But both soon realized that One Street’s Social Bike Business program also offered important services for R4W.  

Read more in our recent Press Release about the trip.  

Las Vegas for Interbike and Social Bike Business

By: Sue Knaup, Executive Director 

In late September, Michael Dummeyer, One Street’s AmeriCorp*VISTA member, and I traveled to Las Vegas to take part in the Interbike trade show. This was my nineteenth Interbike having first attended as a bike shop employee, then as a bike shop owner and finally as an advocate. So I was glad to have Michael along to remind me that new discoveries are still possible at the show. Interbike offers One Street donated booth space each year which helps us connect with show attendees interested in our Social Bike Business program, and so we did. We met bike designers, program coordinators and local leaders who are also working to bring affordable, quality, transportation bicycles to disadvantaged people. We look forward to working with these new partners as we move ahead.

But the show was not our only purpose for traveling to Las Vegas. Since the summer of 2009, I have been working with representatives at the North Las Vegas Neighborhood Recreation Center to find ways to bring our Social Bike Business program to the center. Most exciting for them are the bicycle refurbishing and repair elements as well as our job training curriculum. Both of these program elements would enhance current programs they provide to neighborhood residents.  

Michael and I had a nice meeting with a center representative that left us cautiously optimistic. While their budgets have been slashed and many of their programs cut, they can still imagine adding the Social Bike Business program to their lineup once the economy stabilizes. They even helped us connect with another neighborhood school that could be a key partner in developing this local program. We hope to bring you more news about this budding program in the near future.

Resources – Bike Fort Collins’ “You Know Me” Campaign 

Too often, arguments against providing for bicyclists assume that bicyclists are strange outsiders. With this assumption, officials and people who don’t ride bicycles find it quite easy to stop changes that would improve the safety of cyclists. Bike Fort Collins in Colorado is combating this undertone with their innovative and positive campaign: You Know Me, I Ride a Bike.

Hot Topics – AAA Demands Elimination of Bicycle Funding!

In their recent issue of AAA World magazine, a top official of the American Automobile Association (AAA) outlined his reasoning for returning to the dark ages when U.S. transportation funding only went to massive highway projects, NOT provisions for bicyclists and pedestrians. Learn more and sign the Rails-to-Trails petition that calls upon AAA National President Robert Darbelnet to disavow this official’s position.

Supporter Spotlight – Cyclists for Cultural Exchange

We discovered the website of Cyclists for Cultural Exchange (CCE) earlier this year and were immediately awestruck by their clear mission for peace by connecting cyclists around the world. Each year they raise enough funds through their popular Strawberry Fields Forever bike ride in California to fund projects and exchanges between people with a common interest in cycling in different parts of the world. From One Street’s global interactions with people and organizations, we know all too well that this simple concept of connecting people face-to-face is the very core of creating peace. To find an organization that is doing this through bicycles was truly exhilarating. Now we can say we are one of CCE’s proud funding recipients as we prepare for our first trip to Uganda to work directly with our partners at Ride 4 a Woman as they build their own Social Bike Business program. Please visit CCE’s website to learn more about this simple, yet so effective organization working for peace through bicycles.