VIDEO: Mayor Peduto makes a splash at the National Bike Summit in DC

National Women’s Bicycling Forum & National Bike Summit 2014 from Streetfilms on Vimeo.

Earlier in the week, Mayor Bill Peduto addressed the crowd during the opening plenary at the National Bike Summit in Washington DC.

The above video is more or less the highlights reel of the Summit, from our friends over at Streetfilms, featuring Mr. Peduto twice.

The first spot is from a candid interview with the Mayor talking up Pittsburgh, while encouraging everyone to attend the upcoming Pro Walk/Pro Bike/Pro Place conference here in September. The second part is a clip of him nominating BikePGH Executive Director to the Board of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission, or SPC.

You can see clips of the Mayor and Pittsburgh at 3:53 and again at 5:32

It also appears that Mayor Peduto trended big on twitter during the National Bike Summit with about 100 mentions, as well as getting a nice feature on StreetsblogUSA.


Below is the text of the official press release from the desk of Mayor Bill Peduto about his remarks at the National Bike Summit.

Mayor addressing bicycling advocates in Washington D.C.

Mayor Peduto is set to address the National Bike Summit in Washington D.C. starting at 8 a.m. Tuesday. Below are exerpts of his remarks, as prepared for delivery:

“I want to thank everyone who, like me, traveled through atrocious conditions to get here, recognizing the importance of bicycling issues to our shared quality of life. But bike people are tough like that, and have the broken bones to prove it.

Thanks, too, to my hosts here at the League of American Bicyclists. This fall, Pittsburgh is thrilled to be hosting the biennial Pro-Walk/Pro-Bike Conference and I’m here to sell you on why – if you’re not committed already – you should be among the thousand other people coming to my city this September.

Pittsburgh is a growing, commuter-friendly city where 30 percent of people walk, bike or take public transit to work – that’s the eighth-highest percentage among large American cities. Working hand-in-hand with Bike Pittsburgh the last several years, we’ve installed 30 miles of on-street bicycle infrastructure, 500 bike racks, started bike corrals and offer bike valet services at city festivals.

We are launching a citywide bike share program this year in partnership with Bike Pittsburgh and a major corporate sponsor, and we are working on a comprehensive complete streets plan to inform future development. We are looking at code amendments to relax or remove parking minimums in dense neighborhoods, and we are welcoming ridesharing companies like Lyft and Uber to reduce the number of cars on the road and reduce the incidents of drunk driving.

We’ve moved to educate bikers, drivers, and pedestrians, and promote other “on street” cycling infrastructure components, and my new administration will be doubling down on those investments in the future.

Put simply Pittsburgh, in addition to these advancements, is also a small enough place where we – and you – can try out smart transportation visions before taking them across the globe. If we can do these things — with our hills, valleys, rivers, and narrow streets designed before cars existed — every city in the country can do it.

The city has a transportation plan – MOVE PGH – that is under way and nearing completion. However we look to go further.

Pittsburgh has a robust network of trails and a growing ‘on street’ cycling infrastructure. By working with bike and pedestrian advocates, we are working to create a vision for transportation that is built around people and places, not a singular mode or vehicle.

We are also building a Sustainable Transportation System. It includes:

– Developing and building infrastructure systems that optimize resources, and considers cyclists and pedestrians at every stage of planning and development. People and their mobility needs come first.

– Coordinating investment between departments to make well informed, strategic decisions that engages communities and builds from the ground up.

– Creating a Complete Streets Program, which builds a network of streets that enhances safety and access for cyclists and pedestrians

– Designing for a true Multi-modal transportation system, which connects people and provides choices between transportation modes

– Finally, we’re backing Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), which maximize the use of technology to encourage improved decision making, safety and better resource allocation

You’ll learn all about those initiatives if you join us at the 17th Pro Walk/Pro Bike Conference come September. But most importantly Pittsburgh – and the Project for Public Spaces – will learn from you. And now I’m going to sit down and start doing exactly that. Thank you.”


Not a member of BikePGH? Join today! We need you to add your voice! Bike Pittsburgh works to protect cyclist’s rights and promote the vision of making Pittsburgh a safer and more enjoyable place to live and to ride. For more info, check out: www.bikepgh.org/membership

1 Comment

Leave a Reply