Enormous thanks to everyone who made the event a success!
On Saturday, March 28th, eighty-four women and trans-identified people came together at Carnegie Mellon University to build community, attend facilitated workshops, and learn from each other. The day began with two inspiring keynote speakers, Ren Barger, Founder and CEO of Tulsa Hub and Monica Garrison, Founder of Black Girls Do Bike. They provided their unique perspectives on gaining more autonomy and empowerment through bicycling, and creating a forum for women of color to build community. The workshop leaders and discussion group facilitators provided knowledge and insight based on their years of experience. The participants gained a stronger basis for using their own experiences as tools for change, as well as how to get around by bike, navigate our trail system, and take kids along for the ride. It was a motivational day, with people taking their sweet time to leave each session because the conversations were so lively and the participants were wanted to keep them going!
Many thanks to our wonderful photographer Elizabeth Rose for documenting the day beautifully! Thanks to Mary Glavan from Carnegie Mellon University’s GSA for partnering with us on the event.
We are also grateful to our sponsors for valuing the creation of a space for women in the bicycling community, and without whom the Forum would not have been possible! Enormous thanks to: Beth Hazlett, Jim Fleming, Mary Shaw, Susan Petersen, Aerotech Designs Cycleware, Dollar Bank, Kindred Cycles, and Strider Bikes!
Taking the success of the Women & Biking Forum as a cue, the BikePGH Women & Biking Program is starting a monthly coffee meet-up on the last wednesday of each month that will rotate neighborhoods to provide a space to continue these discussions and coordinate rides. The first meet-up will be on Wed. April 29th from 8-9am at Constellation Coffee on Penn Ave. We hope to see you there!
About our keynote speakers:
Monica Garrison is a Pittsburgh resident and the creator of a national movement. She is the founder of BlackGirlsDoBike.com, a website with over 4,000 followers that is committed to growing and supporting a community of women of color who share a passion for cycling. Monica works to help women of color meet up with other women in their cities to share, ask, organize, and engage in their bicycling communities. Black Girls Do Bike shares positive images of ladies and their bikes on the web answering the question, “Do black girls bike?” with a resounding, “Yes!”
Ren Barger is the founder and CEO of Tulsa Hub in Tulsa Oklahoma, and also the Keynote speaker at this year’s National Women and Biking Forum! In 2004 Ren was hit and badly injured by a motorist; this experience galvanized her commitment to active-transportation, safety education, and equity promotion for all users of the roadway, and resulted in ongoing analysis of the built environment “from the gutter up–” not to mention the inherent prejudices within the concept of “normal.” She founded Tulsa Hub in 2008 as a volunteer-powered social business which offers low-or-no-cost reconditioned bikes and gear to indigent adults in need of transportation to achieve improved autonomy.
Event Schedule:
- Getting to know your bike: Diagnosing that squeak and fixing a flat in a pinch.
- Traversing the Trails: Favorite routes for fun or commuting, navigating the conditions, and trail etiquette for not being a jag.
- The Power of Women: From street harassment to riding alone, telling our stories as a tool for change.
Lunch: 12:15pm -1:15pm
- Getting around on your bike – Low-cost tips & tricks for carrying your stuff & arriving comfortably.
- Tagalongs, Trailers & Training Wheels – A discussion of different gear options for safely bringing the kids along on your ride.
- Responding to Bikelash – Talking with your neighbors and co-workers when they claim that their taxes paid for your bike lanes (and other myths and misconceptions).
Closing: 2:45pm – 3:00pm
Casual ride (optional): 4:00pm
We’re thrilled to have two incredible women join us to talk about their work within the bicycling community and experiences as women who ride.
BikePGH thanks the following people and corporations for their generous support of the 2nd Annual Women and Biking Forum:
Beth Hazlett
Jim Fleming
Mary Shaw
Susan Petersen
Media Sponsor:
Join as a BikePGH Monthly Member for a chance to win an All-City Macho Man Disc Cross bike!
It’s a BikePGH membership drive and giveaway! Support safer streets year round by joining as a monthly member Wednesday, April 1 through Saturday, April 25th, and you’ll be entered to win an All-City Macho Man Disc Cross Bike. Available in any size. Huge thanks to All-City Cycles and Thick Bikes for their generosity!
*Click here for giveaway rules and regulations.
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