Year in Review 2026

Here’s exactly what your support helped power over the past year: Advocacy, education community, and progress toward a safer and more connected Pittsburgh

Take a look back at what our community made possible in 2026! From new biking and walking infrastructure and major advocacy wins, to expanded bike education, sold-out community events, and thousands of Pittsburghers working together to make our streets safer and more accessible.

Make Your Year-End Gift Today

As we look ahead to another year, we hope you’ll consider making a year-end gift to keep the momentum going to make biking and walking safer, easier, and more joyful for everyone. Every contribution, big or small, helps make this work possible as we work toward our year end fundraising goal!

Photo of Serpentine Dr by Murphy Moschetta for PedalPGH. This popular biking and walking route in Schenley Park will remain car free.

➣ Advocacy at the heart of all we do

➣ Education engaging the public and teaching riders of all ages

  • We kicked off our 2026 season with the 2nd annual Youth Cycling Educator forum in March that had over 30 attendees sharing inspiration and resources.
  • Helping new educators! – The 2026 BikePGH League Cycling Instructor seminar certified 16 new instructors (our largest ever!) who supported our educational initiatives across Pittsburgh and beyond. 
  • Giving out helmets and bike lights – Our Operation Illumination program and associated in school and community giveaways provided over 1,000 free lightsets and 500 helmets to help keep Pittsburgh riders safe. 
  • Our Bike Bus Resource package supported six school communities in launching bike buses for The City of Pittsburgh Safe Routes to School Walk and Roll to School Days or more frequently.
  • BikePGH’s summer program provided Operation Better Block’s Junior Green Corps with twenty Cannondale Treadwell bicycles along with helmets, pumps, tools, workstands, and training needed to sustain their biking program. 
  • Teaching kids – We returned to The Promise Center of Homewood to support bike education at their summer camp with over fifty students learning safe riding from our LCI instructors. 
  • Teaching more kids – Our third annual Learn 2 Ride series taught 79 learners of all ages how to balance and pedal–all free of charge!
  • Teaching all ages – Twenty participants learned to safely bike commute on the busy streets of Oakland at our Confident City Cycling classes from our expert instructors. 
  • Helping schools get resources – With the support of the Outride program, BikePGH education has helped six Pittsburgh Public middle schools to apply for or implement their Outride Riding for Focus bike education program with a goal of expanding middle school bike education district-wide in the 2027-2028 school year. 
  • E-bike education – BikePGH’s groundbreaking EBikePGH Guide has been purchased and adapted by peer organizations such as WABA, Bike Cleveland, Bike Walk KC, and Hawaii Bicycling League.

➣ Events celebrating the power of people-centered streets

  • New and exciting events! – We hosted 2 brand new events this year that introduced different audiences to our mission. In January, we hosted our first ever book talk with the authors of Life After Cars, and in May we celebrated Bike Month by hosting Spring Bike Ride + Picnic, which highlighted Pittsburgh’s bike infrastructure.
  • Rolling to work with the Mayor – At Bike to Work Day, hundreds of cyclists across the city to rolled to work. We hosted a group ride with partners and community members, including Mayor O’Connor, in a ride from the City County Building to the brand new Arts Landing. Bike to Work Day supports our May Membership Campaign, and in just one day at we raised over $2,000 for safer streets and better biking and walking infrastructure. 
  • Connecting communities across Pittsburgh – OpenStreetsPGH presented by UPMC Health Plan returned in 2026 to connect the Strip District & Lawrenceville, and Downtown & South Side with fun-filled car-free streets. The overwhelming popularity of this event shows that people and communities want more opportunities to connect in our city. Over 25K people attended our events in June and July to walk and roll through 5+ miles of open road! 
  • Riding for a reason! – Raising over $200,000 for safe biking and walking, this year’s SOLD OUT PedalPGH presented by UPMC Health Plan brought together 3000 cyclists to ride for safer streets! In the event’s 33rd year, we returned to Allegheny Commons Park on the North Side to celebrate all riders and raised funds to make Pittsburgh safer and more accessible for biking and walking.
  • Sharing resources – Our Bike People outreach team attended 50 community events in 25+ neighborhoods to spread the word about BikePGH and POGOH and provide resources to thousands of residents across the city. The Bike People are often the first interaction a person has with BikePGH and the gateway to getting involved in our mission.
  • Getting to know our city – With 5 walks exploring 5 unique neighborhoods with over 130 participants, our Neighborhood Walks series returned for a second year to connect community members, spark conversations about pedestrian safety, and celebrate the beauty and character of our local neighborhoods!
  • Supporting cycling students – Along with the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, Duquesne, and Chatham, we supported the eighth annual Campus Bike Week with classes, bike light giveaways, and resources for a full week of biking education and campus events. The events focus on getting participants ready to take on their campus bike commute, ride to and from classes, and explore our great city by bike. A highlight of this year’s Campus Bike Week was celebrating CMU’s 1 year anniversary of the Tartan Bike Project and giving away 60 sets of bike lights and 20 helmets at their Operation Illumination event. 
  • We are feeling the love! – Our dedicated volunteer base contributed over 1000 hours to our programming and events! We recruited over 200 individual volunteers and 15 groups for OpenStreetsPGH, PedalPGH, Volunteer Nights, Bike Builds, and the WMNBikePGH Scavenger Hunt… WOW! Thank you for continuing to support us with your time and energy!

➣ WMNBikePGH carving out intentional space and inclusive community

WMNBikePGH continued to bring women + trans, non-binary, and gender-expansive people together through group rides and community-building events in 2026. It was fun to make new connections and help more people feel confident on their bikes and within this community!

  • Riding together, all year long –  We took four big group rides together this year! We started in March and ended in October, enjoying some of the best weather Pittsburgh has to offer.
  • Our largest Scavenger Hunt yet! – We sold out tickets for our 2nd annual WMNBikePGH Scavenger Hunt Ride + Party, which brought together riders for a picturesque ride around town to our six secret checkpoint locations. We wrapped up the fun at Grist House in Millvale with pizza, drinks, s’mores, Cinnaholic vegan cinnamon buns, lots of camaraderie, and more than $2,000 in raffle prizes generously donated by local and small businesses.
  • Planning the next adventure… – While we weren’t able to host our annual bikepacking camping trip this year due to a critical GAP trail closure, we’re already looking forward to more opportunities to get out and ride together in 2027! We’re bringing back classes & workshops, group rides, the Scavenger Hunt, and yes, the camping trip.

➣ Membership & Fundraising keeping up the momentum

  • BikePGH fundraising team works with donors of all sorts to make sure our advocacy efforts, community events, and education programs have all the resources needed.
  • Our May Membership Campaign surpassed its goal of $15,000, bringing in $17,949.00 for safer biking and walking – $9,000 of which was received through sustaining monthly and recurring annual donations.
  • Donated swag and memberships to over a dozen local non-profits in support of their fundraising.
  • Secured 4,000+ individual donations directly through our website and events, as well as via stocks, Donor Advised Funds, workplace matching gifts, and more!
  • We continued to expand all the ways you can donate: check them out on this blog! In 2026, we’ve received more car (and motorcycle) donations than we have in the previous two years combined! We also wrote a blog in August about including Bike Pittsburgh in your estate planning. 
  • We submitted 25 grant proposals and 50 sponsorship proposals to foundations, corporations, and government agencies like the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation! Bike Pittsburgh was awarded $53,578 in November 2026, through a brand new grant program at PennDOT, designed for education and outreach related to vulnerable road users!
  • The Pittsburgh business community contributed over $320,000 toward our mission in 2026 through direct donations, sponsorships, and in-kind donations. BikePGH owes so much to its returning presenting sponsor of OpenStreetsPGH and PedalPGH, UPMC Health Plan. 
  • In October, we welcomed Diane Walter, our new Corporate Giving Manager to the team!

➣ Communication spreading the word

Our Communications & Marketing department helps bring our advocacy, education, and community programs to life through storytelling, media outreach, creative content, and strategic marketing. From making complex issues and policies easier to understand to reaching new audiences, this department keeps BikePGH’s mission visible, accessible, and engaging!

  • We keep you informed – We created over 60 explainer and recap videos on new infrastructure, advocacy wins, educational resources, and community events. We shared stories and updates across our growing social media channels, helping people stay connected to what’s happening in Pittsburgh. We planned and developed the Bike the NFL Draft Resource Guide, taking it from concept and web design to content creation and media outreach, and we helped make active transportation part of the conversation around one of Pittsburgh’s biggest-ever events.
  • We make the news! – We earned over 100 local and national media mentions in 2026 across print, digital, radio, and television. We got on KDKA radio and KDKA-TV to talk about biking at the NFL Draft, we showed off OpenStreetsPGH on Pittsburgh Today Live, we chatted about PedalPGH on Talk Pittsburgh, and got some shoutouts from USA TODAY. 
  • We put Pittsburgh’s creative community to work and brought ideas to life – We dreamt up an in-house creative marketing plan for our first-ever Spring Bike Picnic, and were proud to see it resonate with the community. We collaborated with local artists and freelancers to develop engaging multimedia content for our keynote events, and we continued prioritizing fresh perspectives and talent to help tell the stories behind our work.
  • We show up when it matters – We developed thoughtful, timely Crisis communications messaging in response to serious local fatalities. We worked to communicate with care, center the people affected, and maintain the focus on safer street design.
  • We’re more than just BikePGH! – Throughout 2026, we continued expanding the conversation around everyone who benefits from safer, more accessible streets, whether they bike or not. Storytelling highlighted projects like Week Without Driving and the Safe Sidewalks Crew helping expand our mission into broader safe streets advocacy.

Through our many communications channels, we make sure to keep promoting how BikePGH’s efforts to keep streets and roadways safer are shared across many communities and sectors; the goal is to have a transportation network that minimizes the risk of injury and death and is accessible for everyone, regardless of ability, income, age, race, or gender.

Pittsburgh doesn’t become a safer and more connected city by chance. It happens because people like you show up, give back, and help make change possible. Every community connection, safer intersection, and educational program is part of a bigger effort to make sure everyone can get where they need to go safely.

Together, we’re working toward a Pittsburgh with safer streets and more accessible ways to get around, and we need to raise $125,000 by December 31 to keep that work moving forward.

Every gift brings us one step closer!

Will you make a year-end donation today?

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