BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Sorry about the formatting. I just cut and pasted.  Beats sending everyone a postcard.

Dave's message without HTML clutter: Some general notes I took at the meeting: Karina Ricks Director of the City Department of Mobility and Infrastructure was the main speaker. Mobility can be defined as movement across the face of the earth, or between social, economic, ecological, or other strata. She pointed out the average commute (by auto?)was about 25 minutes, while the average transit commute is 73 minutes. About 25% of errand trips in Pittsburgh are less than 1 mile, and 40% leases than 2 miles. I found it interesting that the Department of Infrastructure and Mobility not only deals with what one would expect in street transportation, but also unique in Pittsburgh also landslide mitigation, flood management, and public steps. She did expect about 60 miles of new and/or upgraded bike lanes over the next 3 years. While about 70% of all local bike commuters are male, the attendance appeared to be 41 men and 25 women, or about 62% male. Open streets last year had about 65,000 attendees, and Pedal Pittsburgh’s 2800 riders raised about $250,000. Currently BikePgh has about 3200 paid members, with around 400 of those sustaining members. For all of the bikers now on the streets, I still don’t understand why we are not well over 5,000 members. Maybe this year? Any thought on the state of the organization? As I mentioned elsewhere, there were some private discussions including some staff members about this message board. They felt the board concerns warranted some discussion at a staff meeting.

For all of the bikers now on the streets, I still don’t understand why we are not well over 5,000 members.

That's probably because BikePGH doesn't serve the interests of "all the bikers now on the streets".

For all of the bikers now on the streets, I still don’t understand why we are not well over 5,000 members. Maybe this year?

As a point of comparison, the Bicycle Coalition of Philadelphia appears to only have 2400 "households" as members, and they've been around for like 30 yrs longer with a population about five times as large. My guess is that the additional cyclists that have driven the growth in Pittsburgh ridership are the "interested but concerned" types who've taken up riding as infrastructure has been built. Not necessarily a demographic who sees themselves as "bikey people" or feel a need or interest in committing to the cause. It's gotta be a tough gig to drive membership growth for a niche organization in a city whose population is effectively stagnant, and as depressing as it is, pretty much nobody around the country has really succeeded in widening the tent enough to get non-bikey people on board in significant numbers.