Advocates pack the room to discuss advancing cycling in Charlotte
Thanks to you, we had the biggest turn out to date for a Shifting Gears workshop! On Thursday, August 23rd, close to 70 people come out to Birdsong Brewing for an evening of bikes and fun!
The goal for every Shifting Gears public action workshop is for each attendee to leave with one action that they can undertake to help advance biking in Charlotte and one community contact to help them along the way. These actions can be anything from biking to work regularly, trying dockless bikeshare for the first time, or volunteering. Whether interested in biking but haven’t yet started, a weekend warrior, or a daily bike commuter — everyone has a part to play in helping realize our City’s new vision for bicycling in Charlotte.
Melissa Brokaw and Jon Harding from Learn to Ride opened the Shifting Gears program and introduced their work to the group. For more information about Learn to Ride, check out their website here.
Following their presentation, ten experts in the room lead two rounds of conversations. Did you attend Shifting Gears and forget to grab the table hosts’ contact information? Here is a list of who was in the room:
Melissa Brokaw, Learn to Ride and Open Streets 704 – melissa@well-runmedia.com
Jon Harding, Learn to Ride – jonathan.harding@gmail.com
Adam Raskoskie, Bicycle Advisory Committee – daraskoskie@gmail.com
Bradford Johnson, Lime – Bradford.Johnson@li.me
Tracy McGinnis, Southminster and Cycling Without Age – tmcginnis@southminster.org
Brian Doolittle, Charlotte Cycles – brian@charlottecycles.org
Eric Supil, Trips for Kids – erics@tripsforkidscharlotte.org
Renee Bradley, Stroll and Roll Plaza Midwood – renee.bradley@gmail.com
Attendees were able to ask their questions in small group sessions over a beer and light refreshments.
Did you miss out on this Shifting Gears? No worries. These are quarterly free workshops that are open to the public. Stay tuned for the next workshop date!
Looking to get involved? Sustain Charlotte is looking for volunteers for Biketoberfest presented by The Charlotte Knights. We will be partnering with CDOT to create a pilot protected bike lane for the event, and we need hands to help construct the bike lane (as well as other volunteer roles). Sign up for a three hour volunteer shift and get a free ticket to the event.
Check out the organizations listed above for other opportunities!
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