Interesting bits from the Bike Summit this morning:
In his opening comments of the Bike Summit, Andy Clarke (Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists) said that Portland is not really competing with Davis (CA) or Boulder (CO) for bike friendlines, but that we’re on an international level now. He then announced that Portland will receive a “Gold” award at the upcoming Velo Mondial conference taking place in Cape Town South Africa next week. Very cool.
He presented the award on stage to Mia Birk, who was filling in for City Commissioner Sam Adams. Adams was slated to speak on behalf of Portland, but didn’t show up due to an apparent bout with food poisoning.
Also, more details on Bike Belong’s visit to the Oval Office. Turns out they spent 35 minutes with the president and Tim Blumenthal (head of Bikes Belong) was “very encouraged” with how President Bush responded. He even went so far as to say that the President, “Cares more about bicycling than just about anything else.”…which of course got quite a chuckle from the crowd. In all seriousness, he seemed very sincere about how receptive the President was to the bike message.
There’s a lot of talk about bikes reaching a “tipping point” and “all the stars being aligned” for bikes in America this year.
The wi-fi here at the Ronald Reagan Building (just a stone’s throw from the White House!) is not free. Bummer.
I’m off to my next workshop.