The 2023 Bike Easy End of the Year Membership Party was a huge success! At the membership party, staff and board members were able to update supporting members about our organization’s successes and accomplishments for the past year!
In 2023, we were able to reach hundreds of youths with programs such as our After School Ride Clubs with New Harmony, Living School, and Dolores T. Aaron. Other youth programming included Road Riding, Bike Rodeos, Learn to Rides, Multi Modal courses, Bike Safety workshops, Family Rides, well as other events. Bike Easy also was able to increase our outreach by hosting the Youth Walk & Roll Week which promotes biking and walking as a safe and easy means to commute to school, get exercise, and have fun.
Our education team also led numerous adult education workshops that included Commuting by Bike, People Friendly Driving, Bike Law Legal Clinic, Smart Biking, and Bike Maintenance and Safety classes. Bike Easy also assisted in the training of new League Certified Instructors to assist with further programming. Also, our Adult Learn to Ride courses have gotten more people on bicycles in New Orleans. Bike Easy also hosted seven Bike Light Giveaways that distributed over 100 lights. Ultimately, we reached over 700 adults with our programming!
Bike Easy’s 2023 Community programming has included Bike Valet services at local events and helped people receive bikes through our Bike Match program, which is ranked as number one in the nation! We assisted local shops and organizations to install bike racks with our Discount Bike Rack program. The Bike Easy April Challenge also had the participation of 95 organizations and 432 people who logged over 58,000 miles of bicycling which reduced CO2 emissions by 6,382 lbs.!
Bike Easy’s Safety Sunday Cleanups have helped remove debris from bike lanes. Our Bicycle Second Line was a huge success and saw bicyclists from New Orleans Metro and beyond, follow a band on bicycles for a parade through town. We also hosted Happy Hours as well as community rides. Ride for Our Lives community rally and ride was able to raise awareness about bike safety concerning street infrastructure. Other work has included outreach and advocacy on behalf of people on foot, bike, and in vehicles to make New Orleans’ streets safer and more accessible to everyone.
Bike Easy also is excited about the reach of our advocacy that extended nationally, with staff attending a summit in Washington D.C. We conducted numerous surveys throughout the year and also partnered with the UNO Transportation Institute and the City of New Orleans for the Count Dat program that is cataloging data and statistics for riding in Metro New Orleans. Bike Easy also this past year launched Bike Talks, which was a panel discussion of bike topics such as community bike shops, and electric bikes. We were also able to lead a petition for safer streets that received over a thousand signatures!
There is no reason we wanted to celebrate our accomplishments of 2023 with an End of the Year Membership Party. Bike Easy was able to involve members in a democratic process at the party by having a vote on an addendum. We also announced our new board members and officers Greta Cappelmann, president, Camly Tram, vice president, Andrew Owens, treasurer, and Tessa Jagger, secretary.
We also gave our coveted Bike Easy Awards!:
-Peter Duffy Bennett Policy Advocate Award (Policy Advocate of the Year – individual or organization who’s done a lot for our policy and advocacy efforts) presented to Jessica Stroope – LSU AG Center – Healthy Communities Physical Activity Specialist and Research Associate
– Volunteer of the Year Award (Volunteer of the Year – an individual who’s donated lots of quality time to Bike Easy_ presented to Patrick Elliott
– Community Partner Award (Community Partner – a funding and/or programming partner (generally an organization) -presented to the Shop at the CAC
– Bike Easy Award (The Bike Easy Award – the catchall, highest and best award for an individual or organization who’s been outstanding for biking) presented to UNO Transportation Institute represented by Tara Tolford
Thank you again to individual members and supporting organizations for helping Bike Easy have an extremely successful year! Members are the lifeblood of our organization. With their help and donations Bike Easy is able sustain its mission “to make bicycling easy, safe, and fun for everyone in Greater New Orleans.” The money generated through memberships allows Bike Easy to offer classes, and community events, as well as advocate for better and more complete streets in New Orleans.
If you would like to become a supporting Bike Easy member, please click here. There are numerous options for support as well as a discounted membership for those on a limited budget. Not only does your contribution allow us to carry on our mission, but you will also receive perks and discounts throughout town with collaborating businesses. And as a lagniappe, you will be able to participate in our next membership party for 2024!
Here is to a happy new year arriving in 2024! We at Bike Easy are excited about what this coming year will bring.
See you in the streets and on walkways!
Sincerely,
Bike Easy
