Washington Bike Summit 2015: Statewide Bike Conference a Sell-Out Crowd

By Barb Chamberlain | Published March 23, 2015
Raleigh Bicycles Port Townsend model with Rainier Beer detailing, loaded with Ortlieb panniers, on Sportworks bike rack. All made by companies headquartered in Washington state.

This display showcases products made by companies headquartered in Washington state: a beautiful Raleigh Bicycles Port Townsend model with Rainier Beer detailing loaded with Ortlieb panniers parked on a Sportworks bike rack made in Woodinville.

We capped registration, then pushed the cap, then pushed it some more. An event we thought would reach 100+ participants came to 185 and then some (we may have missed counting a few at the legislative reception Monday night). Thanks to Corey Burger of Victoria, BC, it even became an international summit (an element we’d love to see grow next year).

A few statistics tell one kind of story about the Washington Bike Summit.

Towns represented: 48.

Aberdeen, Anacortes, Auburn, Bellevue, Bellingham, Bremerton, Burien, College Place, Denver, Dixie, East Wenatchee, Edmonds, Everett, Fife, Hood River, Kenmore, Kent, Kirkland, Lacey, Lake Tapps, Lakewood, Lynnwood, Mead, Oak Harbor, Olympia, Port Angeles, Port Orchard, Portland, OR, Pullman, Puyallup, Redmond, Renton, San Diego, CA, Seattle, Sequim, Shoreline, Silverdale, Snohomish, Spokane, Tacoma, Tumwater, Union Gap, University Place, Vancouver, Victoria BC, Wenatchee, Winthrop, Yakima. (Boldface cities/towns are Bicycle Friendly Communities)

Number of Bicycle-Friendly Communities represented: 11 out of 14 in the state. At the legislative reception Monday night Steve Durrant of Alta Planning + Design, a member of the League of American Bicyclists board, spoke about the Bicycle Friendly America program and encouraged attendees to work for their communities to submit applications. We look forward to welcoming additional towns to the list of Bicycle Friendly Communities in Washington, the #1 Bicycle Friendly State in America.

Types of businesses and organizations represented:

Bike manufacturing, bike shops, bike clubs, bike nonprofits, design/planning engineering firms, cities, local elected officials, Chambers of Commerce, federal agencies, pedestrian advocates, trails organizations, public health districts, health foundations, transit, neighborhood organizations, metropolitan planning organizations, regional transportation planning organizations, WSDOT, colleges/universities, Washington State Dept. of Health, local agencies including streets, public works, planning, and economic development.

Percentage of attendees not from Seattle: 71.3% (we reported a slightly higher number the week before the registration closed; Seattle supplied several of the final registrations processed).

Why do we track and report this? Given the population distribution in the state it would be easy to hold a sold-out conference with 100% Seattleites. That wouldn’t represent our statewide mission.

Speakers: Every speaker and every session gave people ideas, information, and inspiration to take back to their hometowns. A special thank-you to everyone listed on our agenda for sharing your stories.

Martha Roskowski of People for Bikes and Samantha Ollinger of Bike San Diego deserve special thanks for their inspiring remarks in keynote addresses, along with Patty Graf-Hoke of Visit Kitsap, Joe Brown of Methow Cycle and Sport, and George Bergner of Port Angeles Likes Bikes and Olympic Peninsula Likes Bikes of our panel on the economic power of bike tourism.

 

Washington State DOT Sec. Lynn Peterson spent a Monday coffee break with attendees, showcasing the new poster that tells all WSDOT staff it’s time to build innovative new bike infrastructure.

 

 

 

Number of people receiving training in the NACTO Urban Bikeways Design Guide: 54. Offering professional workshops drew a large number of professionals to the conference where they could rub elbows with the advocates who attend community hearings and provide input on bike master plan updates — a great mix for future improvements on our streets.

Legislative reception: Special thanks to Rep. Joan McBride of Kirkland, a former member of the Washington Bikes board, Sen. Curtis King of Yakima, chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, and Washington Transportation Commissioner Joe Tortorelli, Spokane, for their participation in our reception.

At #WABikeSummit: @WSDOT Sec @LynnPetersonWA, Transportation Commissioner Joe Tortorelli, our ED @barbchamberlain pic.twitter.com/YQXDs0bB0Q

— Washington Bikes (@WAbikes) March 17, 2015

Transportation Advocacy Day: Many people met with their legislators on Day Two of the Summit, reluctantly breaking away from workshops but eager to talk with their legislators about the value of investing in safe and complete connected infrastructure.

 

Added bonus for local color: A movie shoot with zombies.

Sponsors: We have to give another big thank-you to our sponsors, who made it possible for us to bring together such a great line-up of speakers.

  • Platinum Bike: Cascade Bicycle Club, Group Health
  • Gold Wheel: WSDOT
  • Silver Spoke: Raleigh, People for Bikes
  • Bronze Gear: Alta Planning, Foundation for Healthy Generations, Mithun, Ortleib, REI, SRAM, Transpo Group

Last word: We’ll give the last word to Kyla and Josef Forsberg of Lake Tapps, owners of the Green River Cyclery and Busted Bike Cafe in Auburn. As they prepared to depart they both said, “We’ll be at this every year!”


The tweets tell the story another way:

Washington Bike Summit 2015 Sponsors

Special thanks to Platinum sponsors Cascade Bicycle Club and Group Health Cooperative, whose early sponsorship made the Summit possible.

Please help us thank our sponsors in social media. When you follow or fan, let them know you appreciate their support of the Washington Bike Summit, #WABikeSummit.

Sponsored by:

Platinum Bicycle:

Cascade Bicycle ClubGroup Health

Twitter: @cascadebicycle                                                             Twitter: @grouphealth
Cascade on Facebook                                                                     Group Health on Facebook

 

Gold Wheel:

WSDOTlogogreen

Twitter: @WSDOT
WSDOT on Facebook

Silver Spoke:

Raleigh         People for Bikes - horizontal

Twitter: @RaleighBicycles                                              Twitter: @PeopleforBikes
Raleigh Bicycles on Facebook                                        People for Bikes on Facebook

 

Bronze Gear:

REI_14_1K (1)          SRAM        Mithun_Logo_Black

    Alta_logo       FGH_logo_color     Transpo Group - logoOrtlieb_Logo

Twitter: @REI | REI on Facebook

Twitter: @SRAMroad | SRAM on Facebook

Twitter: @Mithun_Design

Twitter: @altaplanning | Alta Planning on Facebook

Twitter: @fdnhealthygen | Foundation for Healthy Generations on Facebook

Twitter: @TranspoGroup | Transpo Group on Facebook

Twitter: @OrtliebUSA

This article was posted in Advocacy, Bike Culture, Economic Impact, Education, Encouragement, Events, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, Legislature, News, Safe Routes to School, Tourism, Transportation. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments with the RSS feed for this post. Both comments and trackbacks are closed.