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WHEREAS, BikePGH began their work to create a bike friendly city 15 years ago, having helped expand Pittsburgh’s 10 miles of bike lanes to now include nearly 70 miles of on road bike lanes and markings; and
WHEREAS, their efforts to increase bike lanes within the city has helped Pittsburgh ridership experience the largest increase in the nation since the year 2000, and their efforts have built a current member and donor base of over 3,000; and
WHEREAS, BikePGH worked with the Port Authority in 2011 to promote the addition of bike racks on the front of all public buses, in order to aid the transportation of bicycles to city riders when needed, and led the fight for thousands of public bike racks to be installed around the city since 2004; and
WHEREAS, BikePGH created an extensive city wide Bike Map, and has also developed the City Cycling education course, which helps promote bike safety and an understanding of the fundamentals of confident cycling within city limits; and
WHEREAS, the success of Positive Spin, a youth cycling and mentorship program for middle schoolers to learn bike safety, led to the program’s expansion to include a mentorship program that partners with Action-Housing to help youth aging out of foster care; and
WHEREAS, BikePGH encourages community building through events such as Open Streets, which promotes healthy living within the city, and has grown from 6,000 participants in 2015 to over 90,000 participants in 2017; and
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NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby commend, recognize, and congratulate BikePGH on 15 years of service to the people of Pittsburgh through the encouragement of accessible transportation and healthy living; and,
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Council of the City of Pittsburgh does hereby declare September 16, 2017 to be “BikePGH Day” in the City of Pittsburgh.