League of American Bicyclists
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The League of American Bicyclists (LAB), a cyclist's advocacy group was founded in 1880 as the League of American Wheelmen to improve riding conditions within the United States of America. The League was the leading organization advocating for the improvement of roads and highways in the United States throughout the last part of the 19th century, and has continued to serve as the leading membership organization for bicyclists in the US into the 21st century.
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Advocacy
LAB is serving as a voice for cyclists at the national level, and sponsors an annual National Bike Summit to bring together professionals, advocates, and government representatives.
LAB works in partnership with other organizations such as FHWA, NHTSA, NCUTCD, NCUTLO, and others to improve conditions for cyclists in the United States.
Education
LAB coordinates and promotes the "Bike Ed" program, which offers adult and child bicyclist education courses for a variety of skill levels in many locations across the US. Much of the content in these courses is based on the Effective Cycling program developed by John Forester. However, the Bike Ed and Effective Cycling courses are now separate programs offered by different organizations.
LAB also sponsors the biennial Bicycle Education Leaders Conference, and is active in Safe Routes to School programs at a national level.
Bicycle-friendly communities
As of September 2004, the LAB has formally recognized dozens of U.S. cities as bicycle-friendly communities for "providing safe accommodation and facilities for bicyclists and encouraging residents to bike for transportation and recreation":
- Silver-level
There are also 24 Bronze-level communities, located in Alabama (including Auburn), Arizona, California (including Mountain View and the Presidio of San Francisco), Colorado (including Longmont), Florida, Illinois (including Schaumburg), Indiana, Kansas (including Shawnee), Maine, Maryland (including Rockville), Michigan (including Portage), North Carolina (including Carrboro and Cary), Oregon, (including Ashland and Beaverton), Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and Washington (including Redmond).
LAB Reform
Some members of LAB are concerned with various decisions made by the LAB board of directors in recent years, and have formed a group (http://www.labreform.org) calling for reform at LAB. The stated goals of LAB Reform are:
- Regain control of the League for members by allowing them to elect ALL directors
- Restore access to the ballot and Bylaws via the petition and referendum
- Remove the veil of secrecy over the actions of the board and staff
- Allow members a reasonable process to remove unethical directors
- Promote the best and safest practices of cycling
- Protect the rights of cyclists
- Revive member services
Contact information
- 1612 K Street NW, Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006
- 202-822-1333 (phone), 202-822-1334 (fax)
External links
- LAB website (http://www.bikeleague.org/)
- Bicycle Friendly Communities (http://www.bicyclefriendlycommunity.org/), another LAB website
- LAB Reform website (http://www.labreform.org)