Bike Everywhere Breakfast
Building A Bikeable Future
This morning I did something really scary….I had to get up in front of around 450 people (including some state senators) and make a speech at the Bike Everywhere Breakfast. It’s the most people I’ve ever had to address (and the only one where I got applause several times). We raised over $185,000 today!
Here’s my speech:
My name is Anita Elder, a Cascade Bicycle Club member and volunteer. I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to help support Cascade’s vision of a bikeable future. This morning, we’ve heard a lot about what a bikeable future looks like. I’m going to share what a bikeable future feels like to me.
Almost everyone in the room has a bikeable past. Mine started as a young girl in a rural town. My family wasn’t well-to-do, but they found a bright yellow banana seat bike for my birthday. I decorated it with squirrel tails from the game my father hunted to feed our family. I would ride that bike all over town and go on 20-mile rides with my Girl Scout troop along rural roads that had no bike lanes. I was never told to wear a helmet or taught how to ride safely.
After a bike crash that involved a lot of road rash and a wrecked bike, my family was too poor to buy me a new bike, so I didn’t ride again until I was in my 30s.
When I was in my 30s and active-duty Air Force, I was stationed in West Germany. I worked the night shift and my husband used the car during his day shift. I got a used bike to ride back and forth from base housing and work. I remember how riding to work cleared my head and put me in a good mood for the start of my shift.
When I was reassigned stateside, I gave the bike away before I left. Life happened…marriage, children, relocations, divorce. I didn’t think about riding again. It was too expensive to get a bike for myself and my kids because the military doesn’t pay very well.
While in the Air Force, I tore my ACL which resulted in a slow decline of my health. Eventually, both knees got so bad that any amount of walking or standing was agony. After three decades of pain, I had the knees replaced.
By 2017 I was hiking. I tried riding a bike again and was able to ride around Green Lake, but the hill back home was too much for me and I wasn’t having fun. That used bike languished in the garage for several years before I sold it.
My bike past was freedom at the cost of safety.
My bikeable present started in 2020 with the start of Covid and contracting it while hiking in Tasmania. Back home, I decided to stop hiking because the trails were too crowded and I was afraid of getting infected again. E-bikes looked attractive since Seattle is so hilly. After a lifetime of tight budgets, it was a risk to spend money on an e-bike, but I need to do something to stay active. After some research, I found an affordable e-bike and started riding on the Burke-Gilman and Interurban North trails. I didn’t feel safe riding on city streets by myself. Then I remembered about Cascade Bicycle Club. I joined right away and hoped to find a community like I had had with hiking.
As a new and unsure rider, Cascade’s free group rides were a godsend! I was worried people might judge me for riding an ebike, but I discovered everyone was so welcoming and supportive! I looked forward to riding with my new friends every week. I felt safer, it cleared my head, and for a short while I was that little girl on her banana seat bike again.
The following year, I rode my first Cascade event, the Lake Chelan Tour Lite, 150 miles over three days. I had so much fun that I started riding in more and more events. This year, I’m training for my first STP in July! Through all this biking, I have gotten healthier and have even been able to get off of insulin for the first time in over 20 years!
I mentioned that I am a volunteer with Cascade. I also make a monthly donation to support the organization I have grown to love like a second family. I want to support a club that does so much in getting kids on bikes, like teaching them to ride with the Let’s Go program and getting laws passed to make it safer to ride. As a grandmother, it is important to me that my grandkids have safe places to ride and have a better biking future than my biking past
So, what does my bikeable future look like? It looks like a bikeable community of diversity, accessibility, and inclusion. It feels like a community of healthy bodies. It smells like fresh, unpolluted air. And, it sounds like the laughter of a thousand children on their bikes riding safely through their communities.
In a moment, you’ll have the chance to raise your paddle and make that future a reality. Connecting with Cascade has shown me how great a bikeable future can feel. It can do the same for you. That’s why I encourage you to support Cascade and make a donation today!
