I attended the first Bike Summit to be held in Lexington, KY on Friday and thought the format and the people it was able to attract made it a worthwhile event that other campuses could potentially benefit from. The stated goal of the summit was to, "...bring together citizens and government and community leaders to develop an aggressive action plan to make Lexington the most bicycle friendly city in Kentucky and a world class destination for bicycling." Lexington has a Master Bike/Pedestrian Plan that is yet to be adopted by the city council.

Held on the campus of the University of Kentucky, the summit featured opening remarks from Lexington's Mayor Jim Newberry and Robert Wiseman Vice President for Facilities Management at UK. Andy Clarke the Executive Director of the League of American Bicyclists also spoke in the morning announcing a Bicycle Friendly Communities "Bronze" award to the city of Lexington for initiatives and policies already in place to be bike friendly (the difference between Bronze and Gold is huge, however). The city of Davis in California was highlighted as being the only Platinum certified city in the country.

My favorite part of the day was hearing from Gil Penalosa (pictured below) who is now the Executive Director of Walk & Bike for Life but is well know for his work serving as Commissioner of Parks, Sport and Recreation for the city of Bogota, Columbia. His "car-free" Sundays program (shutting down 91 kilometers of the city on Sunday every week) dubbed the Ciclovia, in which over 1.5 million people come out to ride, walk, run and skate. The photos in his presentation were impressive and inspiring. He took the audience on a tour of programs in Columbia and across Europe, highlighting Danish bike programs and German traffic lights that sync with the speed of cyclists, not cars. He gave examples of different bicycle lane configurations and bicycle racks and the importance of having strong buy-in (or lots of pressure) on elected officials.

Modeled after summits held in places such as Portland, OR and Louisville, KY the Lexington Bike Summit was a great start to a larger discussion on how to make the city and University more accessible and friendly to bicycling.

As an aside, the University of Kentucky joined AASHE on Friday also, woohoo! Now, about signing the Presidents Climate Commitment...