2025 National Bike Summit
From March 11-13, I had the pleasure of attending the League of American Bicyclists’ 2025 National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C. In addition to the inspirational plenaries, informative sessions and bountiful bike tours, Wisconsin representatives – including myself, and Robbie Webber, Jacob Bortell, and Alicia Bosscher of Madison Bikes – visited six legislative offices for Lobby Day.
On the first day of the Bike Summit, we received the great news that Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson co-sponsored the Sarah Langenkamp Active Transportation Act in the Senate. The bill had already received sponsorship from Representatives Fitzgerald, Van Orden and Steil in the House. It was nice to be able to share our thanks for supporting legislation that has real potential to prevent fatalities for people biking and walking.
Sarah Debbink Langenkamp was a U.S. diplomat and mother of two boys who had been evacuated from Ukraine in the summer of 2022 only to be killed weeks later while riding her bike home on a road in Bethesda, Maryland. Sarah grew up in Oconomowoc, WI and her family – including Alicia Bosscher who joined us for Lobby Day – have advocated tirelessly for this legislation for the past two years. .
This Langenkamp bill highlights the need to fill gaps in biking and walking networks and makes it easier for states and local governments to use Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) dollars as a “local match” to build safe bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure through HSIP and the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP).
The TAP program was also on our agenda. Transportation Alternatives (TA) is the only formula transportation program that is designed to fund local government priorities. In Wisconsin, it is one of the few sources of funding for bike paths and bike lanes, sidewalks and Safe Routes to School programming. US DOT Secretary Sean Duffy has indicated that projects that are state priorities – and not Federal priorities should not be funded by Federal funding.
TAP receives about 2% of the total funding the federal government allocates to transportation. States receive TA funding through the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and then administer the funding based on a competitive process. In Wisconsin, the following key education and infrastructure investments have been made with TAP funding.
Finally, our visit to Capitol Hill took on added urgency when an internal US DOT memo surfaced that included “bike infrastructure” as language that would subject a Federal project to additional review and potential rescission. This applies to Federal Discretionary funding that has only partially obligated grant agreements – as well as subsequent phases of projects that are already underway. For Wisconsin, this would include recent Safe Streets for All grants as well as key RAISE grants recently awarded to Milwaukee, Superior and Menomonie and Shawano Counties.
Wisconsin Bike Fed was honored to win the 2025 Advocacy Organization of the Year Award*, but we know that the best advocacy is local. Please join us in protecting these important sources of safety funding for Wisconsin.
*Bike Fed Honored as “Advocacy Organization of the Year”
We are so excited and proud that while Executive Director Kirsten Finn attended the League of American Bicyclists’ 2025 National Bike Summit in Washington DC, she was presented with the “Advocacy Organization of the Year” award!
According to the League’s blog announcing all awards, this award “goes to a bicycling and/or walking advocacy organization or club who, in the past year, made significant progress. Their leaders have worked tirelessly together to grow and strengthen their organization and fulfill their mission. The proof of their efforts is in the growth of their capacity, programs, membership and the victories they have achieved for biking and walking in their state/community. This award is about recognizing organizations that are inclusive, welcoming, and committed to growing bicycling.”
When asked how advocates can help shape the future, Kirsten shared, “In a time when the divide between opposing viewpoints is deeper than ever, maybe it’s through shared experience — like going on a bike ride — that we can find common ground.”
