2025 Quarter 1 Newsletter
National Bike Summit
Advocates from across the state joined Bike Walk Tennessee in participating in the National Bike Summit in March, hosted by the League of American Bicyclists. The Summit offers an opportunity to network with other advocates from across the nation, and learn more about the latest developments in policy, infrastructure, and educational programs across the United States. Additionally, participants meet with members of Congress and their staff to discuss advocacy priorities. This year, the delegation met with the offices of Senator Hagerty, Senator Blackburn, and several Representatives. We are grateful to each of these offices for their time, and look forward to continuing to work with them on making Tennessee a great place to walk and bike. We would especially like to thank Senator Hagerty for cosponsoring the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Safety Transportation Act, a legislative priority which would expand access to federal funding opportunities for local governments to improve roadway safety for bicyclists and pedestrians.
Tennessee Bike Walk Summit
Bike Walk Tennessee is thrilled to announce that the annual Tennessee Bike Walk Summit will be hosted in Chattanooga this year! We are excited to continue visiting communities across the state with this amazing event, which brings together cyclists and pedestrians, advocates, planners, engineers, and elected officials from across the state to share resources and best practices related to bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, funding, education, outreach, and policy. Follow us on social media and be sure to check back with us soon for dates and more details!
Committees
Brentwood
Bike Walk Brentwood and the League of Women Voters of Williamson County are hosting a forum with candidates for the upcoming May election of the Brentwood City Commission. All five candidates have been invited, representing each seat that is up for election in this election cycle.
The event will be held on Wednesday April 2, 2025, at the John P. Holt Brentwood Library, located at 8109 Concord Road, Brentwood, TN. The doors open at 5:30 PM, and the forum will officially begin at 6:00 PM. This event is free and open to the public, providing a vital platform for residents to hear directly from candidates running City of Brentwood municipal election. Election day is May 6, so we hope you’ll join us to learn more about the candidates before making your voice heard!
City of Brentwood Municipal Election Information
Chattanooga
White Oak Bicycle Co-op and the City of Red Bank have opened the region’s first Traffic Garden. A traffic garden is a miniature streetscape meant to mimic real world traffic situations, scaled down for children. After visiting Gallatin’s “Pedal Park” located within Miracle Park, Kat Volzer, Director of Programming for White Oak Bicycle Co-op, has been advocating for traffic gardens in the Chattanooga region. The grand opening of the traffic garden will be hosted on Wednesday, April 7, and will feature a bicycle rodeo.
In other exciting news, the City of Chattanooga and White Oak Bicycle Co-Op have signed an MOU, and White Oak Bicycle Co-op will be installing a traffic garden in the City of Chattanooga at the South Chattanooga Community Center in early summer.
Cleveland
Community Education
Bike Walk Cleveland continues our work to promote walking and cycling in Cleveland and Bradley county. We met in March with the local housing coalition and spoke about how biking and walking are great options for families to be able to save money that is currently spent on car payments, insurance, gas, and maintenance. The health, economic, and environmental impacts are obvious, but the change in personal motor vehicle mindset is hard to fight against. We asked to partner more with schools and community groups to further educate everyone on the benefits of cycling and walking.
Cleveland Circuit Ride
Bike Walk Cleveland is thrilled to launch our summer ride series this week! We offer beginner rides suitable for all skill levels and will be preparing for the Cleveland Circuit Ride this fall.
Warm Wishes
We’re also excited to see everyone enjoying the greenway and cycling around the city. This is a fantastic season for commuting to both work and school!
Franklin
Advocacy
Bike Walk Franklin spoke up to protect a crosswalk in the city’s historic core that was in danger of being removed during an intersection redesign. Traffic engineers are making the car lane a right-turn-only, and believed a pedestrian signal would cause significant delay if right-turning traffic had to stop. Advocates spoke in front of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and argued that pedestrian access is essential in our 225-year-old city. Banning pedestrians from crossing that side of the street would send each person on a 3-minute detour to instead navigate the other three sides of the busy intersection. City Aldermen echoed our concerns during discussion, and the crosswalk was reinstated in the design.
Education
With Bike and Roll to School Day coming up in May, our partners at the Williamson County Health Department wanted to make sure kids know how to be safe around traffic. We worked with the elementary school health educators to record a video covering basic things like wearing a helmet, stopping at intersections, and waiting for traffic signals. The clips will be used in Franklin Special Schools later this year. You can watch the finished video here: How to Stay Safe on Bicycles!
Planning
Bike Walk Franklin was invited to a stakeholder meeting as part of the city’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant process. We were encouraged to learn 53% of respondents listed walking or biking as a mode of travel they use in the city. The majority of crashes in Franklin occur on a handful of busy arterial roads and this “High Injury Crash Network” will be the focus of an action plan under the SS4A program. The city will pursue additional grants to build out safety improvements for both motorized and non-motorized road users. We look forward to seeing what areas will be targeted for upgrades.
Knoxville
Bicycle/Pedestrian Friendly Driver Education
Bike Walk Knoxville has been focused on providing our Bicycle/Pedestrian Friendly Driver program to a wide range of audiences, including students at Hardin Valley Academy and cadets at the Knoxville Police Department. The program provides drivers with everything they need to share the road safely with active transportation users, increasing knowledge and awareness about laws, infrastructure, and best practices for drivers sharing the roadway with cyclists, pedestrians, and more. We look forward to continuing to share this important information with our community through the support of a grant from the Tennessee Highway Safety Office.
Open Streets Knoxville
With a heavy heart, Bike Walk Knoxville announced the cancellation of Open Streets Knoxville 2025. Due to unforeseen complications and challenges beyond our control, the event is no longer feasible for our organization to host this year. We are so grateful to all our wonderful community partners for their support of this event, and look forward to bringing fun back to Knoxville’s streets in 2026.
Social Hour
Bike Walk Knoxville looks forward to hosting our next social hour at Gypsy Circus on Wednesday, April 2 from 6 to 8 pm to update our community on the latest about biking and walking around our city and hear from community members about priorities for improving active transportation!
Check out the event on Facebook!
Support Our Work!
We rely on your donations to support all that we accomplish across Tennessee. We have a small staff and a grand vision. Help Tennessee realize the social, economic, health, and environmental benefits of bicycle and pedestrian friendly communities by supporting Bike Walk Tennessee. You can support our work by donating to Bike Walk Tennessee or directly to any of our regional subcommittees!
Brentwood || Chattanooga || Cleveland || Franklin || Knoxville