Neil Walker Shares The Power of The Bicycle

We spoke with Neil Walker, a League Cycling Instructor (LCI) and educator based in Pittsburgh, on the benefits of bike share.

Neil Walker’s passion for biking came when it changed the course of his life in his young adulthood. As a college basketball player, Walker experienced a serious knee injury that took him off the court. “I was watching the atrophy set in,” he says.

Thanks to a specialist who was a trainer for the New York Mets, Walker was introduced to the benefits of biking after not wanting to undergo another surgery. The trainer told him to ride his 10-speed bike for three months and come see him afterward.

“I rode the bike, and literally, it healed my knee,” says Walker. “I felt alive again. I was able to exercise again, and it reenergized me. It really gave me hope. I never went back to see that specialist, I never had the surgery, and I’ve been riding a bike ever since.”

Now, Walker is a League Cycling Instructor (LCI) and educator based in Pittsburgh who helps youth and adults discover the joys and benefits of cycling through his organization Cycles and Change. Walker was born and raised in Homewood, which is the neighborhood where POGOH is carrying out its Living Lab work. 

BBSP had the honor of meeting Neil last July during our Living Labs cohort retreat hosted by POGOH in Pittsburgh. We were moved by his story and his lifelong commitment to connecting others to the many benefits of bicycling. And as we heard from him, it’s not just about physical benefits. Neil knows from his years of experience that bicycling expands people’s worldview, particularly the worldview of young people. We agree.

Walker works with POGOH to lead “Learn to Ride” classes throughout Homewood, allowing him to go back to the neighborhood in which he grew up and share his love for biking.

“I’m able to identify and connect with people who look like me and maybe have never considered a bicycle as a means of transportation,” says Walker. “If you’re biking, then you can go to the store, you can go to the library, you can go places that previously you only figured you needed a car to get to.”

The lack of infrastructure to support shared micromobility is something that Walker notes as a challenge. There aren’t many trails or bike lanes, but the streets are wide and one-way, which can help with feeling safer while riding. Additionally, bike share may be the only option for many residents.

“The bus service in Homewood is very limited. So again, the bicycle becomes a means of transportation, not an Uber, which can be costly,” says Walker. “It becomes an alternative form of transportation, versus the bus or motor vehicle.”

Walker hopes to see a comprehensive plan to increase the number of bike lanes in the Homewood community, seeing it as the next iteration of how to improve and increase ridership in Homewood. Partnerships like those with The Promise Center of Homewood and Homewood’s YMCA have helped bring learn to ride classes to residents, but more visibility is necessary to change mindsets around what cycling can offer.

“With this upcoming season, I think the awareness of creating a bicycle culture through bicycling events is important,” says Walker. “The more that people see it, the more it becomes one of those things where people are curious and want to try it out. What POGOH is doing, in collaboration with Bike Pittsburgh, has really created a culture in Homewood that did not exist prior.”

Outside of Homewood, Walker leads seminars for the League of American Bicyclists, teaching other people to become instructors like himself, holding private lessons, or leading groups on multi-day, long-distance bike rides across the country. The programming is for all ages, too. He’s seen 10-year-olds to seniors who’ve been prescribed biking as a low-impact means for exercise and rehabilitation.  

“Cycles and Change allows me to step into a space and use my expertise to make sure that you’re understanding the right way to ride, the safe way to ride, and understand the language of bicycling. Things that are going to make it safe for you on a bicycle now that you are part of the transportation system,” says Walker. “Cycles and Change does exactly all of those things, whether it’s a private lesson or you take a class.”

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The Better Bike Share Partnership is funded by Freedom Together Foundation as a collaboration between the City of Philadelphia, the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), and the PeopleForBikes Foundation to build equitable and replicable bike share systems. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Have a question or a story idea? Email odochi@peopleforbikes.org.