National Bike Summit Features Bike Share

Shared mobility has become central to the future of biking across North America. The BBSP Living Labs shared that perspective at this year’s bike summit.

For a long time, discussions about bike advocacy mainly centered on infrastructure and riders’ personal experiences. While these are important parts of the conversation and movement to improve bicycling, bike share has become one of the most effective ways to help more people see biking as an everyday transportation option. Advocacy efforts focused on funding, implementing, and sustaining bike share systems results in positive outcomes for all people who ride bikes.

In this spirit, The Better Bike Share Partnership’s Living Labs were grateful to take the stage alongside the North American Bikeshare and Scootershare Association (NABSA) for a session at the League of American Bicyclists National Bike Summit in Washington, D.C., last week.

“Shared micromobility introduces people to cycling who might never have picked up a personal bike. By including shared micromobility in the discussion at the National Bike Summit, we can bring those riders and operators further into the bike advocacy movement,” says Shannon MacLeod, NABSA advocacy and government affairs director.

In the session, “Who Gets to Ride? How Local Bike Share Programs Are Building Equitable Shared Mobility,” our Living Lab cities — Los Angeles, Tucson, Pittsburgh, and Philadelphia — with grantees Brother Lloyd, Eli Akira Kaufman, Lane Santa Cruz, Lor Song, and Waffiyyah Murray, focused on answering that important question. How can bike share advocacy better align to make America more bikeable and livable for everyone?

“The session highlighted the importance of strengthening connections between bike advocates and shared micromobility experts,” says Murray. “Building these relationships is critical to advancing our work and growing ridership for active transportation overall. It was especially impactful to hear how each BBSP Living Lab city is prioritizing equity, access, and mobility justice in their programs. Having Shannon from NABSA there to speak to the broader context of shared micromobility and its reach across North America added a valuable perspective. It reinforced the significance of this work at a larger scale.”

This conversation is necessary to the broader conversation around bike advocacy, with attendees staying after to keep it going.

“From our perspective in Los Angeles, bike share plays a critical role in expanding who gets to ride,” says Kaufman, executive director of BikeLA. “Many people in our communities may not own a bike, may not have space to store one, or may simply want a flexible option that connects them to transit, work, or neighborhood trips. Shared systems make biking more accessible, and when they’re paired with community outreach, education, and partnerships, they can open the door for entirely new groups of riders.”

By sharing this conversation at the Bike Summit, we help link the national bike advocacy movement with the rise of shared micromobility, shaping how the next generation of commuters and recreational riders will experience biking. It’s a reminder that building a bike-friendly future isn’t just about infrastructure. It’s about creating systems that make it easy for everyone to access a bike and reimagine what a biking community looks like.

Stay tuned for the release of our Living Lab impact reports coming out in May!