OUR COMMITMENT TO FIGHTING RACIAL INJUSTICE: NEXT STEPS + ACTION PLAN
In early June we shared our first action plan to fight racial injustice both within the bike industry and at large. We know that bikes won’t solve racism in America, but we do know that in order to help solve the bigger issue, we can start with where we have the most influence. We identified a need to better communicate why this work is not only the right thing to do, but is also vital to the future of bike riding, the bike industry and bike advocacy.
Fighting racial injustice connects to the very core of PeopleForBikes’ mission — to make biking better for everyone. The development of equitable access for all to safe bike networks that connect to jobs, education and other essential services can enhance opportunities, increase social and mobility justice and build better communities. Breaking down the barriers that prevent BIPOC from riding is a bigger challenge than just building safe places to ride. Sadly, for many, bike safety means more than just worrying about cars — it includes the fear of racial profiling, assault, or worse. Working with our partners on the federal level, in local government, the bike industry, bikeshare and transportation and recreation advocates, we have a wide reach. We can only all move forward when biking is made better for everyone.
As part of our commitment to making progress today, tomorrow and into the future, we want to update you on our work so far. In the past seven weeks, we:
Initiated an equity audit, beginning with a self-assessed audit to be followed by a third party audit and strategic plan to operationalize equity within our organization.
Completed a staff survey to benchmark and understand our collective strengths and weaknesses and inform future anti-racism staff training.
Issued an industry-wide survey to understand how we can best support a more just, representative and equitable bicycle industry.
Started to organize an industry member subcommittee dedicated to diversity, equity and inclusion within the bike industry.
Implemented new hiring guidelines following best practices with the goal of increasing staff diversity. All future hiring will follow these guidelines and we will evaluate their efficacy over time.
Identified key areas for our research and data analysis programs to better support mobility justice. As a first step, we revised our survey questions to enhance our understanding of how safe people feel while riding a bike.
Reached out to potential partners who can help us expand our imagery to better reflect all kinds of bicyclists riding all kinds of bikes.
While we met most of the initial benchmarks we set for ourselves, we recognize that, like a lot of our work, there is no “finish line” to combating racial injustice. It requires a constant and consistent effort, learning from our mistakes, listening to others and working together for lasting change. We’re dedicated to weaving these efforts into the fabric of our organization and we know that our actions will speak louder than our words.
There is still a lot of work to be done.
Here are our next steps:
We will hire a third party equity audit firm to work with staff, board and partners to develop a long term strategy to operationalize equity.
We will invest in anti-racist and DEI training for staff and board.
We will use our benchmarking survey for staff and the industry to guide how we can support anti-racism and mobility justice work internally and across our partners.
We will create a DEI Advisory Committee of industry stakeholders to provide space to listen, learn and take action.
We will invest in our marketing and communications to better reflect and amplify the voices of Black Americans and BIPOC communities.
We will use our collective power to elevate and amplify the voices and actions of leaders already in this space and recognize when we need to let them take the reigns and use our influence to support their critical work.
TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE BIKING, AND THE WORLD, BETTER.
We will update you again on these next steps November 1. Thank you for supporting PeopleForBikes’ anti-racism and mobility justice work.
