On April 19, the cofounders of Bikeout, Amanda Crawford-Staub and Brian Kirk, made a special announcement: after a two-year hiatus, the Philadelphia-based bicycle adventure company would transfer its operations to the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
Since 2016, Bikeout has introduced people to bicycle travel through events and guides, hosting more than 1,000 people on long-distance overnight trips in the Philly region. Maybe you participated in Bikeout’s flagship annual event, the Schuylkill River Trail Ride, or used one of Bikeout’s digital curated self-guided trips, like “Outdoor Escape Inside the Lehigh Gorge.” Whether through high quality events or impeccably curated guides, Bikeout prioritized those new to bike adventures, offering services, education, and support that reduced the many barriers to bike travel common to any urban environment. By doing so, Bikeout built a strong and loyal community of participants, ride leaders, event crew, bike shops, and local businesses.
PEC intends to carry forward this mission and to grow the Bikeout community by focusing on offering events and programming that specifically welcome new riders to their local trails. Through Bikeout, PEC plans to host a wide variety of riders, welcoming people of all backgrounds, experience levels, and identities to get on their local trail, experience a bicycle adventure, and make the trail their own. PEC hopes to partner with community-based organizations to ensure that anyone and everyone feels safe and welcome to join these low-barrier, low-stakes, and easygoing rides.
For more than ten years, PEC has advocated for and supported the development of the Circuit Trails network – from securing federal funding for the system’s first miles of multi-use trails to co-leading the 60+ organizations that now comprise the Circuit Trails Coalition. In that time the Circuit has grown to more than 350 miles of multi-use trails throughout nine counties in Greater Philadelphia.
PEC intends to carry forward this mission and to grow the Bikeout community by focusing on offering events and programming that specifically welcome new riders to their local trails.
PEC recognizes, though, that if you build it, not ALL people will come. Research commissioned by the Circuit Trails Coalition’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Task Force in 2020 found that many people who live near a Circuit Trail do not actually feel comfortable, safe, or welcome on their local trail. PEC and the Circuit Trails Coalition are committed to addressing this over the next three years (and beyond), particularly through enticing and relevant programming, partnership with local organizations, art and signage, improved access to trails, and more.
We deeply appreciate the effort and passion the entire Bikeout team put into building such a well-loved event and community as well as the time and energy both Brian and Amanda put into transferring their program model and knowledge to PEC.
We at PEC are thrilled to take over Bikeout programming and to continue Bikeout’s original mission — to empower people to travel by bike, particularly on the hundreds of miles of local trails right here in the Greater Philadelphia region.
Stay tuned for programming to kick off in 2023!