Relevant news, updates, and encouragement from Ride Illinois to your inbox!
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Greetings
Thanks for your interest in Ride Illinois and our efforts to make Illinois better through biking! Individual contributions fund our important advocacy, education and awareness efforts. Learn about the ways you can support Ride Illinois at rideillinois.org/join-support.
Not sure of your Ride Illinois membership status? Click here to log into your account. Once you’re logged in, you also can check your status, view your giving history, plus update your profile.
Ride Illinois Summer Membership Appeal
As readers of this are aware, Ride Illinois works on behalf of adults and children in Illinois to make riding a bicycle safer and more accessible.Your membership matters! During our Summer Membership Appeal, we’re asking those who are not already members to support our important work by joining Ride Illinois for as little as $15. Your generous donation will fund our advocacy, education, and awareness efforts in 2024 and beyond. Click the button below to join today! Already a member? Please encourage your friends and family to join too!
And, we have an extra incentive! You can use (or encourage your friends, colleagues and family members to use) “PEDALPOWER” to receive a $5 discount on any membership!
Would you like to become more involved with Ride Illinois? We are currently seeking applications for committee members! In particular, we are looking for additional members for our Events & Programs Committee and our Fundraising & Membership Committee. Engaged, talented committee members who live in different areas of the state offer important input and perspective. For more information, including the application, click here.
Generosity
Affiliated Club News
Ride Illinois is grateful to the bicycle clubs that support our mission – through collaborations with us, helping us promote safety and education and through donations. Many thanks to the Bicycle Club of Lake County for their continued support of our work! Learn more about Affiliated Clubs & Community Organizations on our website.
The fourth annual Let’s Ride, Illinois event, begins next month! This year’s event is from Friday, September 6, 2024 through Sunday, September 22, 2024. We are inviting all of our members and supporters to organize a ride in their community. There are already 19 rides scheduled in Carpentersville, Chicago, Evanston, Hoffman Estates, Homewood, Libertyville, Urbana, Willow Springs and Yorkville! Find more information, including how to organize a ride, here.
Education & Safety
Upcoming League Certified Instructor Seminar
A League Certified Instructor (LCI) seminar will take place in Normal from Friday, October 4, 2024 through Sunday, October 6, 2024. League Cycling Instructors (LCIs) are able to teach a variety of bicycling courses to adults and kids, including our Ride Illinois Safely courses. Click here for reasons to become an LCI.
A prerequisite for the seminar is to successfully complete the Smart Cycling Traffic Skills 101 Course. The classroom portion can be completed online. The on-bike session of this course can be completed Saturday, September 7, 2024 in Urbana. Registration, and more information, can be found here.
Registration, and more information, on the October LCI seminar can be foundhere.
Advocates Respond to Recent Crashes in Skokie
After three people were killed by cars while walking and biking last month, the Skokie Bike Network is requesting several changes to be made to make the community safer for all modes of transportation. Recommendations include reducing the speed limit on all streets in the village and to establish a bike and pedestrian task force. More information on the requests and the collisions can be found here.
Environment & Awareness
Book Suggestion
Looking for a book to read? Check out Inclusive Transportation: A Manifesto for Repairing Divided Communities, by Veronica Davis. In the book, Davis discusses the inequitable and often destructive practice of transportation planning and engineering. She explains why centering people in transportation decisions requires a great shift in how transportation planners and engineers are trained, how they communicate, the kind of data they collect, and how they work as professional teams. Davis describes what “equity” means for a transportation project, which is central to changing how we approach and solve problems to create something safer, better, and more useful for all people.
What bike-related books do you recommend? From epic adventures to practical advice, to the benefits of biking, there are lots of books about bikes out there! Send your suggestions toinfo@rideIllinois.organd we may include it in a future newsletter.
Advocacy & Legislation
Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program Grant Applications
Applications for the Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program (ITEP) grants are due at the end of next month, on September 30, 2024. The Illinois Department of Transportation, the Active Transportation Alliance and the Illinois Public Health Institute are hosting a three-part webinar series with the next webinar scheduled for Wednesday, Aug. 21. Find more information, including a recording of the webinar that took place on July 10th, on the Active Transportation Alliance website.
Events Calendar
Ride Illinois helps to promote the organized rides of affiliated bike clubs and supporting organizations. Below are some events we think you will appreciate:
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