One Street News

November-December 2016

Vol. 9, Issue 4 

1. Ideas Needed for New Kind Communities Program
2. Resources – Barcelona’s Superblocks
3. Hot Topics – Bike Helmets Cannot Prevent Brain Injuries

Ideas Needed for New Kind Communities Program

There’s something special about this time of year. Strangers greet us as we walk past, people go out of their way to help each other, and there’s a sense that most people are looking for ways to help others. The last month of the year. We all love it. So what happens to us the other eleven months?

One Street will embark on a new program in 2017 to seek out places where people care about each other all year, where decision makers prioritize people above grandiose projects and profits. You may ask what this has to do with our mission of serving leaders of bicycle organizations. The answer: Bicycles alert communities as canaries alerted miners. In places where people care about each other, anyone—no matter their age, ability, or income level—can ride a bike anywhere and anytime they like. If this is not the case, there is something terribly wrong.

This new program, with the working title of Kind Communities, will focus some of our time and effort in a different direction from our support of bicycle-specific programs and campaigns, which of course we will continue. Instead, this program will research places where most people already ride bikes—neighborhoods, villages, whole cities. We will then develop resources and networks to help leaders of bicycle organization reach this ideal more directly through community-wide shifts.

We need your input as we initiate the first steps of this program. First, please read more about it in our recent post on our Cures for Ailing Organizations blog. Then email your ideas and suggestions to sue{at}onestreet.org (or use the comments section on the blog). We’ll appreciate any suggestions, from a better program name to links to kind places that we can add to our research list. Thanks in advance! May this kind and caring holiday season inspire all of us to expect more.

Resources – Barcelona’s Superblocks

Barcelona seems to be a candidate for our new Kind Communities program as they implement their superblocks initiative to win back their streets for people. Read more under Inspirations on our home page at www.OneStreet.org .

Hot Topics – Bike Helmets Cannot Prevent Brain Injuries

Far too many people who promote bicycle helmets believe that they protect a rider’s brain. This misconception fuels overzealous bike helmet messages that undermine efforts to increase bicycling. Read more about this on the Bike Helmet Blog.