Bike Fort Collins’ Vision: “For Fort Collins to be the Amsterdam of the U.S.”
Bike Fort Collins officially established this vision that it has for the City of Fort Collins back in early 2020, and formally introduced it in June of last year, in conjunction with bringing the movie Together We Cycle to town as part of the Bicycle Film Festival.
Our vision statement is specifically intended to conjure the image, reference the bicycle mode share that Amsterdam enjoys (as do many cities in the Netherlands for that matter), or the number of people who ride bikes relative to the population size, and simply reference the bicycle culture that they have established, as well as all the wonderful, safe, bicycle infrastructure that exists to support it all.
At Bike to Work Day in February of this year and continuing at this summer’s Bike to Work Day a couple of weeks ago, we began collecting names of those who subscribe to this vision. We posed the vision to people who stopped by our station (and others*) as follows:
“Our vision is for Fort Collins to be the Amsterdam of the U.S. Where every day is like today…with people riding bikes, or even more. Where bicycling isn’t part of the culture, it is the culture. Where bicycling is the preferred mode to get to work, school, or run errands. Where we need bike parking garages to accommodate all the bikes being ridden. Where using more direct bicycle infrastructure is faster than traveling by car. The list could go on. You get the picture? Do you share our vision?”
We’re proud to report that we have 436 names on the list as of right now. If you didn’t get a chance to sign it, watch for a future event where we have the sign-up sheet out so you get your name on the list.
*A special thanks to Jax Outdoor Gear, UC Health, Colorado State University, Mandala Muffins, and Glacier Creek Dental for their support in placing our sign-up sheet out at their Bike to Work Day stations this summer to help collect names.