National Youth Bike Summit Builds the Movement for Better Biking
This post was created in collaboration with the National Youth Bike Council and Youth Bike Summit.
On June 14 through 16, more than 200 advocates attended the annual National Youth Bike Summit held at Muhlenberg College in Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. Youth attendees ranging in age from 13 to 24 years old participated in and presented at workshops and group rides.
Two attendees, Zoe F, 23, from Boston, and Lot M, 21, from Philadelphia — both members of the National Youth Bike Council — shared their reflections on the experience. Their answers have been lightly edited.
What is the Youth Bike Summit to you?
Lot: The technical answer is that the Youth Bike Summit is an annual three-day conference with a plethora of organizations collaborating to celebrate youth from all over the world. This is done through a variety of events such as presentations, workshops, bike rides, and game nights.
However, the Youth Bike Summit to me is that and so much more. If I had to describe it in one word, I would say that it is an experience. It’s a chance to experience numerous people coming together as a community to celebrate youth and cycling. I’ve been to the Youth Bike Summit at least four times now, and I confidently say that I enjoyed myself each and every time.
Zoe: The YBS is a place where young people, regardless of the cycling experience they currently have, can meet up and talk about the issues they see in their communities. It allows people who wouldn’t communicate otherwise to come together to discuss ideas, successes, and resources. It is also just a time to have fun and grow the global cycling movement.
Did the Youth Bike Summit offer you any “first” moments?
Zoe: The first time I ever ran a workshop was at the 2019 YBS. Before that, the closest I had ever come to that were group presentations in school. Running a workshop did require a little more involvement, planning, and finding out ways to engage a crowd. I had also never spoken in front of so many adults before who were looking to me for knowledge, so that helped build a lot of confidence in me.
Lot: Yes! I had the opportunity to be on stage and talk on a youth panel for the first time ever. I don’t feel the most confident with public speaking since I don’t do it frequently enough. However, I was surrounded by other youth with stories to tell, and the speakers before I spoke empowered me to bring high energy as well. On a side note, I am pursuing a career of content creation, so I challenged myself to hype the crowd up, and I believe I was successful in my attempt.
Tell me about your favorite session at the Youth Bike Summit.
Lot: My favorite session at the Youth Bike Summit was the session called “Bike n’ Boat.”
I had the pleasure of chaperoning Aritra, preferred name Ari, for this workshop. He was in attendance with a group called Phoenix Bikes based in Arlington, Virginia. The Bike n’ Boat workshop, as the name implies, involved cycling and canoeing. This was the second time I’ve ever been canoeing, and it was a great experience.
The participants first took a bus from the college to the site where the canoeing staff were. They explained to us the background history of the organization and the rules of the ride before we began riding. The trail we rode on was nice and chill, and the weather was decent, so the ride was overall enjoyable.
Then we had the canoeing part. It took a moment for all of us to get into our canoes, and we had a brief grace period where we practiced canoeing. I was in a canoe with Ari as I was his chaperone during the workshop. I was definitely nervous every now and then during the canoe portion, since it was my second time canoeing and Ari’s first time ever canoeing. Though there were rocky moments and a few light crashes, we never went overboard. It was a great time overall — definitely my favorite session! Shoutout to Ari from Phoenix Bikes!
Zoe: This year I got to see the Camp Spokes “Shred Into Tomorrow” workshop. I had heard of Camp Spokes and Groundwork RVA before from the National Bike Summit, so it was really exciting to see them here. They had a photo album that showed what the camp was like and what youth get to do there. It looked so fun and made me wish I had something like that when I was in high school!
What was the most fun part of the Summit?
Zoe: Definitely the big ride on the last day. I have never biked through a city like that (with so many people, roads shut down, escorts). It was super cool, and the weather was awesome. I really liked that we got to bike not only on city streets but also on the Delaware & Lehigh trail. We biked along the river and tracks, so the scenery was amazing. At some point, we were stuck at a rest stop waiting for part of the group to catch up, and some people put on a wheelie show to watch. It was just a really fun experience all around.
Lot: The most fun part of the summit was interacting with other people from multiple organizations. It was amazing to see people of varying ages show up and show out. It always warms my heart to see people work together for a common cause.
What role did you play in the Youth Bike Summit?
Lot: As a member of the National Youth Bike Council, I was one of the leaders. I served as a presenter, youth panelist speaker, chaperone, and participant during the three days.
Zoe: I came as an attendee and ran one workshop with the National Youth Bike Council. I was mostly there to have fun, of course, but also to network and try to recruit people for the council. We are looking for more youth interested in advocacy to join (check us out if you’re interested!).
What would you like to see at future Youth Bike Summits — any and all wishes?
Zoe: I loved everything about this summit. If there was one thing that could be improved in the future is more time for workshops! I got to see some of the ones I wanted to, but since there were so many per time slot, I just couldn’t make it to all of them. Honestly, every workshop sounded awesome, and if there could be a way for attendees to see all the workshops or recordings of them in the future, that would be great!
Lot: What I would like to see is a more creative way for people to attend multiple workshops within the day. I was only able to attend one workshop and present on Saturday. There were plenty of workshops I wanted to visit, and I feel as if that could’ve been possible if the times of the workshops were different. Also, I would’ve liked to have more time to prepare for the Youth Panel. Furthermore, there were some technical difficulties that caused my presenting group to have to move rooms. The room we were told to move to was difficult to find, which was partially the reason we didn’t have as much traction for our presentation. Besides that, the Youth Bike Summit of 2024 was truly a wonderful experience!
Kudos to the National Youth Bike Council for organizing this fantastic event and for giving us a report back. Next year’s National Youth Bike Summit will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, May 30 to June 1, 2025. The Summit welcomes participants of all ages who want to support the youth bike movement.
