The Show Fuels the NYC Bike Boom

By Paul Steely White Welcome to the New Amsterdam Bike Show! Biking is booming in our great city. And as you and I know, this is something to celebrate.  Bicycling makes our streets, our neighborhoods and our city more enjoyable. Every year for the past five years, bicycling has enjoyed double-digit growth. From the continued expansion of our bike lane network to the agreement announced last fall that will allow for the completion of the East River Greenway, more New Yorkers than ever before are biking for transportation, fun and well-being. Like no other mode of getting around, biking has the power to knit us together and make us happier. This bike boom is about to get a lot bigger. New York City will soon boast North America's largest public bike share system, making bicycling as much a part of our city's fabric as the crowded subway or the yellow cab. With 10,000 public bikes at hundreds of kiosks all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, more New Yorkers than ever before will discover all the joys and benefits of urban bicycling. These thousands of new bikers will also discover how much work still needs to be done to make bicycling safer and more accessible to all New Yorkers.  By being part of the New Amsterdam Bike Show, you are joining Transportation Alternatives in our growing effort to win more bike lanes, better designed bike lanes and paths and better enforcement of reckless driving. And, by coming to the New Amsterdam Bike Show and supporting the advocacy, organizing and promotional efforts of Transportation Alternatives, you are making sure that the bike share system expands to every corner of the city. Thank you for making this, the second annual New Amsterdam Bike Show, a celebration of all that bicycling has to offer our cities and ourselves.  Make some new friends, check out some great new exhibits and don't forget to fill your tank before you bike into the city sunset. (http://nypress.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/steeleSig.jpg)     Enjoy the show! Paul Steely White is executive director of Transportation Alternatives, the beneficiary organization of the 2012 New Amsterdam Bicycle Show.