Month: October 2025

Hiya! This is Nora, back with your October blog writing to you from Northern Ireland. While studying abroad I have gotten to learn so much about the world and other cultures. One night this month I was talking with my roommates and one of them asked me “what is a pedestrian advocate?” I realized that even though I identify what I do as pedestrian advocacy, I’ve never defined it outright. So that’s what I am dedicating this month’s blog to: what I mean by pedestrian advocacy!

I started using the term pedestrian advocate not for any real reason except that it made a nice acronym. I was a part of a club in high school that was formerly known as the Grady Pedestrian Safety Coalition, but when our school changed its name from Henry W. Grady high school we needed to change our club’s name. We came up with the Atlanta Students Advocating for Pedestrians or ASAP for short. From there we started identifying ourselves as pedestrian advocates.

Since our club was composed of students who walked, biked, skated, took public transportation, and drove and because we wanted to advocate on behalf of everyone. We are all pedestrians. So pedestrian advocacy relates to working to make the transportation environment outside of a car safer, pleasant, and more attractive to commuters. First and foremost we are trying to prevent deaths through initiatives such as the ghost bike project that we talked about in a previous blog or Vision Zero (working to achieve 0 traffic-related fatalities). We are also making sure that you are not having to walk next to four lanes of traffic or share the lane with cars who are going 50 mph. We also actively promote using alternatives to cars in your commutes.

Just like the people we advocate for, what we advocate and how we advocate also includes a lot more than those three missions. Transportation touches so many other fields such as environmental, equity, and health. Therefore when I say I am a pedestrian advocate I am advocating for the whole pedestrian. I advocate to ensure that schools in all income levels are safe for pedestrians. I advocate to promote better public transportation infrastructure to lower emissions and offer more affordable commuting options.

So what I mean when I say I am a pedestrian advocate is that I advocate for the safety of commuters. Safety of commuters in transportation includes a whole range of issues, which is why ASAP was advertised as an advocacy club for whatever you were passionate about.

How do you identify your advocacy? Do you define pedestrian advocacy another way? How do you explain your work in transportation to people who don’t work in this field? I’ll be waiting for your comments on Twitter, Instagram, or email (info@nybcouncil.com)!

In our recent blog we wrote about Joshua F stepping down and Daniel C stepping into the position as President of National Youth Bike Council. Now, it’s time to meet Daniel.

Daniel grew up riding bikes recreationally and around his neighborhood, but nothing more. Now, he commutes by bike almost every day and enjoys exploring new places by bike within the Atlanta Metro area whenever he has time.

Daniel was not always like this, before the Council, he hadn’t really done much related to bicycles. He spent practicing instruments for a marching band and playing video games. Then one day he got an e-bike and became a fan but it did not come without loss. Meaning, Daniel had lost his vehicle prior to getting his first e-bike, it was an unfortunate situation but also his entry point into discovering the freedom and struggles of bicycling. “Though I can’t go nearly as far now, I’ve been surprised by how far I’m actually able to go if I take the right routes.” This all happened about a year and a half after he entered college.

“As my interest in biking and transportation was starting to grow, I found the National Youth Bike Council,” Daniel recalls, “I don’t remember what the post was specifically, but I was intrigued about the organization behind it. After looking up this organization that I had never heard of before, I filled out an application.” And just like that, after a meeting with former president Joshua and the other council members, he became an active council member, representing Atlanta.

Since March of 2024, Daniel has connected with like-minded people who care about our nation’s transportation and the role that bicycles play in that. He attended the Youth Bike Summit this past summer and absolutely enjoyed meeting everyone who went and getting to experience being in Boston for the first time.

“I’m excited to see how alternate transportation modes continue to fill in the gaps that cars and planes have filled for decades, and how the next generation will lead these initiatives” says Daniel. Outside of biking, he is a student at Georgia Tech, an active member of the Navigators, an employee at our Campus Recreation Center, and an avid listener and player of music. His biggest accomplishment is biking to Stone Mountain from Georgia Tech, which he really enjoyed. In what spare time he has left, he likes to post about transportation topics, he recently started an instagram called Daniel Travels (@danieltravelsofficial). This social media brand will be dedicated to being an outlet for him to share information about different aspects of transportation and the ways in which they influence our lives, “I’m excited to see where this experiment will take me”.

As the new President of the National Youth Bike Council, Daniel expects to have a better view of all the initiatives taking place through NYBC, and the role that he and others can play in it. “Some would say I have big shoes to fill, but I think that I’m bringing a different pair of shoes to this position,” Daniel says, “as the NYBC continues to grow and evolve, I want to do what I can to guide it and those affected to a future where we continue to press on hand in hand to advocate for bikes in our neighborhoods, schools, and communities. And so I ask you, will you join me in this journey?”