In the days leading up to National Bike Month, thousands of supporters of local bike advocacy voted in the Xtracyle Cargo Bike Contest. It was a friendly (but tight!) competition and today we're delighted to announce the winner: Local Motion.

"For its small size, Vermont has a big heart, and we're delighted that so many friends rallied to join this competition,"  said Emily Boedecker, Executive Director, Local Motion. "Biking is an essential part of life for many who live here, for recreation and for transportation. With the Xtracycle cargo bike joining our fleet, we're excited to discover just what Vermonters, with their well-earned reputation for creativity and ingenuity, can do with it."    

So exactly how will the Vermont advocates put their new Edgerunner to creative use? Well, it fits right in to their effort to get more folks riding, even if their daily commute isn't feasible on two wheels.

"In a rural state like ours, peoples’ commutes to work are often 20 or more miles, which is too much for the average person to do by bike," Mary-Catherine Graziano, Local Motion's Outreach and Education Manager, explained in the group's submission. "With our Everyday Bicycling Project, we focus on giving people easy excuses to use their bicycles for the everyday trips they would usually make by car: to the grocery store, the post office, the park, or school.

"Families are one of the most important groups we want to draw into the Everyday Bicycling Project, since we see a very large drop-off in bicycling as transportation when people have children," she added. "We want to help people choose to ride, even when they have children — and cargo bikes make this possible! They can provide families with the capacity to ride safely and are essential for larger jobs like grocery shopping."

But, as Local Motion points out, very few folks have the opportunity to try out a cargo bike in the context of their everyday lives. So, with an Edgerunner at the ready, the advocates are eager to not only show the benefits but share the experience with local residents and families. 

"Located on the Burlington bike path, Local Motion operates a thriving bicycle rental center, with more than 10,000 visitors a year," Graziano added. "We'll make the cargo bike available for any local resident to borrow for free, and we are going to publicize the heck out it — with workshops, e-blasts, on-street engagement, quick 15-minute mini-workshops, flags, balloons and general hullabaloo. Cargo bikes are unusual enough that most people haven’t even seen a cargo bike, much less ridden one. Our vision for the cargo bike is to provide opportunities for people to try it out at home for a few days. While bike shops will let you try out a bike, no shop will let you try it out for free for several days. We want to give people that opportunity, and allow them time to fall in love with the bike. In return, we’ll ask people to do at least one social media post about their life by cargo bike."  

We're excited to see those social media posts — and so are the folks at Xtracycle.

"We're delighted to support bicycle advocacy organizations working to make riding a bike safer and more accessible for everyone," said Evan Lovett-Harris at Xtracycle. "Thank you to Bike Houston, Community Cycles, Wisconsin Bike Fed, and Bike Walk Montana for rallying your supporters to win an Xtracycle EdgeRunner cargo bike. And congratulations to Local Motion for winning. We're so glad they're going to give local residents the opportunity to borrow it for free!"

Follow Local Motion at facebook.com/localmotionvt and twitter.com/localmotionvt to see how they put their new resource to use. And learn more about Xtracycle at www.xtracycle.com.