{"id":3619,"date":"2013-11-11T22:54:56","date_gmt":"2013-11-11T22:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lbpost.com\/articles\/life\/long-beach-s-women-on-bikes-socal-expands-into-statewide-pedal-love-initiative\/"},"modified":"2013-11-11T22:54:56","modified_gmt":"2013-11-11T22:54:56","slug":"long-beach-s-women-on-bikes-socal-expands-into-statewide-pedal-love-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/long-beach-s-women-on-bikes-socal-expands-into-statewide-pedal-love-initiative","title":{"rendered":"Long Beach’s Women on Bikes SoCal Expands Into Statewide Pedal Love Initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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Melissa Balmer with her bike in Long Beach. Photo by Lisa Beth Anderson<\/em><\/p>\n

Melissa Balmer hadn\u2019t been on a bike in 30 years. She gave up her car because she lives in one of Long Beach\u2019s most parking-impacted neighborhoods, but never considered replacing her bus trips and walks with a bicycle.<\/p>\n

When a friend first suggested she try getting around on two wheels instead, Balmer, like most women, was worried about beginning a life by bike when she knew she was unable to adhere to all the intense images of urban cycling in the media.<\/p>\n

Do I have to wear Lycra? How do I find a stylish helmet? What if I don\u2019t want a sport bike? Can I still walk to work if I feel like it?<\/i><\/p>\n

By the time Balmer finally took the plunge and bought her own steed, Long Beach was months deep into its mission to become the most bike-friendly city in the country, motivating the former fashion PR consultant to find new ways to share her style-conscious, lifestyle-oriented take on bicycle advocacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t only be promoting helmets because then everyone thinks it\u2019s a sport and we can\u2019t say, \u2018Ride a bike if you\u2019re only interested in being hardcore and using it to and from work every day,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m interested in the person who wants to ride a bike any way that works for them as long as its safe and not hurting other people. And women take a longer time to decide these things.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In September 2011, Balmer connected with the nonprofit Bikeable Communities and launched the Women on Bikes SoCal<\/a> project, a Long Beach-based website where she and a team of writers and photographers engaged with its audience through storytelling on female-centric issues from how to shop for a bike if you are petite to ways to transport children without a car.<\/p>\n

Last week at the California Bicycle Coalition\u2019s California by Bike Summit, it was announced that Women on Bikes SoCal is expanding to become the Women on Bikes California initiative, a new project that aims to mainstream the bicycle through storytelling and advocacy as a way to help the CBC achieve its goal to triple the number of people on bicycles by 2020.<\/p>\n

The new, California-wide website is called Pedal Love<\/a> and the plan is to add to the previous work done locally with video narratives that will showcase people across the country\u2019s most populous state who are incorporating the bicycle into their lives in a variety of ways. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere is just a lot of power in personally engaging stories,\u201d says Balmer, the new Initiative Director of Women on Bikes California. \u201cOrdinary people are making extraordinary changes to their lives by bike and we think that getting these lifestyle stories beautifully crafted in a way we can hand to the media and to people is so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with Women on Bikes SoCal, there is a training element embedded in Balmer\u2019s latest project. While she previously raised money to give 10 women scholarships to become Certified Bicycle Instructors, Women on Bikes California will train 100 people (both men and women) in multimedia and video storytelling so that they can help capture more stories and become ambassadors for the movement.<\/p>\n

An Indiegogo campaign<\/a> has been launched for Pedal Love in the hopes of raising $10,000 for these trainings. Money will also go towards polishing off the website, increasing content and photography and finishing the first Pedal Love video, which will feature North Long Beach resident Kellie Morris, who regained her health and wellness by adopting an active, bike-infused life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith this new initiative, we want to have a beautiful website and do great videos that will engage people on an emotional and visceral level,\u201d Balmer says. \u201cWe want to move away from just having bike stories being about crash data and streets to the bike as a fashion darling. Then, the bike\u2019s not just the must-have item, but you get these wonderful diverse stories behind them too.\u201d<\/p>\n