Meg Lazaros is an organizer of the Beacon Bicycle Coalition.
What is the Beacon Bicycle Coalition?
We’re a group of Beaconites who love to ride bikes for transportation, recreation and as an alternative to using a car. The mission is to create safe, accessible and fun biking opportunities within the city while building community.
How did the coalition come together?
In March, I participated in a Community Quarterly, one of the City Council forums where residents can bring ideas that they think would help improve the city. I proposed that Beacon commit to a timeline for a citywide bike plan. It received the second-most votes of the ideas that were brought forward, so I was assigned a council member, Wren Longno, who has been mentoring me about how to move it forward.
I got together with a small group of people who expressed interest, all avid bikers concerned about safety and biking in the city. We all have some background in organizing, so we decided that the best path would be to create something outside of government that’s more based in people power. We started in September, and we’re at 50-plus members. The hope is that if we become too big to ignore, the city will see that many residents feel strongly about this. Our members run the gamut from families, parents and kids. There are people who have lived in Beacon for decades and people who just moved here.
What would a citywide plan entail?
The goal is to have the city commit to a bike plan and potentially bike paths throughout Beacon. We want to make sure the city feels accessible to everybody, and that it feels safe for everybody, of all ages, to ride. My daughter should be able to grow up riding to school. Another goal is to make sure that Beacon has a culture of biking around it. I often talk about how I biked to work every day when I lived in New York City. It was terrifying, but in some ways it was not as terrifying as it is up here, because people there know to look out for bikers. It’s part of the culture.
We also want to find other people who are enthusiastic about this and connect them through things like regular bike rides. The rides are really fun because we’re able to bike in numbers, which feels safer, but also to make stops along the way and talk about our experiences. It’s a way for everybody to have input on how we can improve biking in Beacon.
How can someone get involved?
We’re on Instagram @beacon.bicycle.coalition. We’re also going to be at Taproots, the free community festival at The Yard, on Saturday (Nov. 4) with a table from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. We’re aware that the City Council is considering a zoning revision for a stretch of Fishkill Avenue, so we’re creating a petition to urge the city to conduct a study on how to plan and design those roadways, not only with motorists in mind, but for the safety and accessibility of bicyclists and pedestrians, as well. That would be such a good opportunity for Beacon to become a leader in biking infrastructure. It’s a win all around.
When did you start biking?
When I was a kid, I was the last person on the block to learn to ride a bike. Even the mailman tried to help me. I grew up in the Bronx, so once I learned, biking became crucial for me. In the last eight years, I’ve been involved with environmental groups, and I feel like biking is one component of the future that makes so much sense. Whether that’s electric bikes or some combination of e-bikes and regular bikes, it is so important for everyone to see that as a mode of transportation. About 60 percent of car rides are less than 3 miles
