WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
A group in Chicago is working in predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods to increase use of bicycles or electric vehicles, including e-bikes. Financial incentives, education about the benefits of changing commuting modes and advocating for infrastructure improvements like bike lanes are part of its approach.
Biking within Black and brown communities is complicated.
While non-motorized transportation is an important tactic for reducing emissions, many people still associate biking with something that kids do — or think of it as the last resort for people who can’t afford cars.
In communities of Black people, indigenous people and other people of color (BIPOC), that is compounded by external factors such as perceived or realistic safety issues, police ticketing of bikers at times and lack of access and infrastructure due to decades of disinvestment.
Olatunji Oboi Reed, president and CEO of the Equiticity Racial Equity Movement in Chicago, aims to change that.
“There are some systemic barriers that keep Black and brown people driving, that keep Black and brown people driving by themselves, that push Black and brown people away from transit or cycling or walking,” Reed said. So, we’ve got to think about … some of the systemic barriers that keep us from getting rid of our cars.”.
Based in the North Lawndale neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side, Equiticity is a multifaceted, multiracial organization focused on eliminating inequality. For Reed and Equiticity, getting more Black and Brown people on bikes is about more than recreation or even transportation. He sees it as a vehicle for enhanced community cohesion, economic development and improved health outcomes.
Reed, along with childhood friend Jamal Julien, first launched Slow Roll Chicago — a local outpost of a global bicycle movement — in 2014 as a means of encouraging bicycling by diverse people for both recreation and transportation. In 2017, Reed expanded his vision of promoting racial equity beyond Slow Roll Chicago with a soft open of Equiticity. The new organization was initially tasked with a plan to establish bike libraries on the city’s predominantly Black and brown South and West sides.
Today, Equiticity encompasses advocacy, social enterprises and programming, along with “community mobility rituals” where people take to the road on two wheels.
A multi-pronged approach
In 2022, Equiticity launched the Mobility Opportunities Fund, supported by a grant from ComEd, a local electric utility. The fund initially offered $350 for the purchase of a conventional bicycle, $750 for an electric bicycle, $1,500 for an electric cargo bicycle and $3,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle. (Stipends were later increased to $8,750 for EVs.)
Only four EVs were purchased using resources from the fund. However, community members bought 111 bikes, 85 electric bikes and 57 electric cargo bikes with their stipends.
Remel Terry, director of programs at Equiticity, said, “I understand the benefit of having alternative modes of transportation, especially if you can’t afford a bike or even the cost of, as we’ve seen, gas and things of that nature.” “And then the overall climate-friendly aspect is also a big deal, in my opinion and helping us to understand how to be more environmentally friendly.”
Equiticity is also developing the GoHub Community Mobility Center to help address EV charging deserts along with other mobility and transportation needs for residents of North Lawndale.
“The GoHub would have charging stations accessible to the community who may have electric vehicles,” Terry said. “So, it’s really like a one-stop shop bringing all of the various programs into a physical space.”
Reed envisions multiple GoHub functions to address transportation-related inequities, some of which may not be readily apparent.
That includes “hardware” — physical infrastructure — and “software,” which Reed describes as “the work we do to socialize people around the act of mobility.”
“For us, that’s our community mobility rituals. We do community bicycle rides, neighborhood walking tours, public transit excursions, group scooter rides and open streets festivals,” Reed said.
Equiticity launched BikeForce in 2022 as a workforce development program for teens living in North Lawndale and adjacent communities. The apprenticeship program focuses on the emerging electric transportation sector, such as understanding the mechanics of e-vehicles. The Cook County Justice Advisory Council awarded Equiticity a $600,000 grant earlier this year, which allowed the program to expand to serve 60 trainees over 18 months.
“BikeForce is providing these participants with comprehensive and targeted mentorship, career services and workforce training in an emerging, environmentally sustainable sector — all while increasing access to climate-friendly mobility devices in North Lawndale,” Terry said in an email.
The apprenticeship program also provides networking and opportunities for living-wage jobs to as many as 30 young people each year. Participants who complete the program also receive a cash stipend of $1,100 and a non-electric bicycle, Terry said.
Ongoing advocacy
North Lawndale has suffered the effects of decades of disinvestment. However, dollars intended to mitigate disinvestment frequently don’t get to areas where they are most needed.
At the same time, initiatives to mitigate disparities are sometimes met with pushback — driven by mistrust and anxiety about displacement, and exacerbated by the failure of municipal and other entities to engage community stakeholders, Almanza said.
“We really want to expand biking infrastructure. However, a lot of people on the West Side and South Side see biking infrastructure as a sign of gentrification. A lot of people think, well, ‘who are these bike lanes really for’? It just seems that whenever the city does any kind of improvements, we get priced out. So why is this for me now?”
For Reed, advocacy, education and improving biking infrastructure are all integral to Equiticity’s mission of getting Black and brown people on bikes — and having them feel safe riding.
“How are we going to convince somebody not to drive and they should walk or bike and there’s no sidewalk? This is not a rural community. This is the city of Chicago,” Reed said.
“Corporations are headquartered here. And we’ve got a neighborhood in our city with no sidewalk. And it’s been like that for decades. So we’ve got to improve the quality of our infrastructure. We’ve got to use infrastructure to reduce all types of violence ... .”
“And this is taking place.”
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