The 2016 Illinois Bike Summit has passed, but we’re still thinking about one of our most successful summits to date. Over 250 bicycle advocates, planners, civil engineers, public health researchers, and elected officials joined us on September 19 for a day of learning and networking. If you were unable to attend the event, many of the presentation slides that were shared in the 15 breakout sessions are available to download on the Illinois Bike Summit page under Session Topics.

We were honored to have had IDOT Secretary Randy Blankenhorn (pictured above, center) give an inspiring speech about IDOT’s new thinking and approach to bicycle planning across the state.

“How do we give people the option to bike if they want to bike in a safe and efficient manner,”  said Secretary Blankenhorn. “That’s the conversation that we need to start to have, and we need to start to have it together as we look toward the future.”

Naturally, we were also excited to hear Secretary Blankenhorn speak about IDOT’s willingness to work with Ride Illinois and other bicycle advocates.

“I look at Ride Illinois, and we’ve had a good relationship,” said Secretary Blankenhorn. “We need to take advantage of the good things this organization and all of your organizations are doing out there. How do we incorporate that into our thinking? How do we incorporate that into our design? How do we incorporate that into our investment strategies? That’s what we want to do and that’s what we want to do together. And it’s going to be through organizations like Ride Illinois that are going to lead us in that conversation.”

He also discussed IDOT’s long range transportation plan, getting ITEP funding on a 2 year cycle, and much more. Listen to his full speech below.

In collaboration with Bike BloNo and the Town of Normal, we also produced and presented a video about bicycling for transportation. We interviewed a number of Bloomington-Normal residents to hear about their experiences first-hand, and to help raise awareness that many people bike for transportation (sometimes out of necessity). Bicycling is not just for recreation, and more infrastructure and accommodations are needed to make it safe and convenient for everyone.

You can also check out photos of the day on our Facebook page. If you attended the Illinois Bike Summit this year, we’d love to hear what you thought were some of the highlights of the day. Email us and tell us what sessions or topics inspired you most?