By Marianne Dhenin for Yes! Media.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the YES! Media-Public News Service Collaboration.

The Power of Bike Education to Transform Lives and Communities
Amid a pandemic biking boom, cycling education organizations are working to make sure access is equitable and inclusive.

Many Americans learned to ride bicycles as kids. I still remember zipping around a cul-de-sac in my neighborhood, shrieking with glee and reveling in my newfound freedom after the training wheels came off. But those who did not have the opportunity to learn to ride during their childhood often face uncertainty or anxiety about learning as adults. Bicycle education programs help those who want to become cyclists overcome that fear while also addressing problems in their communities-from pollution to racial injustice.

And biking's popularity has only increased during the pandemic: Bicycle sales skyrocketed in the United States in March 2020 as commuters sought to avoid crowded means of public transportation. Organizations around the world are using bicycle education to empower new riders and advocate for more sustainable, equitable, and inclusive communities.

Building Bridges

In 2015, Germany coined a new term, Willkommenskultur, to describe the welcoming culture rolled out to greet arriving refugees, many of whom were fleeing the Syrian war. This culture led to an explosion of new volunteer organizations eager to address the needs of new arrivals. Few groups have had as lasting an impact (or as much fun) as #BIKEYGEES in Berlin. According to Annette Krüger, its founder, the organization teaches "women from all over the world" how to ride bicycles.

For immigrants to Germany, where about nine out of every 10 residents own a bicycle, learning how to ride means becoming part of a community. On bikes, women "can discover areas in their neighborhood" and experience "an improvement in independence, mobility, and security," says Greta Aigner, a trainer at #BIKEYGEES.

#BIKEYGEES was awarded the German Bicycling Award in 2018 for its service to the community, its focus on women's empowerment, and its promotion of sustainable transportation. Krüger and her team now give regular riding lessons in 15 locations in Berlin and the neighboring town of Brandenburg. She characterizes the courses as "two hours of happiness."

"You don't have to register," she says. "You can come as you are. We only ask: Do you want to learn how to ride a bike? Or do you want to learn how to teach to ride a bike? We are all learning something." Krüger's advice to anyone looking to make an impact is to start now. "It's so easy to change the world, but we have to do it," she says, "and the bike is the perfect vehicle for it."

Making a More Livable City

Like #BIKEYGEES in Berlin, many bicycle education programs in the U.S. work with immigrants who did not learn to ride as kids. Lana Zitser, a Russian immigrant who has spent most of her life in the U.S., says she only committed to learning in her 30s to set a good example for her 11-year-old son who was also learning to ride. She says that while her older brother learned how to ride when they were kids, her mother was "extremely overprotective" of her. "My girlfriends who also grew up in Russia don't know how to ride bicycles either," she says.

Zitser signed up for classes with an organization called Sustainable Streets, based in Los Angeles County. "I'm grateful for the experience," she says. "Now I ride around the neighborhood with my family."

Ron Durgin, co-founder and executive director of Sustainable Streets, says he loves empowering new riders like Zitser. He co-founded the organization in 2009 with the belief that turning more Angelenos into cyclists would mean turning Los Angeles' urban environment into "a more livable community."

"There's this kind of mindset about Los Angeles," Durgin says. "People come to Los Angeles, and they think they have to buy a car." With millions of cars on its streets, people living in Los Angeles County are exposed to 60% more vehicle pollution than the average Californian, and a whopping 250% more than San Francisco Bay area residents.

Los Angeles County's auto-centric urban planning also means its streets are less walkable and its residents have little access to parks or other public spaces. Across Los Angeles County, there is an average of only about 3 acres of parklands per 1,000 residents, which is a meager one-third of the national average.

"Whether it's air quality, water quality, land use, [or] the way we allocate public space," Durgin says, cyclists can have a big impact on city life. Research shows that cities with good bicycle infrastructure and more riders have higher per capita GDPs, less traffic and pollution, and happier citizens.

More than a decade after its founding, Sustainable Streets' adult education programs have helped hundreds learn how to ride, understand the rules of the road, navigate their cities, and perform basic bicycle maintenance. The organization has also had great success influencing bike infrastructure. Sustainable Streets and its allies have lobbied the city of Santa Monica to improve bicycle parking and even establish a dedicated bike campus near its headquarters. At the bike campus, cyclists can practice riding and learn the rules of the road in a safe environment.

"It has always been a goal of mine to learn to ride a bike," says Julie Maharaj, who attended an adult learn-to-ride class on the Santa Monica bike campus last year. "[The class] has definitely given me more confidence and a feeling of accomplishment," she says.

Durgin says his best advice for other groups looking to start bicycle education programs is to lean on community partners. If you can't find partners, make them. Sustainable Streets has gained favor with law enforcement officers, city administrators, and skeptical locals by inviting them on social rides. "We just tried to weave [them] in," Durgin says. "There's just a joy and a feeling of freedom when you're on a bike and getting outside and socializing with other people."

Leveling the Playing Field

Unlike Los Angeles, New York City is known for having its fair share of bicyclists. According to the New York Department of Transportation, nearly 900,000 New Yorkers ride regularly, and more than 50,000 depend on their bicycles to commute. But research shows that the majority of people who choose to commute by bike are wealthy and White. They are often drawn to bicycling for environmental or health reasons.

But for lower-income communities and communities of color, especially for people with disabilities or those who have health limitations, bicycling is not always so feasible or even desirable. Members of these communities often have to live farther from city centers and travel longer distances for work, often on roads that lack the infrastructure for safe cycling.

"When you talk about access... it's not only about providing someone a bicycle," says Hilena Tibebe, board member of Bike New York and founder of Ride to DC, which works to raise awareness of the racial disparity within the cycling community and increase access and inclusion for cyclists who are Black, Indigenous, or people of color. It's also about "providing someone a helmet, creating a route that is accessible for all, being able to ride a bike, [and] having the roads to bike on," she says.

Low-income residents and people of color accounted for much of the uptick in cyclists in the 2000s, but they are also often neglected by investments in cycling infrastructure that make roads safer and more accessible. Instead, cities tend to focus on the needs of wealthy white cyclists.

For Bike New York, whose mission is to "transform the lives of New Yorkers through cycling," these disparities are unacceptable. By placing its adult education and after-school classes, summer camps for kids, and bicycle libraries (an innovative program that allows kids to borrow bicycles in public parks for recreational use) in underserved communities, the organization is trying to "level the playing field," says Ken Podziba, the organization's CEO. "There aren't enough people of color riding, and we're trying to help."

Bike New York now provides bicycle education to 30,000 New Yorkers per year in all five boroughs and has a network of more than 3,000 volunteers.

Podziba says that Bike New York's largest boon has been partnering with the city and placing its education programs in local parks, which provide safe spaces for riders to learn and practice and for Bike New York to store its bikes and helmets. In the future, Podziba says he hopes others will emulate this model and that there will be better communication among bike organizations "so we could all learn together, work together, support each other, build each other up."

Marianne Dhenin wrote this article for YES! Magazine.Marianne Dhenin is a writer and researcher based in Cairo. She holds a master's degree in Human Rights Law and Justice and is earning a Ph.D. in Middle East History. She writes about social justice, politics, and the Middle East. Follow her on Twitter @mariannedhe.


get more stories like this via email

New documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit showed how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to expand immigrant detention centers in Colorado.

Centers are planned for Hudson and La Junta, and Colorado Springs and Walsenburg would each get two facilities, all run by private firms.

Tim Macdonald, legal director for the ACLU of Colorado, said ICE should not be outsourcing centers to for-profit companies such as GEO Group, which runs a facility in Aurora with a history of civil rights abuses and lack of medical care.

"That's a terrible model," Macdonald contended. "We should not put profits on the backs of immigrants, it creates an incentive to detain more innocent men, women and children."

Macdonald pointed to a 2019 report documenting abuse, neglect and even death at GEO's Aurora detention center. In 2024, the family of Melvin Mendoza filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the facility for failing to diagnose and treat a blood clot in Mendoza's leg. GEO did not respond to questions about the Mendoza suit but said by email they are proud of their 40 years of work with ICE and strictly comply with ICE detention standards.

President Donald Trump campaigned on the promise of mass deportations and as of last week more than 56,000 people have been detained, according to a Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse analysis of ICE data, which also found more than 70% of people being detained have no criminal record. Macdonald noted Trump also promised to prioritize deporting violent criminals.

"We know that's not happening," Macdonald pointed out. "They are detaining and removing grandmothers, pregnant women. In fact the evidence is that most of the people they are detaining and deporting have no criminal record whatsoever."

The new GOP tax and spending law includes $170 billion for immigration enforcement and $45 billion, an amount larger than the entire federal prison system's budget, is earmarked for expanding detention centers to hold more than 100,000 people per day.


get more stories like this via email

No matter their legal status, Albuquerque wants immigrants to feel safe in New Mexico's largest city and has unveiled a new executive order to make it happen.

Tim Keller, mayor of Albuquerque, said the order clarifies and strengthens city policies against fraud and impersonators, including directing police to go after anyone pretending to be an ICE agent. Keller stressed policy enhancements underscore the city's dedication to uphold the rights and dignity of community members and defend them from intimidation.

"Whether it is ICE agents popping out of vans wearing masks rounding up people who are not even immigrants, who are Native Americans, who are legally here in the city, whether it's McDonald's or it's Walmart," Keller outlined. "This has nothing to do with immigration policy; this is more like terror."

Over the weekend, the head of ICE said he will continue allowing the controversial practice of his officers wearing masks over their faces during their arrest raids. Keller noted there are 20,000 immigrants in the city who annually contribute more than $5 billion in economic activity.

Fabiola Landeros, community organizer of immigration for the nonprofit El Centro, first got in touch with the immigrant workers' rights group when her brother was deported. She said the Trump administration's mass deportation policy is creating fear, chaos and suffering, affecting families, public safety and health, the educational system and the economy.

"ICE is disappearing people," Landeros pointed out. "Imagine feeling afraid every time you leave your home, that you will be disappeared, separated from your children, or that you could be held in a detention center in a country that you're not from. This is against our collective values."

Data show at least 16% of the city's small businesses are run by immigrants. On Sunday, about 300 protesters gathered to demonstrate outside an Albuquerque Walmart where earlier this month ICE agents tased a man they were attempting to arrest.


get more stories like this via email

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett for KFF Health News.
Broadcast version by Suzanne Potter for California News Service reporting for the KFF Health News-Public News Service Collaboration

For months, Maria, 55, a caregiver to older adults in California’s Orange County, has been trying not to smile.

If she opens her mouth too wide, she worries, people will see her chipped, plaque-covered front teeth. An immigrant without legal status, Maria doesn’t have health or dental insurance. When her teeth start to throb, she swallows pain pills. Last summer, a dentist said it would cost $2,400 to fix her teeth. That’s more than she can afford.

“It’s so expensive,” said Maria, who often works 12-hour days lifting clients in and out of bed and helping them with hygiene, medication management, and housework. “I need money for my kids, for my rent, for transport, for food. Sometimes, there’s nothing left for me.”

KFF Health News connected with Maria through an advocacy organization for immigrant workers. Fearing deportation, she asked that only her first name be used.

Maria is among what the federal government estimates are 2.6 million immigrants living in California without legal status. The state had gradually sought to bring these immigrants into its Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal. But now, facing a state enrollment freeze, low-income California residents in the U.S. without legal permission — along with the providers and community workers that help them — are anxiously weighing the benefits of pushing forward with Medi-Cal applications against the risks of discovery and deportation by the federal government.

Seeking to close a projected $12 billion budget deficit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed a balanced state budget on June 27 that will end new Medi-Cal enrollment in January 2026 for those over 19 without legal status.

Meanwhile, federal immigration raids — which appear to have targeted at least one health clinic in the state — are already making some people afraid to seek medical care, say immigrant advocates and health providers. And the recent news that Trump administration officials are sharing Medicaid enrollee data, including immigration status, with deportation authorities is expected to further erode trust in the program.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Andrew Nixon said the agency, which oversees the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, had the legal authority to share the data to address “unprecedented systemic neglect under the Biden-Harris administration that allowed illegal immigrants to exploit Medicaid while millions of Americans struggle to access care, particularly in states like California.”

Further complicating matters, the Trump administration has threatened to withhold funds from states that provide health coverage to people without legal status. Currently, about 1.6 million people in the country without authorization are enrolled in Medi-Cal.

In 2016, California began opening Medi-Cal to low-income people lacking legal status, starting with children, then gradually expanded it to young people, older adults, and — in January 2024 — those ages 26 to 49. The state Department of Health Care Services, which oversees Medi-Cal, partnered with community health clinics to help get eligible people enrolled.

It’s too early to tell what impact the latest state and federal developments are having on enrollment numbers, since data is available only through March. But many health care providers and advocates said they expect a chilling effect on immigrant enrollment.

Seciah Aquino is executive director of the Latino Coalition for a Healthy California, which supports community health workers — also called promotores — who help spread awareness about Medi-Cal’s expansion to adults lacking legal status. Just over half of public health insurance recipients in California are Latino, compared with just 30% of Medicaid enrollees nationwide.

Aquino said her coalition will tell promotores to disclose data-sharing risks so community members can make informed decisions. 

“They take it very personally that advice that they provided to a fellow community member could now hurt them,” Aquino said.

Newsom condemned the data sharing, calling the move “legally dubious,” while U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, both Democrats, have demanded that the Department of Homeland Security destroy any data shared.

California’s Department of Health Care Services announced June 13 that it is seeking more information from the federal government. The agency said it submitted monthly reports to CMS with demographic and eligibility information, including name and address, as required by law.

Medicaid enrollee data from Illinois, Washington state, and Washington, D.C., was also reportedly shared with DHS. Jamie Munks, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, the state’s Medicaid agency, said the department was “deeply concerned” by the news and that the data was regularly passed along to CMS with the understanding that it was protected.

In Sacramento, Democratic lawmakers found themselves in the uncomfortable position of rolling back health benefits for low-income residents with unsatisfactory immigration status, including people without legal status, people who’ve held green cards for under five years, and some others who are in the process of applying for legal status or have statuses meant to protect them from deportation. In addition to the Medi-Cal enrollment freeze for immigrants 19 and older in the country without authorization, all enrolled residents with unsatisfactory immigration status from 19 to 59 years old will be charged $30 monthly premiums starting in July 2027.

“What I’m hearing on the ground is folks are telling me they’re going to have a really hard time making these premium payments,” said Carlos Alarcon, health and public benefits policy analyst with the California Immigrant Policy Center, an advocacy group. “The reality is most people already have limited budgets.”

The legislature rejected a proposal from the governor to bar immigrants with unsatisfactory immigration status from receiving long-term nursing home and in-home care through Medi-Cal but went along with eliminating dental benefits starting in July 2026.

Health care providers said that without Medi-Cal coverage, many immigrants will be forced to seek emergency care, which is more expensive for taxpayers than preventive and primary-level care. Sepideh Taghvaei, chief dental officer at Santa Cruz County’s Dientes Community Dental Care, saw this play out in 2009 when the state cut adult Medi-Cal dental benefits. Patients came in with swollen faces and excruciating pain, with conditions so advanced that they required hospital treatment. “It’s not cost-effective,” she said.

State Sen. Roger Niello, a Republican who serves as vice chair of the Senate budget committee, said he believes California shouldn’t be funding Medi-Cal for people who lack legal status, particularly given the state’s fiscal challenges. He also said he worries that coverage of people in the country without authorization could encourage others to move to California.

“If we maintain that expense to the noncitizen,” he said, “we’re going to have to cut someplace else, and that’s undoubtedly going to affect citizens.”

Californians, too, are going through a change of heart. In a May poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California, 58% of adults opposed the benefit.

For Maria, shifting health care policies have left her feeling paralyzed. Since she arrived here five years ago, the caregiver’s focus has been on earning money to support her three children, whom she left with her parents in her home country, she said.

Maria didn’t learn she might be eligible for Medi-Cal until earlier this year and hadn’t yet found time to complete the paperwork. After a friend told her that the state could freeze enrollment in January, she began rushing to finish the sign-up process. But then she learned that Medi-Cal data had been shared with immigration authorities.

“Disappointed and scared” was how she described her reaction.

Suddenly, she said, enrolling in Medi-Cal doesn’t seem like a good idea.


Claudia Boyd-Barrett wrote this story for KFF Health News.


get more stories like this via email