Amelia and her dad are a lot more relaxed about getting to school these days.  Their ride to school was transformed this year from a gritted-teeth, watch-your-back experience to a safe and fun couple of miles.  What happened?  The Public Works Department installed Burlington's first (permanent) protected bike lane, with plastic posts separating bikes from cars.  Here's what it looks like today:

This change didn't happen overnight.  For years, Union had a bike lane, but cars drove all over it.  Here's a video of the same section, from a couple of years ago.  The nearly invisible white line between the bike lane and the car lane clearly wasn't enough:

So in 2015, Local Motion worked with Burlington Public Works to run a two-day "pop-up" demonstration project of a protected bike lane using apple crates with mums in them.  It was a huge success, with hundreds of people enjoying the safer conditions over the course of the weekend.  (Speeding also declined dramatically, with many fewer drivers going over the speed limit.)  Here's what the demo looked like:

This is the kind of change that makes everyday biking something anyone can fall in love with.  Space to ride.  Protection from cars.  Maybe even a few flowers along the way.

What's your everyday biking love story?

give to Local Motion's year-end appeal