By Kelsey Graywill
Since 2013, Bike Durham has been at the heart of a movement to make Durham, North Carolina’s streets safer for all road users. Our story is one of persistence, coalition-building, and creativity, rooted in the belief that creating a Durham where we can all thrive means advocating for a safer, more walkable, and connected city.
A Community-Powered Beginning
Bike Durham’s origins stretch back to 2012, when a small group of residents began organizing group rides and safety campaigns under the name Durham Bicycle Coalition. By 2013, that grassroots energy had formed into a nonprofit organization with a clear mission: to advocate for safe, equitable, and sustainable transportation for all.
Since then, Bike Durham has grown from a handful of volunteers into a citywide voice for mobility justice. Our work spans education, policy advocacy, and direct action. Along the way, we’ve partnered with schools, neighborhoods, local businesses, and local policymakers to ensure Durham’s streets reflect the needs of the people who use them every day.
Bike Durham proudly hosts our annual Bike Month, bringing the community together to celebrate active mobility and to remember those whose lives have been lost due to unsafe conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Bike Durham community members gather for the annual Ride of Silence (top) or a celebratory kick-off bike ride, the Bull City Bike Stampede (bottom) — two of our signature Bike Month events.
Some of our wins from just the last several years include:
- Securing more than 600 signatures on a petition to successfully change the city’s Development Rules to improve walkability and connections;
- Convening the Transit Equity Campaign, which successfully won a commitment from local leaders to focus the Durham County Transit Plan on improvements for current riders, transit workers, and low-income neighborhoods, resulting in adoption of a plan committing $800 million to improve the bus system;
- Campaigning to educate voters on the $115M Sidewalk & Street Resurfacing Bond Referendum, which led to the bond passing with 75% approval;
- Releasing our comprehensive report Delivering Durham, a project delivery and accountability report on the City of Durham’s infrastructure projects;
- Winning funding in the City of Durham’s budget for the next fiscal year to design a safe two-way conversion for one of Durham’s most unsafe one-way traffic corridors.
Each success has built momentum toward a vision where safe streets are a right, not a privilege. One of our most memorable recent projects embodying this was our partnership with Southside Neighborhood Association and City of Durham to install traffic-calming measures in the Southside neighborhood, work that earned us a Governor’s Highway Safety Program Award.
From Concern to Collective Action: How the Southside Neighborhood Shaped Its Streets
Traffic Calming improvements made to the Southside neighborhood.
Southside, a historically Black neighborhood in Durham, had long endured speeding traffic and unsafe crossings. In 2021, residents concerned about the safety of their neighborhood streets approached Bike Durham to support their vision of something better. In partnership with the Southside Neighborhood Association — actually contracting with three resident leaders — we started rallying the community to create change. We held community meetings, engaged the community in literally reimagining their streets through art, and brainstormed ways to calm traffic. Together, we convinced the City of Durham transportation department to install flex posts to daylight intersections, create roundabouts, extend curbs, and even implement speed pillows — all designed to slow cars and protect people walking and biking in the neighborhood.
The impact was immediate. Streets that once felt hostile now invite families to walk, ride, and connect. For residents, these changes weren’t just “nice-to-haves.” We learn in every project that creating a more walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly Durham is fundamentally about dignity, safety, and belonging.
The project earned the Governor’s Highway Safety Program Award, but more importantly, it showed what’s possible when neighbors lead and advocates amplify. This model of community-driven projects is one we’ve carried into our work across Durham.
Lessons in Sustaining Change
Bike Durham’s decade-plus of advocacy offers lessons not just in wins, but also in how to keep going in a challenging political climate:
Elementary school students at Durham’s biggest bike train launch off.
1. Build coalitions that reflect the whole community.
Real change takes everyone. Although we started as a bicycle coalition, we soon realized that we need all kinds of community members on board: parents worried about safe routes to school, bus riders seeking reliability, disabled people asking for accessible sidewalks, and businesses eager for vibrant streets. Finding the common ground that connects these voices is crucial for every campaign.
Community members clean up the most used bus stop in Durham and restore the bike lane with a bike lane sweeper.
2. Give people tangible ways to make a difference.
In an era when many feel powerless at the national or global scale, local advocacy offers visible, often immediate impact. Creating opportunities to strengthen neighborhoods can help people rediscover agency and purpose. This immediacy fuels the long-term commitment needed for lasting change, which is often years in the making. Opportunities range from signing a petition or sending an email to a local Council member to volunteer to clean up bus stops and bike lanes.
Advocates prepare to ride over to a City Council meeting.
3. Balance persistence with pragmatism.
Durham’s politics, like any city’s, can be complex, with competing priorities and limited budgets. Durham is changing rapidly, so we encourage people to be a part of it changing for the better. We’ve learned that the key is persistence: showing up to meetings, nurturing relationships, and keeping community voices at the center. The throughline is consistency.
Looking Ahead
As Durham continues to grow, the stakes of our work grow with it. The pace of our growth brings challenges of affordability and more traffic, but also more potential for a future where walking, biking, and transit are the easy, obvious, and joyful choices.
A student rides during our Bike Safety classes at Durham Public Schools.
Bike Durham is not just about bikes. It’s about creating a Durham where every resident, regardless of zip code, income, or race, can move freely and safely through their community.
A Call to Action
Our progress has been made possible by thousands of community members who refuse to accept unsafe streets as normal. If you’re inspired by this story, we invite you to get involved! This year we’re co-hosting Move-A-Bull City Open Streets with the city and county. In our biggest event to date, a 1.2 mile long corridor in the heart of Durham is going car-free for a day! It’s a street takeover — the kind that opens doors to joy, community, and play. Learn more here.
Bike Durham Marketing & Communications Lead Kelsey Graywill learned how to ride a bike in 2022 after returning to Durham post-pandemic — and it changed her life for the better. She studied cognition and human creativity, holding a BA and MSc in Neuroaesthetics, from Duke University and University of London, Goldsmiths, respectively. In addition to her work with Bike Durham, she operates a creative media agency called Hyperlocal Studios. Her work lives at the intersection of behavior, community education, art, and storytelling.
