BikeWalk Virginia now Bike Virginia

Many cyclists are familiar with Bike Virginia, the annual bike tour of Virginia. The event is organized by BikeWalk Virginia, a statewide advocacy organization that until this week was focused on bicycle and pedestrian advocacy. They recently changed their focus is concentrate solely on bicycle advocacy and events:

Effective January 1, 2012, BikeWalk Virginia changed its name to Bike Virginia. This name change reflects the statewide, non-profit organization's desire to focus its resources on bicycling and making Virginia a more bicycle-friendly state.

"There were three key reasons behind the decision to change our name," said Dr. Kimberly Perry Executive Director. "First, we came to realize that because of the success of our Bike Virginia Tour event, most people here in Virginia, as well as bicyclists across the country, already knew us as Bike Virginia. Second, over the years we've learned that advocating for bicycle and pedestrian issues often led us down different paths and there simply was not as much synergy in addressing both interests as we originally thought. Third, many towns and cities already have well-organized bicycle clubs and advocacy groups and we felt we could accomplish much more by focusing our work with and through them."