Conduct A Community Bike Audit

Want safer, more bikeable streets in your neighborhood? A Community Bike Audit is a powerful tool to evaluate your streets, spark collaboration, and inspire change. Here’s how you can join the movement for safer cycling, starting in your own backyard.

🧠 What Is a Community Bike Audit?

A Community Bike Audit is an independent evaluation of the walking and biking environment in a specific area. It’s typically conducted by a team of community members, advocates, and professionals working together to identify how safe, accessible, and user-friendly an area is for people biking, walking, and rolling.

These audits:

Evaluate the safety, usability, and access of streets and intersections.
Highlight areas of concern for people of all ages and abilities.
Encourage collaboration between local stakeholders, from city planners to residents.
Help identify actionable solutions for safer infrastructure and better bike access.

🛠️ How to Conduct a Bike Audit

Pick a location
Choose a street, corridor, or area with biking or walking challenges.
Build your team
Invite residents, local leaders, business owners, and advocates (diverse perspectives lead to better insights).
Pick a date + time
Try to schedule your audit during times of typical traffic. Evening rush hour is great for seeing real-time conditions.
Use a toolkit
We recommend the AARP Bike Audit Tool Kit. It’s simple, visual, and effective.
Document everything
Take notes, photos, and voice recordings. What works? What’s dangerous? What feels uncomfortable?
Debrief and share results
Summarize your findings and share them with city staff, MDOT, and community stakeholders. Be specific, this helps turn data into action.

✅ Bike Audit Checklist

Need a jumpstart? Download this handy Bike Audit Checklist to guide your observations and get the most from your walk/roll-through.
📄 Download LMB’s Bike Audit Checklist (PDF).

🌟 Example: LMB’s Lansing Community Bike Audit

Want to see what a real community bike audit looks like in action? Check out LMB’s Lansing Community Bike Audit Report, conducted on Wednesday, July 31, 2024 from 5:00 to 6:15 PM.

A team of 10 people, representing the community, MDOT, the City of Lansing, and local businesses, came together to audit:

Intersection of Cedar St. and Cesar Chavez Ave.
Intersection of Larch St. and Cesar Chavez Ave.
The stretch of Cesar Chavez Ave. between Cedar and Larch

The team used the AARP Bike Audit Tool Kit to guide their observations, documenting key issues and collecting photos.

Use this real-world example as a guide for your own audit:
Download the Lansing Community Bike Audit Report (PDF)

Before audit: painted bike lane on Chavez After audit: newly painted bike lane on Chavez

This audit was led by Joanie Towarnicky, a member of the inaugural MI Healthy Climate Corps (MHCC) and now LMB’s Data Analyst. During her time with MHCC, Joanie dove into safe transportation planning and brought it to life across Michigan. She conducted 11 bike audits in seven Michigan communities—Saginaw, Brighton, Berkley, Flint, Kalamazoo, Lansing, and Grand Rapids. These audits have not only highlighted areas for improvement in bikeability but have also encouraged local communities to actively engage in implementing positive audit changes.

With the help of 55 volunteers and using the AARP Bike Audit Toolkit, Joanie led audits that:

Identified unsafe conditions for cyclists and pedestrians
Delivered real, data-backed solutions to city leaders
Helped drive improvements like clearer road markings and safer visibility at intersections

Thanks to Joanie’s leadership and your growing interest in grassroots advocacy, Michigan is becoming a more bike-friendly place one audit at a time.

📢 Ready to Get Rolling?

Got an area that needs some love? Conduct your own audit and share your findings with us! Together, we can keep building safer streets and stronger communities.

🔗 Contact us with questions or to share your audit results.