tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049007913732421955.post8210799314516690714..comments2020-10-17T12:21:37.742-07:00Comments on Defying Poverty with Bicycles: Bike Works in London as Social Bike ModelSue Knauphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14149859995220789372noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049007913732421955.post-40708527401211057992015-07-19T10:41:19.368-07:002015-07-19T10:41:19.368-07:00Thanks Jardiner. I absolutely agree that BNB is a ...Thanks Jardiner. I absolutely agree that BNB is a nice example of a social bike business, but not because of the bikes it ships away. Rather, it is because of the work BNB does for residents of Massachusetts. One of the key elements of the social bike business models One Street points to is that the programs must focus on disadvantaged people in the very neighborhood where the program resides. <br /><br />Your examples of African programs highlight an important need in Africa, but to be a proper social bike business model, such programs would have to be run by Africans. I know that some of these organizations work through locally run organizations, but those local orgs are the web links we would expect to show as models - if they are doing a good job helping their disadvantaged neighbors.<br /><br />You can read more about our Social Bike Business program here: http://www.onestreet.org/component/content/article/56-resources/others/69-social-bike-business-program- Sue Knauphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14149859995220789372noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7049007913732421955.post-8657218721515769592015-07-19T10:24:30.890-07:002015-07-19T10:24:30.890-07:00Sue, thanks for your work documenting and dissemin...Sue, thanks for your work documenting and disseminating best practices regarding social bike businesses. <br /><br />The earliest such business was Bikes Not Bombs, co-founded in 1984 by Carl Kurz and Michael Replogle. BNB was the first project of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), shipping over 10,000 bikes to teachers and health workers in Nicaragua in the late 1980s and using bikes as seed capital to establish a bicycle assembly industry in that country. BNB was spun off from ITDP as a separate non-profit in 1991 and remains a thriving Boston-based group working in low income neighborhoods of Boston and shipping bikes to developing countries. An excellent video on BNB is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikes_Not_Bombs. See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikes_Not_Bombs.<br /><br />Bikes for the World was founded in 2005 in the Washington, DC, region by Keith Oberg, who was an early BNB activist and ITDP board member. This group has shipped over 100,000 bikes to countries across the world to support development.<br /><br />Pedals for Progress, a New Jersey based initiative, has also shipped over 100,000 bikes worldwide to support development.Jardinerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02984422197416221811noreply@blogger.com