Page 8 - Allison's Magazine Issue #97

OF THE MILLIONS OF AMERICANS WHO
commute to work each day, some
860,000 people get there on a bicycle.
That’s a 51 percent increase from 2000
to 2016, according to the League of
American Bicyclists.

Marin Tockman thinks that number
should be much higher.

Tockman, a native of Maine, took to
biking as a child as a way to explore the
outdoors where she lived. She never
thought of bike riding as a lifestyle until
she needed her bike to navigate the busy
and sometimes dangerous city streets.

When she moved to New York, she
began balancing her career in the film
industry with advocacy work, teaming
up with other passionate cyclists through
nonprofits and grassroots organizing.
“For years, people had been looking
for an alternative to the subway—but
when you look down the street, it’s so
overcrowded and congested with cars,”
says Tockman.

While she made advocacy a priority,
Tockman admits that she came onto
the cycling scene at a good time,
when positive changes to the city’s
infrastructure made it safer and easier to
ride bikes on the streets. Because of the
efforts of people like her, cities across
the country have adopted stricter safety
DASHING laws regarding the interaction of cyclists
and motorists on roadways, and, overall,
America’s largest urban centers are
THROUGH THE becoming more bike-friendly places. The
road to better bike safety was not always
so clear, though.
BIG EASY

Tockman traveled between New
written by alexa bricker A NEW HOME FOR BIKING
photography by bobby bonsey
Orleans and New York multiple times
for work, and she had come to love

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