Dan rides bikes, and over the years he’s ridden many miles on many different bikes, each of which has been an important part of his story. He road a black bike while he studied English, Spanish and Agriculture at the University of Vermont, and he was riding it while he co-founded the university’s first student-run bike advocacy group that organized a free, automated bike share program and student bike shop – both of which are still growing in size today. He road a blue bike while he lived in Denver working with Denver Bike Sharing, the non-profit organization responsible for starting the country’s first large-scale municipal bike share, and he road an old red bike while he studied at La Universidad Nacional de Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina.
When he got home he traded that bike for a grey mountain bike, which he road in Pittsburgh while he participated in the 2012 Green Cities Fellowship at BikePGH. A crash with a drunk driver set him back some time, but thanks to love and support from friends and family, he’s now back in Pittsburgh riding a beautiful orange bike and continuing his work with BikePGH on their Car Free Fridays program; which empowers people with a sense of personal ability to bring about positive change through active, sustainable transportation.