What is the Community Bike Audit? Meet a grassroots group making Fort Wayne more bike-friendly

When Fort Wayne software developer Kevin Brooks stumbled upon a YouTube Channel about urban design and how factors like walkable, bikeable cities affect people’s quality of life, he couldn’t help but notice how car-centric Fort Wayne is.

“It's hard to move around Fort Wayne and not spot examples where moving or storing cars is being prioritized over the safe and comfortable movement of people outside of cars,” Brooks says.

The realization inspired him to start a grassroots organization of like-minded local residents, known as Three Rivers Active Streets (@threeriversactivestreets). The group is designed to raise awareness and support for bike- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure of all kinds in Fort Wayne as a way to reduce traffic fatalities, improve connectivity, and support a happier, healthier population and environment.

This month, they’re hosting a Community Bike Audit on April 16 at 2 p.m., riding from the Electric Works campus to Downtown Fort Wayne and back to test the city’s current bike infrastructure and determine where and how improvements might be made. Going forward, they plan to host group rides on the third Sunday of each month throughout the summer, too.

We sat down with Brooks to learn more about this month’s event and his mission to make Fort Wayne’s streets safer and more accessible for everyone.