Meet the ‘Bicycle Mayors’ Making Cities Around the World More Bike-Friendly

Meet the ‘Bicycle Mayors’ Making Cities Around the World More Bike-Friendly

Meet the ‘Bicycle Mayors’ Making Cities Around the World More Bike-Friendly W hen Maren Ahlers started cycling around the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on her housemate’s yellow bicycle during the pandemic, she was just trying to avoid the cramped public transportation. But once she started inviting the handful of other cyclists she saw around for Sunday group rides, the idea quickly caught on, says Ahlers, who is originally from Germany: “Back then it was only three, four people. But now, sometimes there’s 70 of us.”  One thing led to another: Noticing that no other women were joining the group rides, Ahlers started offering free cycling classes for women in 2022, and invited all the cyclists she knew in the city to the first cohort’s graduation. When over 80 people showed up, she joined forces with half a dozen other cycling groups to bring the global cycling event Critical Mass to their city. Now, over a hundred women have learned to ride with another hundred on the waitlist, and A…