Bike Month in Durham brought hundreds of riders together for the Bull City Bike Stampede, Ride of Silence, Bike to Work Day, and more. Here's what May 2026 looked like.
Why do we do Bike Month? Because too often, people who walk, bike, and ride transit in Durham are invisible.
Car culture is dominant here, and we've designed our city around it. There are people in north Durham, in southeast Durham, in neighborhoods all across the city who want to get around without a car, and many of them are afraid to. We haven't built a city where it's safe for them.
Bike Month is about making sure people know we're out here, from all walks of life, all corners of Durham. And that the reason you don't see more of us is because of decisions that have been made about how our streets are designed and which projects get funded.
Ride of Silence attendees stop in front of City hall on May 20, 2026.
This year, that point hit harder than usual. In April, 15-year-old Jack O'Shea was hit and killed by an impaired driver while riding his e-bike home on Cole Mill Road. Jack was a freshman at Cardinal Gibbons, a baseball and basketball player, a kid who loved being on his bike.
At the Ride of Silence on May 20, Gregory Williams read the names of people killed by traffic violence, including Jack. Mayor Leonardo Williams spoke. City council members rode with us. Hundreds of people showed up to say that this matters and that no one in Durham has to mourn alone. (Thank you to Bike Law NC for presenting the Ride of Silence, to the Durham Bike Co-op for their mobile clinic, and to Justin Laidlaw and INDY Week for their coverage.)
What changes things is people coming together. That looks like riding in silence through downtown, and it also looks like 300 people rolling out from Crank Arm Brewing for the Bull City Bike Stampede and filling the streets with proof that Durham wants this.
On Bike to Work Day, we heard it from commuters riding to RTP, riding the American Tobacco Trail into downtown, or just showing up because they wanted to be part of something: people love getting around by bike, and they want to feel safe doing it. They want protected infrastructure. They want barriers between themselves and traffic. Kids across Durham showed the same thing on Bike & Roll to School Day, traveling to school together on routes that should be safe every day of the year. Thank you to Acme Plumbing and the Research Triangle Foundation for making Bike to Work Day possible.
The Bull City Bike Stampede in action.
That desire is shared more broadly than people's behavior currently suggests. The gap between how many people want to bike, walk, and ride transit and how many actually do comes down to how Durham has been designed. Closing that gap takes organizing. It takes showing up at a lobby day in Raleigh with Families for Safe Streets NC to push for Stop Super Speeders legislation. It takes building close relationships with public servants like Rep. Valerie Foushee and her staff, who has since taken a leadership role on transit.
It takes volunteers working with city staff and keeping pressure on council around the Roxboro-Mangum corridor, which this month resulted in City Council approving funding to complete final designs for the two-way conversion.
Closing the gap also means meeting people where they are. Some folks want to ride a bike but need help getting started. That's what our Learn to Ride, Ready to Ride, and Ride Durham classes are for. Some people want to get involved in transportation advocacy but don't know how.
This month we launched our first Change Agent Training for exactly that. And some people just need guidance navigating public transit itself, which is why we've been building out our Transit Travel Training program on GoDurham.
Bike Durham staff Desiree, Bilal, and Ashley celebrate Principal of the Year Dr. Vanessa Alford and Dr. Wanda McClain-Daye, recipient of the Caroline Shauger Memorial Teacher of the Year Award.
Lastly, we gathered at Durham Bottling Co. to say thank you to the volunteers and DPS PE teachers who make all of this possible to put a wrap on a wonderful Bike Month.
If you were part of any of it, thank you. And if this is the first time you've connected with Bike Durham, you belong here. Membership is now free.