Black Girls Do Bike Hits the Road in Rhode Island
The state s first chapter promotes biking by women and girls of color.
April 26, 2021
Allyson McCalla inspires others to follow a passion for bicycling. Courtesy of Bike Newport.
While bicycling around her native Newport, Allyson McCalla noticed something: She rarely saw anyone who looked like her on a bike. So she’s set out to change that.
Attending a national bike summit in her role as director of community relations and administration at Bike Newport, a bicycle advocacy organization that promotes bike safety and accessibility, McCalla saw a presentation by Monica Garrison, the founder of Black Girls Do Bike (BGDB), and knew immediately Rhode Island deserved a chapter.
Julie Zack
Newport Life magazine
Being a kid during a Newport summer can be an idyllic experience, riding bikes through narrow streets or heading downtown to jump off a pier. That’s how Allyson McCalla remembers spending her afternoons growing up in Newport.
“My brother, my sisters, and my friends and I would ride all throughout the Newport streets. We knew Newport like the back of our hands,” McCalla recalls. Riding a bike opened up the city to her, especially as summer crowds made other modes of transportation less efficient.
While biking was a crucial method of exploration in her adolescence, McCalla didn’t continue biking into adulthood. “I was not an adult bicycler at all,” she says. It wasn’t until she became involved with the nonprofit bicycle advocacy organization Bike Newport, where she currently serves as Director of Community Relations and Administration, that she started cycling again.
Newport Daily News
NEWPORT – A letter from the Newport Health Equity Zone about the North End Urban Plan to the City Council caused a flare-up on the council over whether two council members should recuse themselves on matters involving HEZ and the plan.
Ward 1 Councilwoman Angela McCalla said during the council meeting on Wednesday, “I received an email from the City Clerk suggesting that I should consider seeking an advisory opinion from the Rhode Island Ethics Commission because of my affiliation with the Newport Health Equity Zone.”
McCalla, who was seemingly angry about the request, said she would not recuse herself on the question of receiving the HEZ letter on the docket. However, she said she would seek the ethics opinion. She said forcefully she believes there is no conflict of interest in connection with the advocacy group and the North End Urban Plan.