We’re starting 2026 with our final impact story for the winter season about family biking and a brighter future for all. Take a moment out of your day and consider donating to our organization. Help us start the new year with a few extra dollars to help pay our staff and keep Bikemore running for years to come. Happy New Year!
Love and kindness are central to Juan Carlos Puga’s life.
An immigrant, lawyer, and the president of the Bikemore board at just 34, Puga has discovered the secret to life at such an early age. He adores his wife, his friends, and most of all his daughter Isa. Love is a lesson that many in this world deserve and desperately need. It teaches us empathy. It teaches us compassion. It teaches us perspective. Love is your daughter, your mother, a tender touch, your bicycle, your lover, the singing man who dances with a stick at the corner of Broadway and Eastern, a plate of food, a cup of tea.
Without love, Puga may not be the man he is today.
“I used to bike with my daughter on [the] front tube seat [of my Crust Nor’Easter bicycle]…I loved it, and I always wanted to keep her on the front tube seat because it feels interactive, fun, where you’re [able to talk to] her. Right when she was getting too big for [the front tube seat] we bought the e-bike.”
Puga rides with his family on their e-cargo bikes, a Surly Skidloader and Cannondale Cargo Wagon, because of the ultimate joy it provides them. It’s binding, almost entrancing really, how much it reveals the beauty of the city, especially through the eyes of a child.
“[My daughter Isa] talks about bike riding. Not about the bike.”
There’s a misunderstanding about the cost of an e-bike, but the Puga family figured out quite simply what the best option was.
“We did the math, and one year’s worth of car insurance was the equivalent of [an e-bike].”
Puga teaches us another vital lesson to take into the new year: patience. Too many things in this world happen too quickly, without caution, without care, and regardless of the powers that be of which continue to force us to adhere to the status quo, it is up to those like Puga who approach life with unrestricted empathy to create a better city.
“The reality is we don’t live in a city where it has to be all or nothing. It doesn’t have to be black or white… Life, humans, transportation [are] grey, complex, and [very] different.”
Consider donating to Bikemore to help us in our mission of creating an empathic, fluid, and compassionate city for its people.
Bikemore’s success is only possible thanks to our donors. Individual donations help us pay our staff, organize our events, and advocate for safer streets. Start your new year with a donation to Bikemore so that one day more families like Puga’s can ride through the streets of Baltimore with safety paramount above all.