A City Built For People: Bikemore Impact Stories

Following up on Giving Tuesday, we're publishing a second impact story and inviting you to support our ongoing work.

Bikemore had the pleasure of speaking to Taylor Graham, an administrator of Baltimore Bike Party, a mass-ride that happens the last Friday of every month at St. Mary’s Park. His approach to riding around Baltimore is more on one’s mindset than sense of fear.

“Don’t be afraid, but be aware.”

While talking with Graham, one can feel the amount of empathy he exudes for others, especially for folks who aren’t as experienced or adept in riding. 

“Apply the same strategies or philosophies or tactics of just being in an urban environment for cycling. Be aware of the time of day. Be aware of the cars. Just having a sense of awareness eliminates a lot of the fear…You don’t even have to start in the city. We have the BWI trail, the Baltimore-Annapolis trail. We have NCR.”

Graham is a Baltimore native and listening to him speak taught us how perspective truly does influence one’s approach to their home. Graham found a sense of community within cycling, and it only grew by his inclusion with Bike Party. 

“I can only give my experience for Bike Party since it started before me. To my knowledge, it started as a deviation from an event called ‘Critical Mass’ as a form of protest to vehicles. They just built the community around it, and [Bike Party] caught around like wildfire organically…It’s just been something that’s been going strong. Last Friday of every month.”

Our conversation moved to the topic of kids and how one may normalize children on bikes in the city. For some of us, children at Bike Party, with the presence of a guardian, is something that brings an equal amount of joy to the kids and the peers amongst them.

“As a Baltimore native, I probably look at things differently than the average person…If I had a younger family member, and if they have the confidence, I would definitely coach them to ride defensively and not concede to vehicles. [I] don’t want to let their ego put [them] in a dangerous place.”

The answer came as a surprise, yet Graham’s perspective is what truly defines how one approaches the world. Some may say fear is the mind killer (Frank Herbert’s Dune), and Graham’s own mind seems to be a bulwark beyond definition. One may envy how he perceives the city, its beauty, its flaws, though one may argue we should be inspired by Graham’s definitive logic towards Baltimore. 

“You can put it on the record: Bike Party is the most unifying event in the city…You see people from all walks of life. You see the wheelie guys, you see the hipsters, you see the professionals. You see everyone from any pocket of Baltimore coming around for one unifying event which is cycling.

I love [Bike Party] for the communities who get to see these people coming through South Baltimore, deep in East Baltimore, North Baltimore, these communities who don’t get these things. Just seeing the excitement of people there is a gratifying feeling.”

Graham’s love for Baltimore and cycling align with Bikemore’s own mission tenfold. We advocate for safer streets, the normalization of bikes, and a greater presence of community for all folks to feel more comfortable and connected in Baltimore.

Safety doesn’t and should not just end with a mass group ride, though it will always be a step in the right direction. 

A City Built For People: Bikemore Impact Stories

This Giving Tuesday, Bikemore invites you to support our ongoing work. 

Your contribution will enable us to continue advocating for improved biking infrastructure, promoting safety education, and building a more connected and equitable Baltimore for everyone. 

On November 7, 2025, Ibrahim Auguste, 32, spoke to Bikemore after a star-lit ride beneath the Baltimore night sky. We stood beside Southpaw in Fells Point after riding with Chris Broughton’s Bike Social Baltimore, leaning against our bicycles chained to the green U-bike stand, speaking through the chugging sounds of passing cars. 

Our Bikemore representative, Cora Karim, met Ibrahim in February of 2025 during a Valentine-themed alley rat race here in Baltimore named “Lovers Rat Race” after bonding over their shared love of the Japanese anime “Naruto.” Since then, their admiration for cycling in the city has grown tenfold due to their ability to constantly reconnect with each other. 

“There are so many people you can meet or network with. One guy in our group is the maintenance guy who owns our section of Lime bikes in the city.

The community is a very tight knit but eclectic group of people. You’ll never know if you don’t ride with them.”

Auguste first started riding on his dark emerald-green ISEO bike named “Rayquaza”, named after the legendary dragon-type Pokemon with the same emerald-and-gold scales on the flying serpent beast. It was 2018, and he had left New York City to return to his home city of Baltimore. He found biking to be a better convenience than public transit, and he recognized there was lacking attention to those who use biking as a necessity rather than something for pleasure. 

“Biking infrastructure can be improved. It has been slowly improving since I started cycling because there [are more] repaved and protected bike routes than there were years ago”, Auguste said. “Growing up off of Hartford and Hamilton, there used to be a Blockbuster and beauty supply there. My family and I got hit by a tractor-trailer three times while in a car. Imagine if a cyclist or pedestrian were there. They wouldn’t be here right now.”

Throughout our conversation, Auguste held a passion in his eyes. He smiled with each word professed, and he felt genuine in his love and admiration for the city. Unlike many of the lesser privileged folks in Baltimore, Auguste could drive a car if he wanted to. But he recognizes the ease and content a bicycle provides him and chooses to cycle instead. 

“You also get to see a different side of people because some of them do have cars, and their thoughts on how people should be nicer to cyclists and not try to run them over ‘cause they’re in the road, well, that will shift, too, because you might make your best friend in the cycling community.

If you’re in the car being a dickhead, you may have just hit someone who could’ve elevated your life or just helped you get deeper into the community.”

Auguste is proud to call Baltimore his home. He recognizes how far Baltimore has come and how much it has changed, and his love for the city shows in how he is able to want more. He’s seen increased bike initiatives pushed forward by Bikemore, such as the Big Jump or the planned lane on Eutaw Place, a stronger need for public transportation for those who don’t or can’t use a bike, and he defines his life on the affluence Baltimore provides for its diverse city. 

“You can ride. You can still get to point A and point B and experience the whole city in a whole different way,” Auguste said with a wide smile on his face. He spreads this wild joy towards everyone, regardless of how quiet that sidewalk can be, however deafening the street becomes with the ear–shrieking honks and plumes of exhaust sitting beneath our necks. It was helpless not to smile with Auguste. 

To some, Auguste’s perspective on life may be considered beneath them because he uses a bike to move. To him, it’s a spark of happiness. 

“Being in a car pushes the need to speed. People become blurs as you race past them. We become smudges on a canvas. You forget who a person is because you become so disconnected when in a car.

You get angry, and that anger is pushed onto people who seem so happy on a bicycle or a sidewalk.

Everyone deserves to be happy, and no one deserves to die because of it.”

We asked Auguste what his perfect Baltimore is. Like many, he had his thoughts and opinions on certain facilities who privatize the wealth of Baltimore and take it from the very folks who live here and deserve more.

To Auguste, a perfect Baltimore is one that is embedded in the factual reality of what Baltimore is rather than an exaggerated fiction: “It’s not just ‘The Wire’. There’s danger everywhere [in the world]. But there’s danger when you have disenfranchised people, a strong poverty line, and people from out of the country just treating Baltimore like a tourist attraction and the people like zoo animals,” Auguste said with a flair like many others in contemporary history.

“My perfect Baltimore would be a central hub for culture, connection, growth, diversification of everything. That would be my perfect Baltimore. Downtown is beautiful. Fort McHenry is beautiful. The Inner Harbor is beautiful. It just gets a bad rap because of one single experience rather than tons of people who know the city and love it.”

We asked Auguste if he had any words for us:

“Bikemore, keep doing what you’re doing. Don’t stop. Keep doing it.”

Ibrahim's vision for a "perfect Baltimore" — a central hub for culture, connection, and growth — is one that Bikemore shares and works toward every day. 

Our initiatives are designed to connect diverse communities and elevate the experiences of everyday Baltimoreans who rely on sustainable and accessible transportation options.

This Giving Tuesday, Bikemore invites you to support our ongoing work. Your contribution will enable us to continue advocating for improved biking infrastructure, promoting safety education, and building a more connected and equitable Baltimore for everyone. 

Rest in Peace, Jamie Roberts

Some of you have probably heard by now that Baltimore's own Jamie Roberts was tragically killed in Kentucky last week as she rode across the country while doing the 4K For Cancer.

One of Jamie's friends set up a Facebook group to honor Jamie and to finish her journey across the country and people are dedicating their miles that they bike and run to her. If anyone is interested in seeing something really inspiring with the community surrounding her, check it out.

If you'd like to donate to the Ulman Cancer Fund for Young Adults, the cause for which Jamie was riding across the country, you can do so here.

Let's use this tragedy as a reminder to pay more attention when you're operating a motor vehicle. If you see someone riding a bicycle (or, in Jamie's case, changing a flat tire on the side of the road), SLOW DOWN and give at least 3 feet of space when passing. 

We at Bikemore don't like to think in terms of "motorists" or "cyclists" or "pedestrians." We are all human beings just trying to safely get to where we're going. Let's all pay more attention to our surroundings and show more care for our fellow human beings.

Rest in peace, Jamie.

Bikemore Statement About Street Attacks

As we posted earlier today, another person was attacked while riding his bicycle this past weekend on Guilford Avenue in Greenmount West. Attacks like this have been reported sporadically over the past few years — not just on people riding bicycles, but people walking as well — usually along Guilford Avenue and Charles Street between Mount Royal Avenue and 25th Street.

These incidents do not represent the actions of all Baltimore City youth. Many City youth ride bikes for transportation or otherwise get around Baltimore peacefully, and many engage in positive after-school bicycle activities like the Baltimore Bike Experience at Digital Harbor High School and Baltimore Bike Party.

The only way to know what motivated the specific group of youth who appear on the video is to ask them, but we suspect that if Baltimore had more productive adult supervision and more safe places for youth to learn and engage in positive activities, this incident would not have occurred.

Obviously, there must be consequences for assaulting another human being, but we should also use this unfortunate event as an opportunity to teach young people the impact of their actions and address the underlying causes of the assault.

Bikemore is actively engaging with the police and community leaders to ensure the neighborhoods along the Guilford Avenue Bike Boulevard are safe for commuters and residents alike, regardless of one's chosen mode of transportation. We hope this incident promotes a constructive dialogue about increased after-school and evening opportunities for youth in our city.

If you would like to be part of this dialogue, please feel free to contact us.

Seeking Witnesses To Catonsville Car-Bicycle Crash on March 13 - Please Forward Widely!

On March 13, sometime in the late afternoon or early evening, Bikemore's treasurer Tim Adams was riding his bicycle home from work when a car hit him at the intersection of Wilkens Avenue and South Rolling Road in Catonsville, near UMBC. (Interestingly, the Google Street View image of that intersection features someone on a bicycle.) He suffered severe injuries to his hip and his head, and had to undergo multiple surgeries, although he is slowly regaining his health.

Tim’s family is seeking eyewitness accounts of the accident. If you have any details that could aid the investigation, please contact info@bikemore.net and we will put you in touch with the family.