Bicycle Friendly Business

Phoenix Bikes| Silver Level

Business Highlights: The mission of Phoenix Bikes is to empower youth to become social entrepreneurs through direct participation in a financially and environmentally sustainable nonprofit bike shop. The shop is bike accessible-- located within 100 yards of both the W&OD and the Four Mile Run bike trails. As a community bike shop, Phoenix Bikes provides repair services and prizes for the largest Bike to Work Day pit stop in Northern Virginia at the Arlington-Rosslyn stop. They sell many used parts and full bicycles and also offer affordable bike repair. They serve many people that rely on bikes as their primary means of transit; they steach them bike maintenance skills, while recycling donated bicycles and parts back into use and keeping them out of the landfills. However, they are also an after-school youth program, focusing on teaching middle-and high-school youth the benefits of cycling, through hands-on participation in a sustainable, community bike shop. They work closely with many other organizations in the community who support education and cycling. As a youth after-school program, their most popular program is the Earn-A-Bike program, where participants earn their own bicycle after completing 25 hours of volunteer shop time and successfully demonstrating the required knowledge as taught in the Earn-A-Bike course. Several thousand volunteer hours have been spent reaching this vision.

Most Compelling Bicycle Related Accomplishment: Their annual Bike Show fundraiser draws hundreds of people every year including the whole Arlington County Board, raising over $15,000, highlighting local cycling stories and enlisting local artists.