It is hard to think of any other person who has done more for family biking in Seattle than Morgan Scherer. She has been out on our streets leading by example and sharing her experience since at least 2007, when she founded Familybike Seattle.
Hauling a fleet of different kid-hauling cargo bikes all over town, Scherer has been providing people with life-changing opportunities to experience family life on a bike. Taking a spin on a cargo bike is not just fun, it’s a chance to imagine your life without (or with much less) driving.
When Scherer started, cargo bikes in America were largely a DIY or small-scale fabrication activity because very few companies were producing purposeful kid-hauling cargo bikes for sale in the U.S. market. So people converted old road bikes into Xtracycles or attached after-market electric motors to make climbing big hills with ever-growing kids on board a more easily-achievable daily way to get around. Just a decade later, you can get fully-designed family bikes off the sales floor of several shops. It’s an unbelievable shift, and Scherer has done an enormous amount of work to help grow the number of people looking to make biking a central part of their families’ lives.
But it’s not just about equipment. It’s also about parenting. Familybike Seattle and events like Kidical Mass provide a space for parents to share tips about, well, basically everything you might encounter raising a kid on a bike. More and more kids are growing up with biking as their primary way to get around, and this movement will continue to change the way Seattle thinks about transportation. Family biking is the heart of mainstream bike advocacy in Seattle now.
Scherer is stepping down to “focus more energy on balancing family life, disability justice, and (of course) bicycle advocacy,” according to a press release from Familybike Seattle. The organization is also seeking more members to “fill our working board with dynamic directors.”
This is a big moment for any organization. Trying to find footing without the original founder is tough, but it’s the only way to become an institution. We wish them the best. If you are inspired to help, see their press release for details for getting involved either as a Board member or volunteer:
Familybike is changing and it is important you, our supportive community, know about it.
Please join us in wishing a heartfelt farewell to our Executive Director and Founder, Morgan Scherer. The Board does not take this transition lightly and we understand the gravity involved in filling the space Morgan will leave behind. Her service to Familybike and the community is invaluable.
Morgan founded Familybike in 2007 with her first family biking expo in her South Seattle yard. Since then, she has shared her knowledge and passion with the community through countless expos, Kidical Mass rides, workshops, mentoring, and the sliding-scale rental fleet. Morgan displayed her love for biking by pouring immeasurable time, labor, and research into creating a one-of-a-kind organization to support the greater Seattle-area. Her dedication to community-building and intersectional environmental justice has inspired an incredible number of biking families and is the foundation of what we all admire most about Familybike.
Although we are sad to see her part from the organization, Morgan will not be far away! In the coming months, she plans to once again provide her personal cargobike fleet to the community, via demo events and sliding scale rentals. Morgan’s bikes are a specialized and impressive collection of mobility machines bent on changing the world through people-power. Stay tuned for more information on Morgan’s rental and demo fleet as she establishes rental structures in the coming weeks. In the meantime, we look forward to seeing her at events and around town, hauling impressive cargo, and will continue to consult with her in regards to Familybike programming and impact goals. As Morgan moves on to focus more energy on balancing family life, disability justice, and (of course) bicycle advocacy, the organization wishes her all the support and success she needs in her endeavors. We will be inviting the community to celebrate this transition and show gratitude for all Morgan has done for the family biking community with a party at a date and location TBD. Please stay tuned!
The Familybike Board would also like to take this opportunity to invite interested parties to reach out as we seek to fill our working board with dynamic directors. We are especially interested in hearing from diverse voices with background skills in finance, volunteer engagement, grant writing, equity, and social justice. If you or someone you know is looking for a way to be of service in work towards getting more families on bikes, we encourage you to reach out with a little bit about yourself to Jen Grant, our Community Engagement Liaison. ([email protected])
