On June 8th, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Commissioner of the NYC Department of Transportation Janette Sadik-Khan, Executive Coordinator of Rio + 20, Brice Lalonde, Resident Director General of the Asian Development Bank North America Allesandro Pio and SLoCaT Deputy Director of UN-Habitat Yamina Djacta joined forces with ITDP to promote biking in the lead up to the Rio+20 conference, which is scheduled to take place from 20-22 June in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

More than 100 participants, including 40 ambassadors, biked from UN Headquarters at 45th and 1st to Beekman Place. While the Secretary General was not able to join the actual bike due to a hand injury, he spoke about how when he was growing up in Korea, bicycles were the predominant means of transportation in his village, yet they were largely only available to the middle class, understating the importance of programs that provided bike access to the poor. NYC Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan followed his remarks with the example of NYC’s new bike share program, which will provide access to 10,000 bikes in 600 locations in New York City, with the first of these opening in July.

Over the next two weeks, ITDP and SLoCaT will be in Rio to promote investment and support of sustainable transportation as key to the sustainable development goals the conference is meant to address. Check our Transport Matters blog for updates, photos, and our take on this landmark event.