Grants Boost Bike Safety in North Carolina

When Ed and Margie Pikaart retired, they swapped three cars for one and invested in two bicycles. Now, the Durham couple bikes to the grocery store, medical appointments and Rotary meetings.

The Pikaarts say they love the health benefits and eco-friendly aspect of biking. But navigating city streets and distracted drivers isn’t always easy.

“Sometimes you have a nice bike lane, and it all of a sudden disappears,” says Margie, 69. And once, Ed, who is 74, was clipped by a car and knocked off his bike. His helmet cracked in multiple places, but fortunately, he wasn’t seriously hurt.

“It can be dangerous,” he says.

That’s why AARP North Carolina is investing in new initiatives to make streets safer for older adults who want to stay active and independent without relying on a car.

Eleven North Carolina entities received 2025 AARP Community Challenge grants for projects focused on either bike or pedestrian safety. The grants fund quick-action projects to make communities more livable for people of all ages.

In all, AARP awarded 13 grants for North Carolina projects this year, totaling $144,850. The projects must be completed by Dec. 15. One of AARP’s top priorities is “making all communities accessible to all ages ... whether you’re 8 or 80,” says Audrey Galloway, AARP North Carolina’s manager of outreach. “Part of that is being able to navigate your community.”

TRANSFORMING STREETS

One of the grants went to Bike Durham, a nonprofit that advocates for safe, affordable and sustainable transportation options. The group will use its $15,000 grant to support an event on Sunday, Oct. 5, that will close a 1.2-mile stretch of downtown Durham’s streets to vehicles. The area will be open to pedestrians, cyclists and others for a community gathering.

The Move-A-Bull City Open Streets event will feature engagement zones, including a physical activity area, a Duke Health wellness section, a community heroes area with emergency vehicles and buses, and a bicycling zone offering e-bike demonstrations. There will also be art and music.

One goal of the event is to get people moving, says John Tallmadge, executive director of Bike Durham. But it’s also designed to get people “to reenvision public space and our streets as places for people, and not just for driving through,” Tallmadge says.

A portion of the AARP grant will pay for a demonstration area called the Vision Zero Traffic Safety Zone, which will showcase materials and strategies aimed at reducing traffic-related injuries and deaths on city roadways, he says.

In other communities, AARP grants are supporting bike or walk audits that can highlight safety issues and help shape improvement plans. For example, the town of Wake Forest, north of Raleigh, is using its two grants of $2,500 each to conduct a bike audit and a walk audit of the town, says Ann Welton, the town’s age-friendly community consultant.

Volunteers observe and document how well pedestrians and cyclists can navigate streets and intersections, identifying areas where accessibility and safety improvements are needed, she says.

“My hope is that through the audit, we can identify some specific intersections or points of connectivity that we can then make part of the action plan for the planning department,” Welton says.

BikeWalkNC, a statewide advocacy group for bicyclists and pedestrians, is using a $2,500 grant to teach people attending its 2025 Transportation Summit in Hickory how to do a bike audit. The training will empower attendees “to be better advocates ... [and] to teach people how to walk and bike and analyze the conditions in which they’re living,” says BikeWalkNC Director Terry Lansdell.

Several other communities received grants for projects designed to make it easier for pedestrians and bicyclists to cross busy streets. They are:

• The Greensboro Planning Department secured a $24,000 grant for a crosswalk with a flashing beacon at West Elmsley and Old Treybrooke drives.
• The village of Clemmons received $20,850 for flashing beacon crosswalks on Stadium Drive.
• The town of Leland will use a $15,000 award for eight audible pedestrian signals at a key intersection.
• In Charlotte, the Pathway Community Foundation received $25,000 to develop an AI-powered safety dashboard to identify dangerous streets and guide infrastructure upgrades.

Those four projects and the BikeDurham one also received funding support from Toyota Motor North America Inc. Find the full list of 2025 AARP grantees at aarp.org/communitychallenge.

Michelle Crouch is a North Carolina-based journalist who covers health care and consumer issues. She has written for the Bulletin for 10 years.

MORE ON LIVABILITY

• Explore the AARP Livability Index
• Learn About the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities
• Download a Free AARP Walk Audit Toolkit