Our History

In January of 2009, a few student interns for the Oberlin College Office of Environmental Sustainability sat down and hatched an idea. They had been working on a number of projects surrounding parking issues in the town of Oberlin, and were frustrated with how hard it was to make changes happen, and get people out of their cars and onto the sidewalks and streets. “What we need is culture shift! We want people to feel good about making sustainable choices! We want our community to be safer and more pleasant for everyone!”

Thus, 4000 More was born. Oberlin, Ohio has a long history of bike-friendliness, perhaps best exemplified by the sort-of-famous original 4000 More sign.

Bikes are nothing new for the town of Oberlin, but today they’re more important that ever. Surveys of college students suggest that cycling, in addition to being cheaper and more convenient than cars for around-town transportation, actually make people feel better than driving. If we, as a community, want to make environmentally sustainable living into something everyone can buy into, it has to be something fun, and something that increases people’s overall happiness. Through the implementation of a town-gown bike initiative we’re calling 4,000 More Bikes, we want to revive Oberlin’s enthusiasm for bikes as a way to get around, to exercise, to relax, and to build community.
The plan is simple: register cyclists. Through parties, workshops, tabling at college and town events, elementary/middle/high school visits, and presence at major community get-togethers, a core group of committed students and community members will encourage their peers to sign the 4000 More pledge. Once you’ve signed the pledge, you receive a 4000 More logo sticker for your bike, and you’ll be entered in an ongoing series of raffles for helmets, locks, safety lights, and other cool biking gear. From there, your level of involvement is up to you! Newsletters will keep you in the loop about 4kM events and other upcoming community things we think you might be excited about, and we hope you’ll encourage your friends to attend events with you and register if they haven’t already.

4000 More is about building community– we can’t do it without you, and we can’t do it without your bicycle!

Some Recent Press

Vintage sign inspires Oberlin bike effort, The Chronicle-Telegram, 16 September 2009

Student Movement 4,000 More Bikes Kicks into Gear at TGIF, The Oberlin Review, 4 September 2009

The spirit of biking: An Oberlin College senior begins 4,000 More Bikes initiative to reduce car use, The Morning Journal, 31 August 2009