Mia Birk, Principal and CEO

I fell in love with bicycling in 1990 while attending graduate school in Washington DC. Having grown up in suburban Dallas Texas, I was used to driving everywhere. Informed that there was no parking available near my school, I borrowed my brother’s 10 speed Schwinn. Within a few weeks, I was in the best shape of my life, and a lifelong love affair had begun. Since then, I have been a dedicated bicyclist for recreation, touring, exercise, and daily utilitarian trips. I have two children – ages 9 and 6 – and see bicycling as a win-win strategy for maintaining my family’s health, safety, budget, and community connection.

My career has included:

Investing in bicycling and walking infrastructure and promotion is a win-win strategy!

Mia Birk is Chief Executive Officer and Principal at Alta Planning + Design, with 20 years experience in sustainable transportation focused on pedestrian, bicycle, trail, and greenway planning, design and implementation. She is the author of the groundbreaking book, Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet (Cadence Press, 2010), described as “A witty, poignant memoir from one of the most important figures in America’s urban bicycling renaissance.” Jeff Mapes, author, Pedaling Revolution. See www.miabirk.com for ordering information.

Mia is also Adjunct Professor at Portland State University, where she co-founded the Initiative for Bicycle and Pedestrian Innovation in the College of Urban Studies.

Mia was the City of Portland Bicycle Program Manager from 1993-99, where she led a period of rapid growth of Portland’s bikeway network. As a consultant, she has been involved across North America in hundreds of bicycle, pedestrian, trail, and corridor plans, and has managed the public process, design and implementation of many new bikeways and walkways, as well as programs such as Safe Routes to School, bike-transit integration, bicycle and pedestrian-friendly development codes, and bikeway/walkway maintenance. She has led numerous groundbreaking studies in the field of non-motorized transportation and is a co-founder of the Cities for Cycling project of the National Association for City Transportation Officials.

Mia lives and rides with her two children in Portland, Oregon.

Announcement: Joyride


Mia Birk is now taking pre-orders for Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet.

Joyride: Pedaling Toward a Healthier Planet is the story of pioneering transportation leader Mia Birk’s 20-year crusade to integrate bicycling into daily life. With a table scrap of funding, she led a revolution that grew Portland, OR into the #1 American cycling city. Through a panoply of hilarious and poignant stories, Birk takes readers on a 20-year rollercoaster journey of global and local discovery and education, while bringing into sharp focus some of the planet’s most pressing and hotly debated energy and transportation issues, policies, shortcomings, and solutions.

After leading the Portland revolution, Birk hits the road, spreading her vision from the California suburbs to the Cascade foothills, the beaches, plains, large cities, small towns, ex-urbs, and the heartland of rural America.Careening towards big obstacles, getting scraped and bruised by political glaciers, she overcomes old ways of thinking and finds ways to make communities – even Dallas – more human, healthy, safe, and splendid.

While many books today extol the pain of our world’s traffic congestion, quality, and economic, safety, land-use, and health problems, Joyride is the antidote, offering hope to any and everyone interested in changing our world for the better, one pedal stroke at a time.



To order your copy of Joyride , visit www.miabirk.com Click here to download the full synopsis (PDF). Click to download Mia's publication and media resume (PDF).

IBPI Courses & Information

Making the Case for Bicycle and Pedestrian Investments: Collecting and Using Data to Tell Your Story
February 25, 2010, Portland State University http://www.ibpi.usp.pdx.edu/datacollection.php

Selected Projects

Recent Keynote Speeches

  • Joyride to a More Livable Community, Minneapolis and St. Paul, 2009
  • Vancouver, B.C. Bicycle Summit, 2009
  • Alaska Bike and Parks Summit, 2009
  • All About the Bike, City Club of Portland, 2009
  • Oregon Bicycle Summit, 2007, 2006
  • National Bike Summit, Washington, D.C., 2006
e-mail Mia Birk

Professional Highlights
  • Alta Planning + Design, 1999-present
  • Bicycle Program Manager, City of
    Portland, Oregon, 1993-1999
  • Transportation Program Manager,
    International Institute for Energy
    Conservation, Washington, D.C.,
    1989-1993
Education

  • M.A. International Relations & Economics, School of Advanced
    International Studies, Johns Hopkins
    University, Bologna, Italy and
    Washington, D.C., 1990
  • B.A. Government and French,
    University of Texas, Austin, 1988
Related Experience

  • Professional of the Year, 2007 and Founding board member (served
    1996-2000), Association of
    Pedestrian and Bicycle
    Professionals. Currently serves as newsletter editor.
  • Founding Member, Initiative for
    Bicycle & Pedestrian Innovation,
    Portland State University
  • Member, Portland’s “Go Platinum”
    Bicycle Master Plan Steering
    Committee
  • Fellowship Recipient, the German
    Marshall Fund Environmental
    Program, 1996. Visited 15 bicyclefriendly
    European cities to learn new
    ideas for making U.S. cities more
    bicycle friendly. Subsequently
    implemented numerous innovative
    ideas in Portland.
  • Advisory board member,
    Community Cycling Center,
    Portland, Oregon
  • Member, Transportation Research
    Board, Bicycle Subcommittee.
  • Board Member, Cycle Oregon