Elizabeth Train

Elizabeth Train has a thing for bicycles.

Train, executive director of the Boulder B-Cycle bike-sharing program, owns six. She has spent the past eight years promoting cycling for a living.

It started with her joining the Bikes Belong Coalition in 2004, where she oversaw grant applications and research before joining B-Cycle.

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That shift, along with her work helping to build the Valmont Bike Park, allowed her to focus her efforts closer to home.

“I got to help communities across the country think about bike programs,” Train said. “The only thing that was bittersweet was I was always helping other communities, and not working where I lived.”

B-Cycle already has made a mark on the city, with 15 stations installed and five more on the way.

It has taken hard work to write grants and meet with partners to get there, as well as the ability to handle a tricky change. Ten days after B-Cycle’s May 2011 launch, the previous executive director unexpectedly resigned, leaving Train to take over the program.

Still, the program has taken root. According to Boulder B-Cycle:

* 1,620 riders have signed up as annual members.

* 9,000 users have checked out a bike for an hour or a day.

* Users have made 27,113 trips and driven 81,000 miles.

* B-Cycle riders have kept 141,600 pounds of carbon out of the atmosphere, saved 4,007 gallons of gas and burned 5.9 million calories.

Once again, Train is promoting cycling outside her hometown, with organizations in Louisville, Kentucky, and Salt Lake City working with her to develop programs in their communities.