In 2020, the Youth Cycling Coalition, a collaboration between 10 different bicycling organizations, chose Morgantown as the location for its inaugural pilot program. The team chose the West Virginia city due to its high need for youth programs, as well as its potential when it came to growing a robust youth cycling movement. While Morgantown’s 2022 City Ratings score is 36 — jumping six points from 2021 and showing significant improvement — it still has a ways to go (a score of 50 tends to be the threshold for great places to ride).

With the launch of the YCC pilot, however, Morgantown has rallied around cycling, investing not only in youth bicycling but also the sort of comprehensive infrastructure needed to ensure people of all ages and abilities are able to comfortably ride. The combined efforts from the YCC, the city, county, grassroots leaders and West Virginia University are coming together to improve infrastructure, launch educational campaigns and accelerate the pace of development as a part of an overall vision for the region. Among everyone involved, there’s a palpable sense of excitement and momentum.