No, not seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong.  Or world, national, and Olympic champion Kristin Armstrong. Fresh off the plane from Eugene, Oregon (one of the most bike-friendly cities in America), MassBike is pleased to present its new Program Manager, Price Armstrong.  Price started his love affair with biking here in Massachusetts while attending school at Hampshire College in Amherst.  In 2008, he left for graduate school in Oregon to learn from national leaders in active transportation how to improve bike policies, programs and culture.

We are pleased to have him back in the Bay State, where he can use that expertise to help get more people onto a bike saddle.  When asked how he liked biking in the Boston area, Price said “The traffic is a lot worse here than anywhere in Oregon, no doubt.  But I’ve been pleasantly surprised with how easy it is to bike along with cars, even where there is no bike lane or path.  I can definitely see how it could be intimidating, and know that both Boston and the rest of the Commonwealth have a long way to go, but I think we might be getting a bad rap.”

With Bike Month and Bay State Bike Week right around the corner, Price has already hit the ground at full speed, scheduling events and meeting other advocates.  As the cycling season rolls along, he will be managing and expanding our youth and adult education programs.  Plus, he’ll be advocating for new projects to make the Commonwealth more bike-friendly.

While in Oregon, Price worked a number of advocacy, agency and political jobs while at the same time pursuing his Master of Public Administration degree.  He was an intern twice in the Oregon State Legislature (one in the office of Representative Val Hoyle, a Dorchester native) and worked in the congressional district office for US Representative Peter DeFazio (originally from Needham, Massachusetts).  He also worked with a number of elected leaders on bike-related issues as Vice President and Advocacy Committee Chair of the Greater Eugene Area Riders.

Price also got much professional experience working a variety of transportation-related jobs.  He was involved in multiple urban sustainability projects as a Graduate Research Fellow for the University of Oregon's Sustainable Cities Initiative and the Oregon Transportation Research and Education Consortium.  He also worked in both the Oregon Department of Transportation's Highway Performance Management Program  and as a long-range planner for Lane Transit District in Eugene.

Price's arrival also marks a milestone for MassBike, which for the first time has three full-time employees working to make bicycling better statewide. We've got momentum, and plan to keep growing to meet the many needs of Massachusetts bicyclists.