Sixteen years ago, Jimmy Hallyburton helped birth the Boise Bicycle Project (BBP) ,with a simple goal in mind: to serve, teach and engage the city’s bicycling community; and attract bike-curious residents and visitors. For a low-density city, with ample access to trail-filled foothills, and a raging river rimmed with the Greenbelt, encouraging locals and visitors alike to hop on a bicycle was a no-brainer.
Soon, other bicycle enthusiasts will have to take the baton from Hallyburton to help the Boise native achieve BBP’s ambitious goals. As the collective announced earlier this year, he is retiring.
“One of the reasons I decided to leave, and felt comfortable leaving, is that I know when I walk out the door, that BBP is going to go on and do bigger and better things,” he said. “And to know that I got it to a spot where, when I leave, it will continue to grow.”
He added: “Our mission was pretty consistent from the get-go. It's to promote the personal, social and environmental benefits of bicycling and to make sure that everyone has access to a bicycle, bicycle repair and safe places to ride.”
With a little more prompting, the BBP co-founder and executive director revealed that he has also harbored an even loftier goal over all these years.
“We have this vision of transforming Boise into the bicycle capital of America,” he disclosed. “Boise has the potential to be [it,] and we think the BBP is in a unique position to help make that a [reality]. For the most part, you can ride in Boise year-round. We're pretty flat and have proximity to amazing mountain trails within a five-minute ride from downtown Boise.”
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BBP launched in October 2007 and relocated to the former site of the Boise Rescue Mission the following year.
“When I started BBP, I really had no idea what a nonprofit was or how to run one,” Hallyburton admitted. “I relied on support and mentorship from other leaders, volunteers and non-profit folks in the community. But because I didn’t know a lot, we did a lot of things our own way.”
Also in 2008, BBP first opened to regular volunteer times and free DIY repair.
"The space was destined to be demolished, but the owner, Clay Carley, allowed us to squat there for 1.5 years," Hallyburton reflected. "In July 2009, we moved all of the stuff (100s of bicycles and tools) to our first official location on Lusk St, where I became BBP's first paid employee."
Over the years, BBP not only sustained itself and grew into a larger operation with staff, it transformed into a vital community asset. Accessible to anyone with a bicycle and the willingness to learn and volunteer an hour or two of their time, the cooperative functions as both a triage for broken bicycles and an unofficial learning center with a “teach a man to fish” business model.
In a nutshell, when a bicyclist brings in their defective single-track vehicle, they donate some of their time to help with BBP’s needs. On a wintery day in January, for example, this writer spent one hour testing and filling tire tubes with other volunteers. It took roughly the same amount of time to spruce up the bicycle with a functioning front wheel, worn-out brakes and a kickstand, with a BBP attendant providing instructions and guidance along the way.
BBP’s reach extends well beyond its bustling headquarters. In reaching out to the refugee community, BBP “got to play a big role in helping them get into after-school programs and college, and also to work at BBP,” according to Hallyburton. The bicycling cooperative also stages the annual Goathead Fest, an effort to rid Boise of the tiny, arrow-shaped nuisances responsible for putting holes in countless bicycle tires. (The crew that participated in the effort collected 50,000 pounds of goat heads, according to Hallyburton.)
Not to be overlooked, the BBP co-creator also successfully prompted city officials to embrace the Pathways Master Plan, which Hallyburton created and would bequeath 112 new miles in pathways to Boise.
To be fair, Hallyburton didn’t come up with the idea for a bicycling co-op on his own, nor is Boise the only city that boasts one. Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Tuscon are home to similar bicycling cooperatives, for example. Still, what Hallyburton helped build in Boise is one of the city’s greatest assets, alongside Bogus Basin and the Greenbelt.
For this reason, Boise bicyclists will be forever grateful to Hallyburton and his growing team of employees and volunteers. What he helped create isn’t just a gift, but also a towering legacy.
“To know that there's 16,000 kids who have bicycles and might not have been able to have them otherwise,” Hallyburton explained, “and knowing that they are going to grow up riding around their neighborhoods the same way that I did when I was younger, that makes me so happy and proud.”
"I know when I walk out the door, BBP is going to go on and do bigger and better things."