Please BE KIND to Cyclists
What began as a graduate ethnographic research project became a multi-year mission.
From Ethnographic Researcher to Executive Director
The nonprofit organization Be Kind to Cyclists set out to ease the tension between motorists and cyclists on Texas roads — turning mutual frustration into mutual respect.
As a new-comer to the org, I started by listening: curiously studying how drivers and riders really saw one another, then channeled those insights into "Good Car-ma," an awareness campaign built on one sticky idea — kindness on the road comes back around.
Over the years that followed, my role grew from researcher to Board member to interim Executive Director, stewarding a six-figure Texas Department of Transportation grant and a statewide push to make cycling safer, one mile — and one mind — at a time.
Good Car-ma.
As an ethnographic researcher, I spent months studying the real friction between motorists and cyclists — the assumptions, fears, and frustrations each held about the other. Ride-alongs and surveys became insights, and that became Good Car-ma: an awareness campaign whose name, a wink at karma, captured the whole philosophy — treat each other well on the road, and it comes back around. It reframed a safety problem as a human one: empathy.
Drive Kind. Ride Kind.
Invited onto the Board after my research wrapped, I advised on marketing and promotion before stepping in as interim Executive Director in 2016, to stewarda six-figure grant from the Texas Department of Transportation for the “Drive Kind Ride Kind” campaign — presenting to organizations across the state and leading a citywide campaign to build awareness of the new six-foot safe-passing rule, reinforced with bumper stickers and merch that put the message right out on the road.
Sharing the Story
To carry the message further, I scripted and helped direct a promotional campaign — working hand-in-hand with a film production crew, guiding the shoot, and even recording the voiceover myself. The finished spots drove awareness, donations, and new memberships, turning a grassroots safety mission into a story people wanted to share.