Worldbike was founded in 2004 as an organization focused on designing innovative bicycle prototypes to advance development in poor countries. Since then, our work has led to new bike technologies used in small-scale development programs in Cuba, Mexico, Rwanda, Senegal, Thailand and the Congo.
Along the way, Worldbike has published articles on bike design for development, helped establish bike manufacturing and repair shops in developing countries and, most importantly, met and worked with a lot of amazing people and organizations using bicycles for development. Much of our work would have been impossible without them. We’re especially proud that two of the first Worldbike cargo bikes are featured in the Smithsonian National Design Museum, “Design for the Other 90%.”
In 2009, Worldbike evolved its focus from bike design to sustainable development. Today, our goal is to take all that we’ve learned over the past decade and apply it as the foundation for rural development that is scalable, sustainable, measurable and cost-effective. Read more about the focus of our programs here.