1996-1997
Carson City was seeking public input into and adoption of its first bicycle plan. Anne Macquarie had taken part in the public meetings, and thought afterwards that any plan the city came up with should not be allowed to just sit on a shelf, so she decided to start a bike and pedestrian advocacy organization to make sure the bicycle plan was implemented. What really made the organization take off though, was when it was discovered that the plans for the Carson Freeway included neither landscaping nor the multi-use trail that was in the City’s bike plan. At the urging of Mary Fischer, who was working on getting landscaping included in the freeway plans, a petition was circulated to have the multi-use trail included in the freeway design. The petition got over 400 signatures, and Anne Macquarie presented it to the State Transportation Board, which decided that the multi-use trail should be a part of the freeway project.
1998
A steering committee was formed and through the Sunrise Sustainable Resources Group a grant was received from the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety “to promote bicycle and pedestrian safety through the publication of a newsletter and development of an advocacy group.”
1999
Muscle Powered applied for its 501(c)(3) status and the first Board of Directors was formed:
Anne Macquarie
Kelly Clark
Penny Fairfield
Jim Crompton
Sue Newberry
Ed Skudlarek
History contributed by Anne Macquarie