She’s Back!

We are thrilled to announce that Sarah Johnson is back as a member of the Mode Shift Omaha Board of Directors.

Sarah is an Omaha native and one of the founding members of Mode Shift Omaha. She’s been involved in the bicycle industry in one way or another for the past 18 years and recently closed the Omaha Bicycle Co., her own bike & coffee shop, due to persistent health issues. After stepping away from the MSO Board about 3 years ago, she was able to focus on closing the business and address her physical wellbeing. After another surgery she’s feeling better and ready to re-engage with MSO. Silver lining of the health stuff: she’s now a big believer in the transformative power of electric assist bikes! She and her husband share one car and both primarily rely on electric bikes for transportation year round, including their electric tandem. 

She lived in Lincoln while earning a Journalism degree from the University of Nebraska and has also called Grand Lake, CO home for a few years where she gained first hand knowledge of how bike friendly places can be, particularly compared to Omaha. She’s a long time vocal advocate for safe streets and is comfortable having an unpopular opinion. Sarah is inspired by progress happening in other cities and tries to encourage Omaha to learn from outside successes and then actually implement great projects here. A little less talk, a lot more action! 

Although she’s often disappointed with the decisions the City makes, she does her best to work collaboratively and focus on potential rather than shortcomings. Sarah worked with the City Council to adopt a new policy prohibiting parking in bike lanes and regularly vocalizes her opinions at City Hall. She’s currently working with the Parks Department on changing the language of a proposed electric bike ban and is determined to make sure that trail users aren’t punished but instead encouraged to use our trail system safely. She also works with the NRD to install bicycle FixIt Stations throughout the metro area. 

We have work to do here and she’s excited to be back on the board of Mode Shift Omaha to push for change! Some of her favorite MSO events from the past include the Heyday on May Day, the Save the Specht rally, the Vision Zero press conference which spurred the Mayor into action around the issue, and the Bike/Pedestrian Coordinator rally. She loves bringing people together and empowering them with the knowledge of how to impact the City of Omaha for the better. Sarah looks forward to planning more group rides, rallies, and events to help shift Omaha away from its current car-centric culture.