America Walks is thrilled to welcome 4 new members of our Board of Administrators, together with Sam Foster, whose introduction is beneath. View the remainder of our board and employees right here.
Hello, I’m Sam Foster! I’ve been an area bike and pedestrian security advocate in Marietta, Georgia, for the previous few years. For many of my life, I had by no means actually given the constructed surroundings round me a lot thought. Each place I went via was kind of the identical at the back of my thoughts, particularly given that almost all of my time was spent in a automotive. This modified once I moved to Marietta in 2019 to attend Kennesaw State College and began to expertise the world by myself, and sometimes outdoors of a automotive. As I took the bus and walked round, what I noticed would plant the seeds for the advocacy I do at the moment.
It was after I graduated faculty in 2022 that I acquired my first bike and fell in love with secure streets advocacy. Actually experiencing how unsafe it was to get round outdoors of a automotive in loads of the locations I lived made me need to do one thing about it and combat for change. I co-founded, A Higher Cobb, an area nonprofit centered on bike and pedestrian security, in addition to housing affordability and public transit funding. I additionally host Marietta Bike Social, a weekly Saturday bike journey I’ve stored going for the previous few years, to additional advocate for safer streets and likewise to carry folks collectively. In 2025, I launched a bid for mayor of Marietta in opposition to a four-term incumbent, incomes 49.7% of the vote and falling simply 87 votes wanting successful. The next 12 months, I launched Marietta Bike Faculty, refurbishing and donating bicycles to neighborhood members, providing free fundamental repairs, and instructing folks of all ages find out how to journey.
Utilizing your individual two legs to stroll round shouldn’t put anybody susceptible to shedding their life. Pedestrian security has been on the forefront of all the things I do domestically. We want funding in any respect ranges of presidency into higher infrastructure to make {that a} actuality.
That’s why I’m excited to be becoming a member of America Walks as a board member to combat for higher infrastructure not solely the place I reside, however throughout the nation.
