Last week, volunteers working with the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition announced that the social network giant Facebook agreed to provide the funding for bike trails around its new office park in Silicon Valley.
Many of Facebook’s employees are young and transplanted from areas with excellent cycling. Nearly 47 percent of the employees use alternative transportation to get to work. Yet, when Facebook moved into the new space in Palo Alto, the company didn’t realize the difficulties in biking to the campus. Newer cyclists, they realized, might be intimidated by the need to cross highways and ride in traffic.
Andrew Boone (in the video on the right), a member of the SVBC, and a team of fellow volunteers met with Facebook regularly to encourage them to make changes. Their strategy? To show Facebook that improving the infrastructure was good for both the community and the company. It would solve their future parking issues, as well as make it safer for people to bike or walk to work.
What made the partnership even sweeter was Facebook’s idea to help fundraise to complete a bike path near the campus and winding through Silicon Valley. “Facebook plans to help advocate for other companies spending money on bike paths,” Boone said. This support could prove beneficial when the small volunteer team goes to other companies to ask for their support.
But the work is not done. Boone hopes their strategy to understand Facebook’s wants and needs and find solutions that make both groups happy will work with the city council as the council moves forward in building the new bike lanes. Using basic principles of advocacy, the small team of volunteers were able to educate the social networking company and inspire people to join their team.
Boone and his team would not have been able to move this far forward if not for the support of the SVBC. Corrine Winter, President and Executive Director of the SVBC, says her favorite part of the process was “empowering local advocates to make a significant difference in the community.”
That support, and the ability to lend a stronger voice and far reaching network, will help to move this campaign forward in the next few months.
A successful campaign to increase walking and biking sometimes take years, but the right amount of perseverance, skill and timing can lead to a quick win. That’s exactly what happened for Neighborhood Greenways in Seattle.
The group advocates for a citywide network of low-traffic streets that limit cut-through cars and are safe for biking and walking. Only a few months after forming, the group celebrated its first victory, in no small part thanks to the tips they learned at the Alliance’s Winning Campaigns Training in Seattle.
“At your Winning Campaigns Workshop I made some great contacts and did some good strategic thinking about developing a complete citywide network of neighborhood greenways,” said Cathy Tuttle, one of the groups leaders who attended the training last June. “Making a citywide network is something I’ve been thinking about for years. Winning Campaigns helped me think about our own people powered movement in a smarter, stronger, more strategic way.”
The campaign included a well-placed Op-Ed in The Seattle Times that called on members of the City Council to support greenways, while letting Seattleites know that greenways will create a safe place to walk and bike, without forcing people out of their cars.
At a January Neighborhood Greenways Meeting, City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw announced plans to fund several miles of greenways in 2012. Not only has the campaign resulted in a tangible win on the ground, it has also lead to new groups in neighborhoods advocating for more greenways. “Quite frankly what I’m dealing with now is how to manage success,” said Tuttle. “Local greenway groups are springing up all over the region!”
Looking to jump start your next campaign? The Alliance is hosting three more Winning Campaigns Trainings this year in Boston, Houston and Kansas City. Learn more about the trainings and register to attend here.
PHOTO: Exploratory tour of a potential bike boulevard in Seattle courtesy of Neighborhood Greenways.
As we continue our efforts to preserve critical funding for biking and walking in the next federal transportation bill, it’s vitally important that policymakers and the press have the right information when it comes to the benefits and of active transportation. On that note: Andy Clarke has a great post over on the League of American Bicyclists blog debunking some off-base weekend remarks from House Speaker John Boehner.
The executive director of the League points out that: “Speaker John Boehner’s weekend claim that 25% of the highway dollars are ‘siphoned off for non-economic projects – such as beautification and bikepaths’ came as a bit of a shock. The nation’s bicyclists must have gotten a big raise over the holidays, because last November Boehner and his buddy Eric Cantor were claiming only ten percent of highway funds were ‘diverted’ this way. Neither figure is anywhere close to the truth, of course.”
In fact, people who bike and walk make up nearly 12 percent of trips and 14 percent of roadway fatalities but get less than 2 percent — 2 percent! — of federal transportation dollars. If you haven’t already, download the 2012 Benchmarking Report and make sure your local policymakers understand the tremendous impact that tiny sliver of federal funding has on your community.
Read the full blog for Andy here. And stay tuned for future posts fact-checking policymakers statements and providing you the talking points you need to preserve funding for biking and walking during this critical time.
On Thursday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee narrowly voted against preserving the small amount of essential federal funds that make it safer for people who walk and bike across the country. During the contentious vote, 27 committee members supported the bipartisan Petri-Johnson-Lipinski amendment, coming just two votes shy of a victory.
The good news: Thanks to incredible efforts of many local advocacy leaders to engage grassroots members in action, we gained bipartisan support for the amendment and showed Congress that we mean business.
The amendment was introduced with support from both sides of the aisle: Representatives Tom Petri (R-WI), Tim Johnson (R-IL), and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and all committee Democrats voted in favor of the bill. These three Republican Representatives deserve special commendation, because they chose to champion safety for all road users despite extreme pressure from their House leadership to essentially throw school children, pedestrians and cyclists off the bridge to the future.
And we definitely got the House leadership’s attention. The amendment sparked heated remarks from both sides, including an impassioned defense of Safe Routes to School by Representative DeFazio (D-OR).
But there is still a long climb ahead.
Elimination of funds for biking and walking isn’t the only reason the House bill is terrible policy. The House bill puts public transit in jeopardy by diverting transit funds, an issue that has raised the alarm at Transportation for America and the American Public Transportation Association. A coalition of environmental organizations strongly objects to the bill’s environmentally backwards provisions, as well.
The Alliance joins our partners at America Bikes in thanking the tens of thousands of bicycling and pedestrian advocates from across the country who contacted their representatives on the T&I Committee in support of the Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School programs. The amendment also drew support from more than 60 national, state, and local organizations that recognize the importance of federal support for local infrastructure and safety projects. Several Alliance organizations engaged their membership on this effort, and we appreciate their leadership.
As the House bill moves through committee to the floor and the Senate makes progress on its transportation bill, the Alliance is working with America Bikes to engage our organizations in key states that will help ensure influential Representatives and Senators are on our side and can support needed action to protect funding for walking and biking. Please stay tuned for specific emails to engage your organization in this focused strategy and be sure to contact me at Jeff@PeoplePoweredMovement.org with any questions or concerns.
And be sure to register for two important events this Wednesday, February 8:
1 p.m. Eastern: Federal Policy Webinar, hosted by the Alliance and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. We’ll be joined by Caron Whitaker, Campaign Director for America Bikes, who will have up-to-the-minute information from Capitol Hill and insight on collective strategies to preserve dedicated funding for biking and walking in the next federal transportation bill. Register here.
2 p.m. Eastern: Working with Your Members of Congress Mutual Aid Call. Now, more than ever, building and cultivating relationships with your members of Congress is vital to protecting biking and walking funding at the federal level. Hear examples, strategies, tips and insight from Tyler Frisbee, legislative assistant to Congressman Earl Blumenauer; Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists; and Gerik Kransky, Advocacy Director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Register here.
It was a day or two into the 2010 Alliance Leadership Retreat when Alexis Lantz stood up during lunch. The Planning and Policy Director from Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition had a proposal that energized every female leader in the room: The convening of a Women’s Caucus (pictured above).
That gathering at the Leadership Retreat was short, informal — and incredibly inspiring. There was so much to talk about: issues we face as women within our own organizations and the broader movement; how we increase the number of women in bicycle advocacy and boost female mode share out on the streets; how we stay better connected in the time between retreats and summits, building community and sharing ideas to deal with collective challenges and opportunities.
The Women’s Caucus carved out just a tiny window within the tight schedule of dozens of other sessions, but, at least speaking for myself, it was the most powerful and memorable moment from the entire weekend. With little time to develop specific next steps, we had to keep the outcome simple. The main consensus: Let’s keep the conversation going.
We knew we weren’t the only ones talking about these issues. Shortly before the Leadership Retreat, in mid-2010, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals conducted a Women Cycling Survey — and participation was through the roof. More than 11,000 women in the U.S. shared all sorts of information about why they bike, what would make them bike more and a wealth of other opinions and experiences. The insight gained from the (non-scientific) survey was not only revelatory; it was also an incredible spark for a lively discussion at conferences and online.
Clearly, women want to talk about bicycling. And our voices are getting more numerous and more prominent.
According to the Alliance 2012 Benchmarking Report, women are still vastly outnumbered by men, accounting for just 24 percent of bike trips in 2009. But that trend is shifting. A growing number of women from all backgrounds and communities are beginning to ride and getting more involved in the bicycle movement. As female leaders and cyclists, we’re eager to learn from our peers, share our experiences and explore ideas to engage more women.
So, like we said at the Leadership Retreat, let’s continue the conversation. Attend the first-ever National Women Cycling Forum on March 20, 2012 from 2-4 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC.
Hosted by the Alliance and APBP, this forum will provide insight from a diverse panel of women in bicycle advocacy, engineering, government and industry. It will foster collective discussion about best practices, creative ideas and potential next steps in addressing the pervasive gender cycling gap at a national and local level. And it will invite input on the Women Cycling Project—a joint effort of the Alliance and APBP to create a new, interactive, online presence for women cyclists and advocates.
This event will be held in conjunction with the 2012 National Bike Summit—and your presence at this annual event has never been more important. Congress is making important and long-term decisions about the next federal transportation bill and women’s voices and stories are essential to preserving billions in funding for bicycling projects and programs across the country. We’re on the brink of losing the hard-fought progress of the past 20 years and we need a HUGE turn-out at this year’s summit. (Register by February 20 to save $100.)
When you make your DC travel plans, make sure you arrive in time for the National Women Cycling Forum on Tuesday, March 20 from 2 to 4 p.m. This event is open to all interested attendees—both women and men. Sign up for the Forum here, so you’ll get all the details in coming weeks, including the line-up of panelists. And, please, start sharing the link as widely as possible!
Plus, mark your calendars for a Women Cycling Social on Wednesday, March 21 from 6 - 8 p.m. at Busboys and Poets, a very cool venue just a few blocks from the Summit hotel. Stay tuned for details.
Yesterday, the House released its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. We expected the bill to be bad news for biking and walking, but we didn’t think it would go so far as to reverse all progress we’ve made over the past 20 years. (Check out the Top 10 Reasons the House Bill is Bad for Bicycling and Walking from Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, on the right.)
If your member of Congress is on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, please take action TODAY. With a vote coming in the T&I committee TOMORROW, tell your Representative to preserve biking and walking. Click here to contact your Representative through the League’s Action Center.
House leadership is exerting pressure to completely cut bicycling and walking out of transportation. Lawmakers seem to have gone through the bill, line-by-line, to gut programs that make streets safer. The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act:
Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
Removes requirements for states to build bridges with safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
There’s still a chance to save biking and walking. Tomorrow, in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Representatives Tom Petri (R-WI) and Timothy Johnson (R-IL) plan to stand up to leadership by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Petri and Johnson can only be successful if everyone with a stake in safe sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways contacts his or her Representative today.
This is as urgent as it gets. Even if we win this amendment, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress.
If members of the Transportation Committee are going to stand up to House leadership by supporting biking and walking, they need to know their constituents are behind them. Please contact Congress TODAY and ask your Representative to preserve dedicated funding for biking and walking.
If you have a Representative on the T&I committee, please forward this action alert to your members and supporters. Pass it along to all your local partners — particularly high-level contacts like mayors, school board members, and business leaders — and ask them to weigh in, too. And thank you for all you do to advance biking and walking!
In addition to the big Transportation Research Board meeting last week, there was another engaging gathering on bicycle and pedestrian issues — the Transforming Transportation conference hosted by EMBARQ. I attended the panel on ‘Bicycling: How to Achieve Greater Mode Share?’ which featured an international panel from the Netherlands, Cape Town, and China. While the three projects were vastly different in location, the underlying theme was the same: People want to use cycling as a mode of transport and want it to be made easy for them to do so.
Bram van Ooijen, a presenter from China, referenced a recent poll of residents in his province. When asked why they didn’t ride a bicycle anymore, an overwhelming number responded that it just wasn’t safe. China’s car infrastructure has grown exponentially over past decades, taking a nation that relied mostly on the bicycle for transportation to a nation that relies on single car use instead. Some roads in China are as wide as 80 meters and bike lanes are few and far between. But when they made bike lanes part of the new bus infrastructure, and found the money to build greenways around the city, people used them — and people loved them.
In South Africa, it’s a similar story. In Cape Town, panelist Brett Herron explained, the challenge is to integrate not just cycling and cars, but people as well. In a city and a country that has been deeply divided along racial and socioeconomic lines, it’s key to build a cycling infrastructure that can help to bridge that divide.
Luckily, in Cape Town, and South Africa in general, there’s is a law that cycling provisions must be included in new development plans. Because of this, Cape Town has included bike parking and storage facilities at many bus and train stations, and has added elaborate storage facilities (including showers) to all municipal buildings, as well. Herron’s work within the city government has really paid off—Cape Town now boasts almost 2 percent bicycle mode share.
The panelists agreed: If the infrastructure is there, if it’s easy for people to use, then they will cycle. Van Ooijen’s project in China made sure to incorporate the public bike share system with the existing public transportation system. Bike stations are located at BRT stations and can be paid for using the same card as BRT. It’s easy to use the public bikes within a multi-modal commute, and landscaped paths and greenways make it enjoyable to bike that last leg of the journey.
Community participation and ownership of the system is essential to making it work and keeping it working for years to come, as well. Working with the city government has helped to grow the projects in China immensely, especially now that the projects are being completed. City officials are bringing their peers to their town to show off their new greenways and bike paths.
For example, Tom Goderfrooij of Dutch Cycling Embassy, reported that, in the Netherlands, 27 percent of all trips taken are taken by bike. To get to that enviable mode share they slowly upscaled projects and made biking appealing and easy for all levels of society. They created a cycling culture that was not counter to using cars, but supported the mix of both. Goderfrooji’s key point: The best solution is to create an intuitive mix of cars, biking, and walking so that it’s easy and safe for everyone to get around.
Overall, the panel expressed that the key for moving cycling forward is to involve people, showcase the benefits of the system, and find champions in government. Learn from the examples of cities that are doing it well, and adapt their strategies to your own needs.
A new report from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy dispels the commonly held notion that only residents of big cities bike and walk. According to “Active Transportation Beyond the Urban Centers” folks in rural areas travel by bike and on foot as much — and in some cases, even more — than people in major population centers.
“It’s a widespread assumption in popular media and politics that people in small towns and rural areas do not walk or bike for transportation purposes,” says Tracy Hadden Loh, co-author of the report and research manager at RTC. “This report demonstrates that, in fact, rates for walking and bicycling in rural areas are close to, and sometimes higher than, the national average.”
Some key findings in the report include:
In terms of total trips, rural Americans bike at a rate of between 74 percent and 104 percent of the overall national rate, depending on the type of community in which they live.
The share of work trips made by bicycle in small towns is nearly double that of urban centers. Within small towns of 2,500 to 10,000 residents, people walk for work purposes at a rate similar to the urban core communities.
Federal investment in biking and walking benefits rural areas as much or more than urban centers. Rural areas receive almost twice as much funding per capita as urban areas from the federal Transportation Enhancements program
Among a list of travel priorities, rural Americans selected sidewalks more often than any other transportation need and nine out of 10 cited the importance of pedestrian friendly communities.
The report couldn’t come at a more pivotal moment. Congress is moving on the next federal transportation bill and the current House bill guts all funding for biking and walking projects and programs. This report proves that short-changing biking and walking by eliminating programs like Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School affects all communities across the U.S.
“Small communities need safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities just as much as big cities,” says Kevin Mills, report co-author and RTC’s VP of Policy and Trail Development. “To meet this need, Transportation Enhancements has provided twice the funding per capita in rural America than in big cities. This includes rehabilitating walkable main streets in small town that have been bypassed by interstates.”
According to RTC: “In coming years, active transportation can play an even bigger role in making small town America more attractive for young families and business investment — improving economic vitality, traffic safety and overall health in smaller communities in every region of the country.”
Read the full report and check out the interactive map here.
Capacity Building Grants support the development and professionalization of state and local advocacy organizations to increase rates of biking and walking. These matching grants, funded by Planet Bike, can be used for organizational development, hiring staff, building membership, and for other organizational tools to foster a sustainable advocacy organization. Inquiry applications are available online and are due by March 9.
In addition, Advocacy Advance is pleased to offer $35,000 of Rapid Response Grants in 2012 to help state and local organizations take advantage of unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking.
As a former Des Moines resident and one-time RAGBRAI rider, I know bicycling is big in the state of Iowa. Now a new study from the Iowa Bicycle Coalition quantifies that enthusiasm and puts a big dollar figure on its impact in the Hawkeye State.
Last week, I mentioned recent research from Resource Systems Group and Local Motion on the economic impact of biking in Vermont, which revealed that, in 2009, bicycling and walking created at least 1,400 jobs, $41 million in personal income (wages) and $83 million in revenue. In Iowa, those numbers are even higher.
According to “Economic and Health Benefits of Bicycling,” the spending of recreational cyclists generates $364.8 million in direct and indirect impacts to the State of Iowa. And that’s just the economic aspect. When it comes to health, bicycling saves the state $73.9 million in healthcare costs for those who cycle recreationally, while bicycle commuters cash in on another $13.2 million in health care cost savings.
The findings were so impressive they surprised even Mark Wyatt, executive director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition: “The return on investment was much larger than expected.”
Released just before the Iowa Bike Summit, Wyatt used the data to urge continued investment in biking infrastructure, trails and programs. “More opportunities for Iowans to bicycle will help Iowa become the healthiest state,” Wyatt said. “We know a lot of Iowans have bicycles, but may not have ridden them in some time. We need to find ways to encourage more bicycle riding.”
As Carolyn wrote earlier this week, bike share systems are all the buzz among big city transportation officials as an effective, economical and even attractive means to increase mobility in their bustling urban cores. Not to be outdone by the likes of New York City and San Francisco, advocates in Kansas City — recipients of a 2010 Advocacy Advance Grant — have added Missouri to that growing list.
Yesterday, the City of Kansas City passed a resolution permitting the establishment of BikeShareKC and committing to increase the number of bike lanes along BikeShareKC routes.
The new B-cycle system is a joint effort of BikeWalkKC and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City. According to the press release: “BikeWalkKC is partnering with Blue KC to bring bike share to Kansas City as a healthy low-cost transportation option. Blue KC will take the lead in driving development of BikeShareKC by enlisting other leaders in the business community to commit to sponsorships, advertising deals and/or augmenting their employee wellness offering by subsidizing memberships.”
BikeWalkKC and Blue KC aim to have 20 stations with 200 bikes up and running by summer 2012. Bikes will be available nine months of the year, with annual memberships that entitle users to unlimited 30-45 minutes trips around the city. The stations will even be equipped with a smartphone app that will allow riders to determine the availability of bikes anywhere in the system. Plus, using B-Cycle technology, riders will be able to track their miles traveled, calories burned and pounds of carbon dioxide saved.
“BikeShareKC will bridge the awkward distances that are too far to walk but too short to drive,” Eric Rogers, executive director of BikeWalkKC said. “It will also expand the reach of the transit system by providing new options for the ‘last mile.’ And it will help clear the air while giving Kansas Citians a new option for being healthy and active.”
“BikeShareKC offers a much needed alternative form of transportation around Kansas City, while also promoting physical activity to its residents,” added David Gentile, President and Chief Executive Officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City.
Not surprisingly, that question has been a common theme and focus at this year’s massive Transportation Research Board meeting. And, up in Vermont, Alliance member organization Local Motion worked with a local consulting firm, Resource Systems Group Inc., to answer that question for the Green Mountain State.
On Tuesday afternoon, Beth Isler from RSG Inc. drew a crowd to her TRB presentation on the “Economic Impact of Walking and Biking in Vermont.” In conducting the study, Isler explained, she worked with the advocates at Local Motion to distribute more than 150 surveys to bicycle- and pedestrian-related businesses across the state. But that’s not all. She also tapped into data from the Vermont Agency of Transportation on road project expenditures, accessed statistics on visitor spending related to biking and walking events, utilized modeling from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute and correlated information from Walk Score with real estate sales.
The result? Even in a small state, where locals joke that summer lasts just two weeks, biking and walking provide a significant boost to the local economy. Among Isler’s findings:
According to VTrans data, the construction and maintenance of bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects and programs brought $17 million in funding to the state, resulting in more than 230 jobs and $10 million in wages associated with those jobs.
Based on survey data, bicycle- and pedestrian-related businesses brought in more than $56 million in revenue, generating more than 1,000 jobs and $26 million in associated wages.
Forty major events related to biking and walking attracted more than 16,000 participants who brought with them 45,000 additional family and friends. The result? $9.5 million in revenue and 160 jobs which resulted in $4.7 million in wages.
Using models from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, RSG calculated that the vehicle miles avoided by the 68 million miles walked and 28 million miles biked resulted in as much as $85 million in consumer and public health savings.
RSG also cross-referenced the closing prices on real estate with the Walk Score of those locations. On average, the property values of homes in walkable neighborhoods were $6,500 higher than those in car-dependent areas. Add all those homes together and walkability added more than $350 million to the local economy.
Bottom line: In 2009, biking and walking created at least 1,400 jobs, $41 million in personal income (wages) and $83 million in revenue. In addition, the health and property value benefits could bump that up by more than $400 million. Now those are the kinds of numbers that get policymakers’ attention.
I’ll upload the presentation to the Alliance Resource Library soon.
By Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator, America Bikes
For the past 20 years, the federal transportation program has included dedicated funding for biking and walking. Over the course of twenty years and three federal transportation laws, federal support for bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure projects has slowly ticked upwards. As a result, more and more communities feature safe roads for people who travel on foot or by bicycle.
In 1992, Congress passed ISTEA, the first federal transportation bill to include funding for transit, biking, and walking. As each consecutive transportation bill passed and continued dedicated funding for biking and walking, funding increased from $23 million for 50 new projects in 1992 to $297 million for 971 projects in 2000, to a record $1.2 billion for 3,010 projects in 2009.
But now a new transportation bill threatens to eliminate dedicated federal funding for biking and walking.
Next Thursday, February 2, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will vote on the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a bill that eliminates crucial funds for biking and walking. Representatives on the T&I Committee are in a key position to save dedicated funding for biking and walking. If you live in the district of a T&I committee member (click here for a list), please take action today. Click here to send a message directly to your Representative through the League of American Bicyclists’ Action Center.
The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, the long awaited multi-year transportation bill, eliminates the two largest programs that fund biking and walking infrastructure — Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Without these programs, communities across the country will lose resources to build the sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that make biking and walking safer and more accessible.
We can’t let that happen.
Biking and walking are essential aspects of everyday transportation in the US, and turning off federal funding for projects that keep Americans safe would represent a significant step backwards.
Federal funding for biking and walking keeps people safe. Two out of three pedestrian deaths take place on roads built with federal funding, and new sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways help end preventable deaths and make roads safer for everyone. Moreover, biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips and 14 percent of road fatalities, but only 1.5 percent of all federal transportation funding.
We at America Bikes are working with our partners to introduce an amendment that will preserve funding for biking and walking. During Thursday’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee vote in the House, Representatives will have the opportunity to pass this amendment to save biking and walking. If you live in the district of a T&I Committee member, please take action today!
To learn more about this issue and keep up-to-date as the bill moves forward, visit http://americabikes.org/.
This month, the Mill Valley School District passed a new Safe Routes to School policy, initiated by the Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC) that would encourage students in the district to walk, bike, or carpool to school each day. The policy gives support for safety education at school, as well as support for the Mill Valley Safe Routes to School Program.
The goal of the policy is to ensure that students in the district have access to safety education and support for walking and biking to school regardless of any changes in staff or elected officials. The foresighted advocates at MCBC recognized that, without that assurance in writing, progresses in programming could be walked back with a new superintendent or principal.
MCBC began the process by working with a city council member, a school board member, and the superintendent to draft the policy. They based their draft on the California School Board Association’s sample board policy and then adapted it to their specific needs. From there, they took the policy to the school board, where it passed unanimously.
Wendi Kallins, the program director for Safe Routes to School at the MCBC, credits the smooth passage of the new policy to the collaboration with school board members and the school district system. Now MCBC has a local example of how this policy (and the process to get there) can work — and take similar policies to other school districts.
“Don’t overreach but don’t compromise on your basic goal of institutionalizing Safe Routes to Schools,” Kallins says of crafting a similar policy for your community. “You might have to change the policy to say ‘may’ instead of ‘shall,’ but include the elements that are essential: education, encouragement, task force participation for engineering and enforcement, and evaluation.”
Click here to download the model policy from the Alliance Resource Library.
This week, more than 11,000 researchers, engineers, advocates and government officials are gathered here in Washington, DC, for the annual Transportation Research Board meeting. Glancing through the 328-page program this weekend, I had to admit that much of the content looked like a foreign language: I can’t say I’m familiar with the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide or well-versed on Inland Waterway Infrastructure. But being at the conference, I’ve discovered there’s a lot of buzz around biking and walking — even in the sessions that don’t have active transportation in the title.
Yesterday, for instance, I elbowed my way into a packed session on “Mobility Strategies for the 21st Century.” The panel included transportation commissioners from Chicago, San Francisco and New York City and, despite their diverse cities and populations, each of their presentations focused largely on their efforts to boost biking and walking.
“We’ve made lots of significant changes to the streetscape in the past four years,” Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City’s visionary transportation commissioner said. “Prior to 2007, we looked at everything with the planning ethos of 1950. We looked at streets through the eyes of a car. But simply adapting cities to pick up more and more vehicles, more and more traffic, is not a great strategy… So we’re rethinking how we use our streets and realized they weren’t really designed to meet the demands of the population.”
So, since Sadik-Khan took the reins, NYC has started thinking about streets as places, where limited space needs to be allocated to the safety and benefit of all users. Perhaps the first and most visible evidence of this paradigm shift, Sadik-Khan said, was turning Times Square into a pedestrian plaza. In very short order, the city realized massive economic benefits. “Since we closed Broadway [to cars], major flagship stores have moved in,” she said. “Retail rents have doubled in two years and Times Square has turned into one of the top 10 retail locations on the planet.”
Sadik-Khan also highlighted the city’s success in building out its bicycle network and the imminent debut of the Big Apple’s bike share, which will be the largest in the United States. And she wasn’t alone in showcasing bike-ped improvements as the top mobility strategies in her nation-leading city. Edward Reiskin, director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, also touted the Bay City’s upcoming bike share system. He shared that, at any given time, s staggering 30 percent of the congestion in downtown San Francisco is motorists simply looking for parking, and the city’s effort to boost other modes of travel, including biking and walking. He highlighted his agency’s successful and growing use of parklets — re-appropriating parking spots and turning them into pedestrian parks and cafe patios — and raved about the power of people “taking back the streets” during the city’s recurring Sunday Streets ciclovia initiative.
And Gabe Klein, the new commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, added to the chorus of bike-ped enthusiasm. Known for his role in bringing bike share to Washington, DC, when he served as the transportation director in the nation’s capital, Klein shared a funny story that summed up the Windy City’s trajectory. Yes, Chicago is getting bike share, too, but that’s just the beginning of an ambitious plan to make the city more bicycle-friendly. On the day that Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced his new DOT director, Klein was reading through the Mayor’s remarks. When he saw that Emanuel’s speech promised 100 miles of protected bike lanes, Klein got a bit anxious. Was there really the political will and public support to add such significant lengths of cycletracks? Trying to hedge his bets, Klein crossed out the word “protected.” But when the Mayor read his speech he barely stumbled before reinstating that significant distinction. And guess what? The first protected bike lane on Kinzie Street has been phenomenally successful, boosting bicycle mode share on that stretch from 22 to more than 50 percent.
Listening to those inspired transportation officials, all fired up about biking and walking as critical and integral transportation solutions for the 21st Century, I couldn’t help but think of the incredible advocates in those cities who have made that shift possible. From the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to the Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago to Transportation Alternatives in NYC, advocates have laid the foundation for this groundswell by doing the tough, long-term work of elevating the voices and need of people who walk and bike in their communities.
Stay tuned for more from TRB…
PHOTO: Transportation officials in major U.S. cities are excited about bike share as a mobility solution.
A successful campaign to increase walking and biking sometimes take years, but the right amount of perseverance, skill and timing can lead to a quick win. That’s exactly what happened for Neighborhood Greenways in Seattle. 
As we continue our efforts to preserve critical funding for biking and walking in the next federal transportation bill, it’s vitally important that policymakers and the press have the right information when it comes to the benefits and of active transportation. On that note: Andy Clarke has a 
The struggle has only just begun. 
In addition to the big Transportation Research Board meeting last week, there was another engaging gathering on bicycle and pedestrian issues — the 
A new report from the 
Some key findings in the report include:
As a former Des Moines resident and one-time 
As Carolyn 
What’s the economic impact?
By Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator, America Bikes
This month, the Mill Valley School District passed a new Safe Routes to School policy, initiated by the 
This week, more than 11,000 researchers, engineers, advocates and government officials are gathered here in Washington, DC, for the annual 
