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The Alliance is hosting a meeting of leaders from community bike shops from across the country during the 2012 National Bike Summit. We invite leaders of community bike shops from across the continent to attend this gathering so your voice can be heard.

Register for the meeting here.

While community bike shops play a critical role in getting more people on bikes, and engaging people and communities whose needs are often not addressed by traditional advocacy groups, there has not been a clear avenue for community bike shops to engage with national advocacy groups. This forum will be an interactive conversation among leaders of community bike shops and Alliance staff to examine how the Alliance can better serve community bike shops across the country.

Space is limited due to the size of our venue, so please register now to ensure you are able to participate. The meeting will be held at Teaism, 400 8th Street NW Washington, DC 20004, just a few blocks from the National Bike Summit hotel.

If you have any questions, please contact Mike Samuelson at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

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.

Interested in sponsorship opportunities? Have additional questions? Contact Carolyn@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.

Thanks to our supporters at Specialized, this holiday season will be particularly merry for more than two dozen community bike shops and Alliance members.

Community bike shops and earn-a-bike programs are on the rise across the country, taking in recycled rides that would otherwise be landfill fodder and wrenching them back into shape for residents who need them most. In many cases, youth and low-income adults get their bike for free if they learn the skills to refurbish and maintain their bicycle. With increased interest in affordable, healthy transportation, these shops are growing quickly — and need supplies to keep pace with demand.

Enter Specialized. In mid-November, they let us know that, in remodeling some of their concept stores, they were looking for a new home for a variety of shop equipment. Understanding the importance of advocacy, they wanted to put the high-end racks, benches and more in the hands of Alliance members. They even offered to ship the items for free.

We immediately put out the word to our members with community bike shops — and got a quick and positive response. Now, organizations like the Fort Collins Bike Co-op, Bici Libre Community Bike Space in Los Angeles and the Revolve Community Bike Shop in Kansas City will ring in the New Year with new equipment to advance their efforts.

“This donation by Specialized will no doubt prepare us for the promise we believe 2012 holds for the Revolve Community Bike Shop,” Elizabeth Bejan, executive director of Revolve, told us. “If the four full months we were in operation in 2011 is any indication, we will need to have handy as much of our Earn-a-Bike inventory and supplies as this former auto repair turned bike repair shop can hold.  As is their custom, Kansas Citians responded generously to news media about us with donations of bikes and accessories and with their time as volunteers. The Specialized shop equipment will allow us to showcase the donations and re-gift them to those who need them. Not only that, but our deserving volunteers get to work and learn in a fun and safe environment.”

Thank you, Specialized!

According to 2009 data, women account for just 24 percent of bicyclists in the U.S. But, on Monday night, female cyclists of all ages and abilities packed the house for a new event hosted by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association.

An innovative evening of collective brainstorming, the Women’s Bicycling Forum convened nine female panelists who shared their bicycle stories and discussed ideas to close the gender gap. Nearly 80 ladies showed up to observe the lively conversation among the diverse bicycling “experts” and toss in their two cents on the timely and important topic.

The forum was the brainchild of Jesse Cohn, WABA’s Women’s Outreach and Advocacy Intern, a new position the organization created this fall. I had the pleasure of meeting with Cohn as she interviewed a number of women in the DC region about what keeps ladies from getting on bikes and how we can convert the large pool of interested-but-concerned riders. I cited some of the work of other Alliance member organizations, like the new Family Biking Guide produced by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and the “Women on Wheels” bicycle education classes offered by Marin County Bicycle Coalition.

For Cohn, the one-on-one insight was a prelude to a more public conversation. As she noted on the WABA blog: “I conceived of the Women’s Bicycling Forum as a way to jumpstart a conversation about this huge topic, bringing together a group of women to discuss the barriers and brainstorm the solutions.”

At least in DC, women are clearly hungry for that discussion; the response was so fast and furious WABA had to claim a bigger room in the West End Library.

To kick off the evening, Cohn set the statistical stage, noting that DC is actually a leading city when it comes to gender parity; more than 30 percent of area cyclists are women. But that pales in comparison to countries like Denmark and the Netherlands where the split is 50-50 — or higher. “We can aim for that one-to-one ratio,” Cohn said. “It is possible.”

That sentiment was shared by the panel, which included:

• Fionnuala Quinn, an engineer with Alta Planning + Design and Vice Chair of the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling
• Katie Knight, General Manager of Revolution Cycles
• Kate Ryan, reporter for WTOP radio station
• Veronica Davis, urban planner and founder of Black Women Bike DC
• Ellen Jones, Director of Infrastructure & Sustainability at the DowntownDC Business Improvement District and former executive director of WABA
• Heather Deutsch, trail planner for the DC Department of Transportation
• Tracy Hadden Loh, Director of National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
• Liz Sherwood, manager at Bicycle Space
• Katie Sihler, Program Director for goDCgo

The conversation and interaction among the panelists was both engaging and inspiring as they spoke truthfully and passionately about their experiences and ideas. The energy was palpable and WABA captured some of the choice quotes with their live Twitter feed from the event.

Just one of the comments that earned an audible amen from the crowded room came from Tracy Hadden Loh: “This is a movement that’s almost totally led by white men,” she said. That certainly sounded familiar to me.

In 2010, at the Alliance Leadership Retreat, a number of female advocates came together as a Women’s Caucus, and addressing the perception and reality of a male-dominated movement was one of the key issues that drove the discussion. We already knew we weren’t the only ones who considered this an important topic. The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals had just completed its Women’s Cycling Survey — and garnered insight from 13,000 women across the U.S.

The consensus at the informal Caucus was clear: We need to create a stronger network of female leaders by providing a venue where we can discuss our experiences, share best practices and get more women involved in the movement. Since then, I’ve been working with a number of advocates and Kit Keller, the executive director of APBP, to create just such a space that centralizes knowledge and fosters community among women bicyclists.

Stay tuned in coming weeks for ways you can get involved in the Women’s Cycling Project. In the meantime, read more about the Women’s Bicycling Forum on the WABA blog.

Photo credit: WABA

In 2009, 14 percent of traffic fatalities were non-motorists. But only six states had funds from the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program specifically coded for bicycle and/or pedestrian projects.

To date, bicycle and pedestrian projects have not received a fair share of HSIP funds — but a new report from Advocacy Advance provides insight into the program, pointers on how to access funds and case studies of advocates’ success in winning those dollars.

Getting a Fair Share for Safety from the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP): Bicycle and Pedestrian Advocacy Case Studies examines the states that have successfully dedicated federal safety funds to reduce bicycle and pedestrian fatalities and crashes.

“In a number of cases, advocates have taken a leading role in ensuring the transportation agency prioritized road safety projects for non‐motorists,” Darren Flusche, the report’s author, writes on the League of American Bicyclists’ blog. “These case studies can help advocates and officials in other states access this untapped resource for badly needed bicycle and pedestrian safety projects.”

Download the full report form the Advocacy Advance website.

Blog contributed by Alliance intern Alex Boardman

Last month, I was lucky enough to travel to Ecuador with my International Environment and Development class. Our trip was intended to be a case study on the trade-off between development and the environment — a topic we’ve focused on over the course of the semester.

The trip wasn’t exactly a vacation, and I was certainly grateful to be back in the United States for Thanksgiving! Luckily, despite all the time off from my internship, the past month gave me some interesting, international insight into bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.

Ecuador was a perfect place to investigate the intersection of development and conservation, because of its constant conflict between preserving such a biologically diverse environment, while simultaneously trying to develop both socially and economically. For example, Yasuni National Park — the world’s most bio-diverse rainforest — has nearly one billion barrels of crude oil buried underneath it, amounting to more than $10 billion in potential revenue for the country. Over the course of three weeks, our trips included stops in Quito, Coca, the rainforest, the Galapagos Islands, and the Otavalo region.

Unfortunately, our first destination, Quito, which is the capital of Ecuador, was not particularly bike-friendly (picture below). Car ownership in Quito has risen more than 45 percent between 2002 and 2008 alone, and it continues to grow at an average rate of 30,000 more cars a year. With this significant increase in cars on the road, even something as simple as crossing the streets in the city is incredibly dangerous. To add further difficulty to bicycling and walking, the city streets are narrow, steep, and incredibly windy. There were virtually no bicyclists or pedestrians throughout the entire city. Our class had to take taxis to even travel three blocks from our hotel. Quito is also built in a valley, surrounded by the Andes Mountains, and suffers from severe air pollution and smog, especially as more and more cars occupy the road.

While Quito, and the rainforest (our second destination), weren’t particularly bike and ped friendly, I was more than impressed by the advanced biking and pedestrian infrastructure in the Puerta Ayora, the main “city” on Santa Cruz, in the Galapagos Islands. Residents and tourists of this small community enjoy streets with broad sidewalks and wide bike lanes. Included along the main road, Avenida Charles Darwin, bicyclists and pedestrians took advantage of two-way bike lanes. Cars seemed largely unnecessary in the town, where nearly everything is in walking distance of the few hotels in town. Residents in Puerta Ayora walked and bicycled everywhere—in fact, the only cars we saw were the white pick-up truck taxis intended for tourists.

In a country where car ownership is on the rise and such a unique environment is increasingly threatened by economic development, bicycle and pedestrian advocacy would be a great asset in Ecuador. In light of the recent holiday, we can certainly be thankful for the amazing groups we already have in place here and can only hope that in the future other countries around the world, like Ecuador will be able to further their bicycling and pedestrian accessibility efforts the way that we have been able to. I’ve certainly seen hope for this in the Galapagos.

The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota (BikeMN) is partnering with other nonprofits and BlueCross BlueShield of Minnesota’s Active Living Program to build a coalition to pass a statewide Complete Streets policy during the 2010 legislative session. BikeMN’s participation in the coalition is funded in part by an Advocacy Advance Grant from the Alliance for Biking & Walking. This will be a great opportunity for BikeMN to significantly increase its membership and train a network of bicycle advocates ready to influence future issues and campaigns at the state and local level.

For more information contact Dorian Grilley at www.bikemn.org.

New laws created last year in New Hampshire requiring motorists to keep a 3-foot distance when passing a bicycle are now in effect. The Bike Walk Alliance of New Hampshire (BWA-NH) has created public service announcements promoting the new law which have aired on 28 New Hampshire radio stations. BWA-NH has also participated in several radio talk shows and are selling T-shirts with “3 Feet Please” printed across the front and back. BWA-NH is also promoting the 3-foot law with the DMV via driver education instructors and is working with the NH Police Academy to ensure all the new bicyclist/motorist interaction laws are covered in their training program.

For more information about BWA-NH’s 3-Foot advocacy efforts, click here…

Bicycling history was made in Wisconsin on April 27th and 28th as more than 450 bicycling enthusiasts from across the state attended the 2009 Wisconsin Bike Summit in Madison. The two-day event featured talks on advocacy, legislative training, and a “Ride on the Capitol” media event, where more than 200 bicyclists pedaled from Monona Terrace to the State Capitol to speak to their Legislators about the importance of bicycling in our communities.

For more information, click here…

Check out a combination effort of four Alliance organizations in Pennsylvania, coming together to forge progress for biking and walking across their state. Find more information at http://www.livablestreets.com/projects/pabikewalk/project-home