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Entries tagged: Bicycle Alliance Of Minnesota

The past six months has seen significant progress in the campaign to include bicycle and pedestrian accommodations on the Interstate 90 Dresbach Bridge. This bridge connects LaCrescent, MN and LaCrosse, WI over the Mississippi River.  Until January, the 100-year design plans to replace this bridge did not include bike-ped accommodations, even though both states have Complete Streets policies.

Local advocacy group Active Living La Crescent worked in partnership with the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota on this campaign with support from an Advocacy Advance Rapid Response Grant. With only six weeks to convince the MnDOT to include bicycle and pedestrian accommodations on the Interstate Bridge, Active Living La Crescent used its grant funds to travel through the region to meet face-to-face with key decision makers and obtain legal consultation that provided contacts to critical individuals, regulatory review and important letters at crucial junctures in the process.

MnDOT’s reassessment of the bridge design was required by the Federal Highway Administration after initial advocacy efforts led by national, state and local bicycle advocacy groups and support from elected officials and staff and leadership of state and federal agencies. “Seldom is a reassessment and a design change achieved so late in the design process,” says Sue Howe, Project Manager at Active Living La Crescent. “It is therefore up to the local elected officials and staff, representing our communities, to insist on sufficient process to ensure that our vision is incorporated into the plans of State and Federal Agencies.”

Local advocates still have work to do to ensure these plans are carried out, but the results of their hard work will serve six generations in creating “a bridge, not a barrier.”

Rapid Response grants have funded the successful campaigns of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin to restore $2 million in state Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program and the Bicycle Transportation Alliance to bring bike sharing to Portland.

Thanks to the support of SRAM Cycling Fund, Advocacy Advance has $35,000 remaining to fund organizations met with urgent and unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking. Visit our grants page or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information on our grant program.

Is the federal transportation reauthorization process getting you down? Take a page from the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota’s book and innovate state funding for your bicycle and pedestrian programs. Let Advocacy Advance help with a Rapid Response Grant.

BikeMN started a campaign last month to include a $3 million appropriation in the 2012 Minnesota Bonding Bill to launch a statewide Safe Routes to School grant program. Advocacy Advance has awarded BikeMN a $3,000 Rapid Response grant to support their efforts.

Their idea has spurred the interest and involvement of the Minnesota Safe Kids Coalition, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, Minnesota Childhood Obesity Legislative Working Group and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, and this grant will help them carry out their lead role. The $3,000 will be used to hire a lobbyist and have a professional presence at the state capitol during the process.

This campaign meets the grant’s urgency requirement. The Minnesota Legislature convened on January 24 for a 10-week session. Without the financial support of their efforts, BikeMN would need to wait until 2014. This precedent-setting allocation of general state revenue to SRTS would have lasting implications on how the state uses spends its transportation funds and could serve as a model for Alliance organizations.

Advocacy Advance is a partnership between the Alliance for Biking & Walking and the League of American Bicyclists with the goal to double federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs and projects by supporting advocacy efforts and agency collaboration at the state and local levels. Our Rapid Response grants can be used to fund campaigns that involve all types of public funding: federal, state, regional and city.

Thanks to the support of SRAM Cycling Fund, Advocacy Advance has $35,000 remaining to fund organizations met with urgent and unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking. There is no application deadline for these rolling grants and accepted proposals will be funded within one month. Visit the Advocacy Advance website or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information on our grant program.

Rapid Response grants have funded the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin’s successful campaign to restore $2 million of the state’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program, the BTA’s bike sharing success in Portland, and Active Living LaCrescent’s bridge accommodations campaign.

Advocacy Advance is a dynamic partnership of the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists aimed at dramatically increasing funding for biking and walking projects and programs.

In 2009, Wisconsin enacted a statewide Complete Streets policy, ensuring all roadways are designed and constructed with all users in mind. In 2010, its neighbor, Minnesota, passed a Complete Streets bill, too. But in 2011, when transportation officials started work on a bridge connecting the two states, they failed to include accommodations for bicyclists and pedestrians.

The Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota (BikeMN), Active Living LaCrescent (ALL) and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin worked hard for the passage of Complete Streets in their respective states. Now they’re fighting to make sure transportation officials implement those policies on the Drebach Bridge.

To aid their urgent and immediate efforts, Advocacy Advance has awarded a $3,000 Rapid Response Grant to BikeMN and ALL for their Dresbach Bridge proposal.

Read more on the Advocacy Advance blog.

In 2009, Dorian Grilley never would have put the small, upstart Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota in the same sentence as a corporate powerhouse like Blue Cross Blue Shield.

But just last month, the two organizations were sharing a press release and celebrating a mutual victory.

Last year, Grilley (pictured right) and another board member from the fledgling Minnesota nonprofit traveled to Denver to attend an Alliance Winning Campaigns Training. One hot campaign that the two considered was complete streets legislation; a bill that would ensure that DOT officials provide safe and accessible accommodations for all citizens, including bicyclists and pedestrians, in future road projects. “We spent a fair amount of time evaluating our capacity and, as a new organization, we really didn’t feel we had the capacity to take on complete streets all by ourselves,” Grilley said.

They didn’t have to.

In an effort to create safer, more active communities, Blue Cross Blue Shield, a major health insurance company, had dedicated itself to the passage of a state complete streets policy. Along with the AARP and other experienced environmental organizations, BCBS gave the new Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition a huge microphone. But they had a hole in their base of support.

“They realized that bicyclists could add significantly to the building of the coalition,” Grilley said. So the Bicycle Alliance ED joined the Coalition steering committee and, with 65 organizations making the case for complete streets, the Minnesota legislature took notice. Both chambers passed a measure that requires the Mn/DOT consider community needs and all likely users in planning future road projects. Last month, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty signed the bill into law.

Kathy Mock, senior vice president for public affairs at Blue Cross, applauded the passage in the Coalition’s press release. “This is smart policy because it provides benefits on so many levels: safety, health, clean transportation choices, and makes transportation dollars stretch farther,” she said
. “
Blue Cross actively supported this effort because making it easier for people to get around on foot or by bike is a great way to encourage more physical activity and thereby improve overall health.”

It boosted the credibility — and pride — of the Bicycle Alliance, as well. Grilley said he was proud the group helped assemble and lead the successful campaign: “It ended up being a great relationship builder for a new, bike nonprofit organization and it really helped grow our membership.”

They’ll need that clout to continue the complete streets push.

“Our work has just begun, because the legislation applies only to state-funded roads,” Grilley said. “We will participate in Mn/DOT’s complete streets implementation committee. But, perhaps more importantly, BikeMN staff and members will need to continue our work of encouraging local units of government to adopt and implement complete streets policies.”

Read about other successful efforts in the Alliance’s recently released Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns, or learn more about the Bicycle Alliance and Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition. 

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.