Alliance > Media center > People Powered Blog

Entries tagged: Community Cycling Center

Last week, 18 advocates met in beautiful - and sunny! - Seattle to align their biking and walking campaigns toward success. Twelve organizations, three states and two countries were represented, with participants traveling as far as 2,500 miles to attend the Alliance’s most recent Winning Campaigns Training.

The training was hosted by the Bicycle Alliance of Washington and facilitated by Dave Snyder, Executive Director of the California Bicycle Coalition... and me! I’ve been with the Alliance for just more than three months and this was my first time facilitating the workshop. It couldn’t have been better. Every step of the way, I was impressed by the creativity, enthusiasm, and dedication shared by everyone in the room.

University program managers, non-profit organizers, bike shop employees, planners, and engaged citizens brought their diverse perspectives together to develop campaigns for bike lanes, greenways, Safe Routes to School, 20-mph bills and Complete Streets policies.

The Alliance’s 2.5-day signature training uses proven curriculum targeted specifically to the unique needs and experience of bicycle and pedestrian advocates. They are intended for any potential campaign leader who would benefit from gaining the tools to craft and manage powerful advocacy campaigns. “This training breaks down complex efforts into small, doable pieces to promote implementation and action,” said Kathleen Ferrier from Walk San Diego.

“The greatest gift is time – for staff to dedicate to logically think thorough problems and solutions,” said Laura Koch, Program Director of the Community Cycling Center in Portland, OR. Laura attended the training with coworkers from CCC to develop a campaign for bike storage facilities at affordable housing units. “We walked out of the training with a much clearer road map,” she said.

The Alliance’s next Winning Campaigns Training will be held in Lansing, MI from July 26-28.  This training will mirror the curriculum of a traditional WCT, but will be specifically focused on campaigns that relate to Advocacy Advance, a partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists aimed at doubling federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects by 2013. For more information about Advocacy Advance, click here.

This affordable training wouldn’t be possible without the generous support of our sponsors: Planet Bike, VBT Bicycling and Walking Vacations, SRAM, Bikes Belong, AARP, Alta Planning + Design, Clif Bar, Team Estrogen, Sun Bicycles and Specialized.

Click here for pictures from Seattle!

Over the past two years, the advocates at the Community Cycling Center have been snapping portraits of residents who ride, documenting in quick visual fashion why and how Portlanders use their bicycles. Now, with a grant from Kaiser Permanente, the CCC is putting those faces and stories on bus benches in key communities.

According to the CCC: “To broaden access to bicycling and its benefits, change must be initiated on multiple levels. Through campaigns like “I ride”, the Community Cycling Center is working to raise awareness and to affect individual behavior choices. Health behavior research shows that the more people see individuals like themselves engaging in healthy activities, the more likely they are to try to adopt those behaviors.”

But the CCC also recognizes that many area residents don’t have equal access to safe and healthy transportation options. A recent analysis from Portland State University revealed that the local bikeway network is weakest where the highest percentages of communities of color reside. Advocates at CCC are working to change that, pushing for investments for programs and infrastructure to benefit underserved communities.

In that effort, the CCC has partnered with residents in two specific neighborhoods: Hacienda CDC and New Columbia. Since 2009, they’ve provided bikes, helmets and safety education through their Create a Commuter, Bike Club and Bikes for Kids programs. With the grant from Kaiser Permanente, the CCC will be able to boost the visibility of those neighborhoods’ new and veteran bicyclists.

This week, the CCC announced 15 new bus benches that will be located in and feature residents from the Hacienda CDC and New Columbia. The eye-catching, blue ads include residents like Muna, a Somali native who just learned how to ride a bicycle this summer with the help of a CCC volunteer, and Jorge Solo, who uses his bicycle for exercise and to spend time with his children.

“We want to help change perceptions about who is riding bicycles and encourage more people to ride,” CCC Executive Director Alison Graves said in a press release. “Our ‘I ride’ campaign slogan — ‘Bikes take you places’ — leaves it open for people to imagine where they want to go - whether it’s riding to school or getting healthier.”

Read more on the CCC website.