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Entries tagged: League Of American Bicyclists

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.”

And just one graph (right) from the Alliance’s 2012 Benchmarking Report proves it.

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.

It’s so much worse than we thought.

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.

Take action NOW!

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!

Advocacy Advance – a partnership of the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking and Walking – is now accepting applications for its Action 2020 Workshops.

The goal of Advocacy Advance is to double federal funding for biking and walking through increased spending at the state, MPO and local level where many funding decisions are ultimately made. The partnership plans to meet this goal by producing best practice reports, providing technical assistance, awarding grants and facilitating Action 2020 Workshops.

These workshops bring together advocates, agency staff, and elected officials and are designed to ensure that participants have the knowledge, skills and resources to access untapped or under-utilized federal funding sources at the state, regional and local level to build bicycling and walking infrastructure and programs. Applications to host a workshop are due Friday, February 24.

Read more about Action 2020 Workshops and how to apply on the Advocacy Advance blog.

Photo: Action 2020 Workshop in Tucson, Arizona

Three of America’s largest cycling organizations — Adventure Cycling Association, Alliance for Biking & Walking, and the League of American Bicyclists — wish to thank the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) for the significant improvements the agency made last week in an important technical advisory (TA) regarding the application of rumble strips on U.S. roadways.

Rumble strips are raised or grooved patterns in a road’s shoulder designed to alert drivers with noise and vibrations that they are drifting off the roadway. Properly applied, rumbles can serve as a safety device for motorists. However, if applied on narrow, shoulder-less roadways or in a way that covers a paved shoulder, rumble strips can make it difficult or impossible for cyclists to use a roadway.

The FHWA issued a revised TA on rumble strips in May 2011, the first such revision in 10 years. The TA is important because it provides official national guidance on the use of rumbles and influences state and local agency action in their use of rumbles on roadways of all types. FHWA had indicated that this new advisory would substantially improve the TA’s guidance on the application of rumble strips and how they affected bicyclists.

Unfortunately, the May 2011 TA went backwards from the 2001 TA in its lack of inclusion of cyclists’ safety issues. There was little mention of the needs of cyclists or the need for a public process regarding the application of rumble strips during road reconstruction or paving. These three national cycling groups contacted FHWA and the US Department of Transportation with many specific concerns and technical advice about revising the TA, and agency leaders indicated they would revisit the document.

The newly revised TA (Shoulder and Edge Line Rumble Strips, Technical Advisory T 5040.39, Revised 1), released on November 16 is a substantial improvement. It includes a new section about the accommodation of all roadway users (Section 9), with a special emphasis on the needs of cyclists, and lays out “a number of measures that should be considered to accommodate bicyclists,” including wide shoulders, bicycle gaps (intervals without rumble strips that allow cyclists to safety cross back or forth), and customized rumble treatments to allow more space for cyclists. The new TA also includes a significantly improved section on public outreach and involvement.

There are still sections of the new TA that raise concerns for cyclists, including Section 7b, which identifies the optimal “length” (or width) of rumble strips as 16 inches, a dimension which can make it more likely that these strips will cut into useable road shoulder space for cyclists.

The three national organizations reiterate the importance of local citizens and organizations in paying close attention to the proposed addition of rumble strips on existing roadways or added when roads are being built, reconstructed or repaved. In addition to FHWA’s new advisory, further background and guidance can be found in a report by the League of American Bicyclists (Bicycling and Rumble Strips) and a report on state-by-state use of rumbles prepared by Adventure Cycling Association (State Rumble Strip Policies). Adventure Cycling has also developed a Flickr page where people can share photos of well-designed and poorly-designed rumble strips.

For more information, contact:

• Ginny Sullivan, Special Projects Director, Adventure Cycling, 800-755-2453, x229, gsullivan@adventurecycling.org
• Walter Finch, Advocacy Director, League of American Bicyclists, 202-822-1333, walter@bikeleague.org

Pre-applications for the third round of Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds are due October 3. These merit-based grants support projects that are is multi-modal, non-traditional, and hard to fund through traditional channels.

The funds, totalling $527 million, will be balanced both geographically and modally, with at least $140 million to be used in rural areas. Among the other requirements:

• Grants for urban areas must be between $10 million and $200 million and require a 20% match
• Match requirement can be waived for rural projects
• Funds cannot be used for planning or NEPA
• No more than 25% of the funds ($131 million) may be awarded to projects in a single state

Read the recent League blogs for more information on how to win a TIGER 3 grant for bicycle and pedestrian projects and tips on submitting a TIGER 3 benefit-cost analysis.

The Alliance for Biking & Walking is accepting applications for a fall intern to work with Advocacy Advance – the partnership of the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists – to help boost local and state bicycle and pedestrian advocacy efforts.

The Advocacy Advance Intern will gain knowledge and skills related to federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects and the advocacy efforts to secure and utilize this funding at the state and local level nationwide. Work will include assisting with outreach to member organizations, development of a compendium of state profiles, sharing best practices of bike/ped organizations, and research of federal transportation funding.

This internship – based in Washington, D.C. – offers a flexible schedule with a fifteen-hour-per-week minimum commitment for three months. Applications are due by August 19th, 2011, with an anticipated start date in early September.

For a full position description and application information, click here.

Yesterday, the US Department of Transportation held an afternoon seminar on TIGER 3 funding — and Darren Flusche, policy analyst for the League of American Bicyclists was there, taking notes and asking questions about drawing down federal dollars for bike-ped projects.

So what’s TIGER 3? Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) funds are merit-based grants awarded to communities with “innovative transportation projects that will create jobs and have a significant impact on the nation, a region or a metropolitan area.” In this latest round, $527 million will be doled by the US DOT. And, as Flusche writes: If your local transportation agency has a strong project that is multi-modal, non-traditional, and hard to fund through traditional channels, TIGER 3 might be a viable source of federal dollars.

“Bicycle and pedestrian projects have done well in the first two rounds of TIGER grants,” Flusche notes on the League blog. “Sixty-eight of the 125 successful TIGER grants included bicycle and/or pedestrian components in their project descriptions. Several funded projects were stand-alone bicycle and pedestrian projects, like the Philadelphia Area Bicycle Network and the Indianapolis Bicycle and Pedestrian Network funded in the first round. Several Complete Streets projects were also funded.”

With that in mind, Flusche attended the “Lessons on How to Compete for a USDOT TIGER Grant” session. He even got a chance to get specific feedback from the panel experts on questions like:

• What makes a good bicycling and walking project?
• How can you make a project more attractive by including a bicycle/pedestrian component?
• How can you best measure the benefits of bicycle and pedestrian projects?

Read the answers and a wealth of other tips from yesterday’s seminar on the League’s blog.

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.

This week, the Federal Highway Administration announced a huge pot of money won’t be doled out by Congressional earmarks, but rather by a competitive, merit-based process that will direct dollars to the most effective projects. And the best news: Bicycle and pedestrian projects are eligible for virtually every dime.

The $422 million is coming from 11 funding programs and applications are due June 3. The programs include:

• Delta Region Transportation Development – $10 million
• Ferry Boat – $47 million
• Highways for LIFE – $20 million
• Innovative Bridge Research and Deployment – $4.5 million
• Interstate Maintenance – $100 million
• National Historic Covered Bridge Preservation – $9 million
• National Scenic Byways – $43.5 million
• Public Lands Highways – $98.5 million
• Rail Highway Crossing Hazard Elimination in High Speed Rail Corridors – $21 million
• Transportation, Community, and System Preservation – $61 million
• Truck Parking Facilities – $7.5 million

How do ferry boats and Highways for LIFE relate to bike/ped projects? Darren Flusche, policy analyst for the League of American Bicyclists and Advocacy Advance team member, spells it all out on the League’s blog. “Bicycle and pedestrian projects are eligible for almost all federal-aid transportation programs,” he notes, but, perhaps the most promising pot is the $61 million available through the Transportation, Community, and System Preservation program.

“TCSP could potentially be a significant opportunity for bicycle and pedestrian projects, an FHWA official told me,” Darren writes. “Many previous TCSP projects have benefited pedestrians and bicyclists. States, MPOs, and local governments can receive grants for projects that will ‘improve the efficiency of the transportation system, reduce environmental impacts of transportation, reduce the need for costly future public infrastructure investments, ensure efficient access to jobs, services and centers of trade, and examine development patterns and identify strategies to encourage private sector development patterns which achieve these goals.’ Livability is the first criterion listed.”

We know May is a busy month, not just with Bike to Work events, but with federal asks, too. We also understand that a June 3 deadline for applications is a tight window. But this is a huge opportunity to draw down federal dollars for bike/ped projects. As Darren points out on the blog: “If advocacy groups are aware of eligible projects, they should work with the appropriate elected and agency officials to develop a proposal.”

If there’s a project in your area, please take advantage of the knowledge and resources available from the Advocacy Advance program and its staff. Also, check out the description of our Rapid Response Grants if you need quick, short-term funding to get an application together.

For questions or assistance, contact Brighid O’Keane, the Alliance’s Advocacy Advance Program Manager, at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

To kick off National Bike Month with some serious national buzz, the League of American Bicyclists announced the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Community designations yesterday.

According to the League: “The BFC program recognizes communities that promote bicycling and provides technical assistance in the form of a roadmap to help cities build great communities for bicycling. The League has identified projects, policies, programs and plans that most effectively improve cycling conditions and make up the foundation of a bicycle-friendly community.” The lure of bronze, silver, gold or platinum designation has helped and inspired hundreds of municipalities to improve conditions for bicyclists. In fact, since the program’s inception, the League has received 452 applications and designated 179 BFCs in 44 states.

In the latest round announced yesterday, Minneapolis took gold, while Boston, New York City, and Washington, D.C., earned silver. A number of new cities were added to the list with bronze status, too, including Kansas City, MO; Harrisonburg, VA; and Juneau, AK to name a few. While BFC designations give government leaders well-earned recognition, these awards aren’t confined to City Hall. In many (if not most) communities, bicycle advocates play a pivotal role, pressing policymakers to pursue BFC status and providing the public backing to execute the projects and programs that get them there. As we noted in our 2010 Benchmarking Report: “Strong advocacy organizations are often necessary to local jurisdictions with hopes of passing and implementing progressive policies for biking and walking. Government and elected officials passionate about these issues often promote or work with emerging advocates, recognizing the need for increased citizen involvement in policy discourse.”

So kudos to visionary leaders like Mayor R.T. Rybak in Minneapolis, Mayor Thomas Menino in Boston and Janette Sadik-Khan, the commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation. But congratulations to advocacy organizations, like the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition, Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, Boston Cyclists Union, LivableStreets Alliance (Boston), MassBike, Transportation Alternatives (NYC) and so many more for working with their government representatives to boost biking and walking in their communities, too.

Read all about the BFC program and latest winners on the League’s blog.

Join us this Thursday, April 7th at 3 p.m. Eastern for a question-and-answer call for prospective applicants for Advocacy Advance Capacity Building Grants. Click here to register for the call.

Capacity Building Grants support the development and professionalization of state and local advocacy organizations to increase rates of biking and walking. Click here for a detailed outline, including guidelines, criteria and other requirements.

Advocacy Advance is a partnership of the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists. This year, a total of $125,000 in awards will go to organizations applying for Model, Rapid Response, and Capacity Building Grants. Visit the new Advocacy Advance website, to learn more about our three types of grants.

If you have any questions, contact Brighid at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). If you can’t make it, a recording of the call will be posted early next week. If you missed last week’s Q&A call on Model Grants, click here for the recording.

Last week, Advocacy Advance – a partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists – announced the opening of the 2011 grant cycle. This year, a total of $125,000 in awards will go to organizations with campaigns aimed at maximizing transportation spending on biking and walking at the state, regional, and local levels.  Learn more about our three types of grants at www.AdvocacyAdvance.org/grants.

Join us today, March 29th at 3 p.m. EST, for a question-and-answer session for prospective applicants for Model Grants. Model Grants provide multi-year support to state and local advocacy organizations with efforts to significantly increase federal investment at state, regional, and/or local levels for biking and walking infrastructure and programs. Click here for a detailed outline, including guidelines, criteria and other requirements.

Contact Brighid at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for the conference call number and access code. A second question-and-answer call about Capacity Building Grants will be held on April 7th. Stay tuned for the details.

Back in November, we were excited to announce renewed funding for the Advocacy Advance partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists. Since 2009, this dynamic program has allowed the League and Alliance to produce important research, provide critical technical assistance and award hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct grants to organizations across the country.

In 2011, Advocacy Advance has a renewed focus: tapping into underutilized or new sources of funding to boost bicycle and pedestrian projects in your community. Along with that fresh focus, the program also has a new website. Check it out!

At AdvocacyAdvance.org you can learn more about our mission, mark your calendars for upcoming trainings, get updates on our grants program, and read all the past reports from the Advocacy Advance research team. While you’re there, be sure to sign up for our e-mails and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter, so you’ll be in the know when we post new reports or open registration for our Action 2020 workshops.

Interested in Advocacy Advance grants? I’ll be posting more information in a matter of days, so make sure you’re tuned in to AdvocacyAdvance.org.

A couple weeks ago, my colleague at the League of American Bicyclists, Meghan Cahill, tried to convey the power of the pin. They may be plastic and, yep, they’re neon, but people go crazy for those little bike pins, she told me.

Yesterday, as I lobbied with the Missouri delegation on Capitol Hill, I saw that love affair first hand.

Everybody wanted a bike pin: receptionists, lobbyists, even random people in the elevator. We gave one to the staffer in Sen. Claire McCaskill’s office, who told us he rides to work everyday on Capital Bikeshare. We gave a handful to an assistant in Rep. Jo Ann Emerson’s office, who told us she owned a Trek and needed a couple extra for brothers who ride centuries. We dug in our bags and raided our own lapels to make sure the entire staff in Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s office had a way to showcase their boss’ incredible and continued support.

In the halls of the Senate and House office buildings, I saw bicycles pinned to countless suit jackets — and not just those of fellow National Bike Summit attendees. Those cheap plastic pins revealed something priceless: the near-universal appeal and affection for the simple act of bicycling.

That’s not to say our members of Congress were willing to commit to supporting continued dedicated funding for biking and walking programs. Many of the staffers told us they were with us on the benefits of active transportation but, facing a crushing deficit, they couldn’t commit to protecting any program no matter how valuable. So, while I was on cloud nine seeing all those bike pins, I know we need to get grounded for some serious work in the coming weeks and months.

We know we have an impact. Last month, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief when our programs weren’t attacked in the hundreds of amendments to the 2011 House budget. That wasn’t dumb luck; that was the result of local and state advocates engaging their members of Congress in dozens of in-district meetings, highlighting the benefits of bicycling and, perhaps more importantly, showcasing the strong, influential constituency of our growing, bi-partisan movement. Alliance member organizations certainly led the way.

Late last year, America Bikes organized a national push to educate members of Congress in 182 key districts. Alliance leaders stepped up, committing to organize meetings in 86 key Congressional districts in 20 different states. So far, 25 have held meetings, 14 have scheduled meetings and 32 have meeting requests into their members’ offices. Those opportunities for education and relationship building are still more critical than ever. Though we dodged one ax in the House, we’re not out of the woodshed yet — not by a long shot.

So, as we all go back to our home districts, let’s remember the halls of Congress lit up with those neon bike pins. More importantly, when our members of Congress start making tough decision in the 2012 budget and the next transportation bill, let’s make sure they remember the critical programs and unified movement those popular pins represent.

Photo: League of American Bicyclists

Are you attending the National Bike Summit?

The Alliance is excited to be a Steel sponsor of the Summit, a key annual event hosted by our partners at the League of American Bicyclists. If you’re coming to DC, be sure to stop by our table to say hello.

Pick up new Alliance materials that will be hot off the presses, like our 2010 Annual Report, 2011 Calendar Cards and Safe Routes to School Activity Books. Swing by to meet our new Advocacy Advance Program Manager, Brighid O’Keane, and chat with the rest of the Alliance crew about campaigns, programs and initiatives you’re working on in your community.

Plus, we’ll have a guest star joining us. Mia Birk, principle at Alta Planning + Design , will be hanging out with us Wednesday morning and the first 100 folks who stop by will get a free copy of her book “Joyride.” If you’re not familiar with Birk or her book, click here or here to read a review and interview I recently wrote for Momentum magazine.

For more information about the Summit, click here.

The Alliance is pleased to announce the hiring of its new Advocacy Advance Program Manager: Brighid O’Keane.

Brighid moves to Washington D.C. from the Bay Area, where she recently opened the Berkeley Student Food Collective and served as its Program Director. An environmental studies graduate of the University of Colorado-Boulder, she has worked in Colorado, California, Alaska, and Thailand as a naturalist, community organizer, and alternative educator. She is on the Board of Peers for the Educational Network for Global and Grassroots Exchange, which aims to train and connect young activists nationwide. While in California, Brighid led a Global Exchange Bike Aid ride for area youth through the central coast, and a few years ago biked through Donegal, Ireland.

Brighid is excited to bring her experiences working with nonprofits, her background in organizational development, and her passion for active transportation to the Alliance. “I am glad to bring my love for biking, walking, sustainability, and grassroots organizing to the Alliance and am excited to work with all its members to get more people biking and walking in their communities,” Brighid says.

As the Advocacy Advance Program Manager, Brighid will administer the Alliance’s Advocacy Advance Grants program; coordinate and facilitate Advocacy Advance trainings; and work closely with our partners at the League of American Bicyclists as we work to double federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs by 2013.

Stay tuned for more exciting news about Advocacy Advance in coming weeks!

A couple weeks ago, I wrote about my field trip to Vienna, Virginia, to help the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling launch their Guide to Public Road Design and Bicycling Accommodations. It’s an incredibly useful resource for advocate across the country; it demystifies the complicated road design process for folks who don’t have an advanced degree in engineering.

But it’s also a great example of the impact of Advocacy Advance — a partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists. As I mentioned in the post, the folks at FABB were among the first recipients of an Advocacy Advance Grant, and they turned a small nugget of money into advocacy gold.

Well, just a few days after my trip to Vienna, another Advocacy Advance recipient marked a major milestone, too.

Established in 2000, the Central Connecticut Bicycle Alliance quickly built a winning foundation. In less than a decade, they created and grew the Discover Hartford Bicycling and Walking Tour into an annual event that draws 1,000 participants. They cultivated local Bike to Work events and successfully advocated for a three-foot passing law at the Connecticut state legislature. By 2009, they were ready to take the next step. They were ready to go statewide.

To assist that transition, the Alliance awarded the CCBA a $15,000 Advocacy Advance Startup/Capacity Building Grant in November 2009. In just one year, they’ve made tremendous progress.

On April 2, the CCBA took on a new name: Bike Walk Connecticut. With that title change, they also came up with a vibrant, colorful and creative new logo. This summer, they launched their search for an executive director and started gathering furniture to set up a formal office. Then, just this month, they hosted their first statewide summit — with great success. According to BWC’s latest newsletter:

On November 13th, 150 people who want a bike- and walk-friendly Connecticut gathered at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain to attend Bike Walk Connecticut’s first statewide summit… Speakers included state legislators, a DOT bureau chief, doctors, lawyers, planners and law-enforcement officials… Mary Collins, award-winning author of ‘American Idle: A Journey through our Sedentary Culture’ opened the summit recounting why she wrote the book and what she learned about the causes and effects of inactivity on individuals and society as a whole. Tim Blumenthal, president of the Bikes Belong Coalition, closed the event explaining what’s happening on the federal level and why it’s so important that all of us who care about a bike- and walk-friendly Connecticut let our local, state and federal elected officials know what we want.”

Way to go, Bike Walk Connecticut!

Check out pictures here. 

Last week, on the very same morning, we celebrated the past, present and future of the Advocacy Advance initiative.

When I arrived at the Patrick Henry Library on Thursday morning, I was still putting the finishing touches on the Alliance’s press release announcing SRAM’s continued support (to the tune of $1.2 million) of Advocacy Advance — a partnership between the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists.

But the reason for my Virginia field trip was to congratulate the recipients of one of the very first Advocacy Advance Grants. Last year, the Alliance awarded the Fairfax Advocates for Better Bicycling a $9,600 grant to create a new handbook on the complex subject of road design. The folks at FABB took the challenge and knocked it out of the park.

A perfect example of the intent of Advocacy Advance, the Guide for Reviewing Public Road Design and Bicycling Accommodations is simple to read, nice to look at and absolutely essential to any advocate working for better bicycling infrastructure. It demystifies the complicated process and gives folks who don’t have an engineering degree the knowledge they need to get engaged in the process that shapes their streets.

For the public launch of the guide, a diverse group of advocates and officials braved a downpour to celebrate. Bruce Wright and Fionnuala Quinn (pictured above), the two FABB advocates who played the lead role in the creation of the guide, had plenty of people to thank, from members of their own organization to transportation planners at the county and state level. But every one of the speakers turned the tables and praised Wright and Quinn for compiling such a valuable resource for bike advocates across the country.

Shane Farthing, the executive director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, said his copy of the guide is already dog-eared and well-worn. In fact, he said, it was one of the first things he read when he took the top job at WABA. But it’s not just advocates who are pouring over its contents. Doug Miller, from the Virginia Department of Transportation, said he took a stack of guides to a VDOT district meeting and it made quite the impression on his colleagues, too.

Andy Clarke, president of the League, noted that FABB, a small volunteer group, had to compete against the proposals of numerous big-city organizations with sizable staffs and budgets to receive the Advocacy Advance Grant. But the Guide to Road Design, Clarke said, has had perhaps the biggest impact of any grant awarded thus far. “The stuff that makes life better for bicyclists is done at the local level,” he said. “And this will be really useful.”

In fact, the guide is proving so useful — and in-demand — that FABB is working on a template that would allow your organization to use the information and structure of the guide and simply tweak some of the contents to fit your city, state or region.

In the meantime, if you haven’t read it yet, click here to download the guide from our Resource Library. For pictures of the event, check out the Alliance Flickr page.

Like everyone else in Washington, D.C., bicycle and pedestrian advocates expected a Republican surge in last week’s midterm elections. We knew a conservative Congress would have major implications for the next federal transportation bill. We were bracing ourselves for new faces and fresh challenges on Capitol Hill.

What we were not expecting was the loss of one of our most dependable and powerful champions — Minnesota Congressman Jim Oberstar.

Oberstar was elected to Congress in 1974, and, since his very first term, served on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. For three decades, the Minnesota Democrat pushed to get bicyclists and pedestrians recognized and treated as “intended users” of our public roads. In the last wave election in 2006, when Democrats took control of the House, Oberstar was elected chairman of the transportation committee. A few months after he claimed leadership, he told a crowd at the National Bike Summit: “We’re going to convert America from the hydrocarbon economy to the carbohydrate economy.”

Well, now we’ll have to do it without him. In a race decided by a mere 4,000 votes, Oberstar lost his reelection bid to Republican Chip Cravaak.

Jonathan Maus, reporter and editor of BikePortland.org, might have summed it up best. “Oberstar’s loss signals the end of an era for America’s bicycle movement,” he wrote. “[He] was a titan of non-motorized transportation.”

Andy Clarke, over at the League of American Bicyclists, outlined the Congressman’s key role in a variety of bike-ped victories. “Over the past 20 years, you can trace many of the gains we’ve made straight back to the desk of Jim Oberstar,” Clarke wrote. “Broad eligibility for transportation funds, the Safe Routes to School Program, state bicycle coordinator positions, the requirement to plan for bicyclists at the state and regional level, the non-motorized pilot projects — all started with him.”

Oberstar wasn’t out of bold, new ideas, either.

Last year, the Minnesota Democrat released the House transportation committee’s first stab at our nation’s next — and already overdue — federal transportation bill. The bill roundly criticized our over-reliance on automobiles. It established an Office of Livability, which would study cyclists’ rights and dramatically expand research on biking and walking. The bill also gave significant support to the creation of a U.S. Bicycle Route System.

Unfortunately, we won’t have Oberstar advancing such progressive and needed ideas when Congress tackles transportation reauthorization next year.

In his concession speech, the 18-term Congressman spoke at length about his transportation legacy, giving equal attention and pride to improvements and projects for cyclists and pedestrians as he did major bridge and highway projects.

“The Lake Walk in Duluth will survive long after my service,” Oberstar said. “People will be walking and biking and enjoying a better quality of life… The extension of the Sunrise Prairie Trail will link Canada and the Twin Cities with a continuous bicycle facility that will be the envy of the nation… The Paul Bunyan Trail, for which I have great affection, when we first started promoting it had 40,000 users. Last year, it had 650,000 users and was an engine of economic growth and stability.”

His legacy extends far beyond the borders of Minnesota. It’s not just the hundreds of thousands of people who bike and walk the Paul Bunyan who are flooding his inbox with their gratitude. Oberstar is — and should be — getting thank-you notes from every corner of the country.

Deb Hubsmith, the executive director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership, was among the first to write an open letter to Oberstar last week. “Through your 36 years of inspired leadership as a Congressman, you reformed the transportation system to make it multi-modal, institutionalized walking and bicycling within state Departments of Transportation, and ensured that the safety of children on the trip to and from school is a priority for transportation planning and construction,” Hubsmith wrote. “Thanks to your leadership, foresight and hard work, many thousands of schools and communities across the country are now making it safer for children to walk and bicycle to and from school, and in everyday life.”

Caron Whitaker, at America Bikes, hopes many bicycle and pedestrian organizations follow Hubsmith’s lead. “[Oberstar] was a bulldog on our issues and in a position to push for us with leadership,” she wrote last week. “We should consider how to thank him.”

Please take a moment this week to send the Congressman a note on behalf of you or your organization — jim.oberstar@mail.house.gov. Another, and perhaps even more important, way to thank Oberstar, though, is to start building on his legacy. To do that in a difficult and divided political climate, we need to start mobilizing at the local and state level to educate our newly elected U.S. Senators and Representatives. “We want to make sure these new members of Congress are aware that there is a well-organized constituency for bicycling and walking in their district/state,” Whitaker suggested. “They may not have formed their positions on transportation yet; now is a good time to introduce them to our issues.” So, reach out to your Congress member and set up a meeting before they head to Washington.

At his press conference, Oberstar said he’ll find a way to continue his service to the American people, though it won’t be from Capitol Hill. “There will be opportunities for public service,” he said. “I’ll reflect for awhile and look for something in the public arena.”

Clarke, for one, hopes the Congressman saves room in his schedule to take advantage of the fruit of his labors; set aside some time to cruise the Prairie Sunrise or Paul Bunyan trails he worked so hard to fund and promote. “If anyone deserves to enjoy the simple pleasure of a bike ride,” Clarke wrote, “it’s Jim Oberstar.”

Photo: Congressman Jim Oberstar

The League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking & Walking are pleased to announce a new, three-year campaign to double federal funding for bicycling and walking by 2013. The Advocacy Advance initiative is backed by renewed support from SRAM, an innovative maker of bicycle components.

The League and Alliance have been awarded up to $1.2 million from SRAM over the next three years to unite active transportation advocates across the nation and give them tools and resources to secure increased funding from existing federal transportation programs for critical bicycle and pedestrian projects.

“At SRAM we believe that bicycles improve the environment, ease congestion, reduce the cost of transportation and create healthier communities,” says Stan Day, SRAM CEO. “The biggest barrier to increased bicycle use in daily lives is the lack of appropriate infrastructure, and local bicycle advocates are working to break down those barriers across the country. The Advocacy Advance campaign will empower those advocates to dramatically improve conditions for bicyclists.”

The Advocacy Advance partnership was created two years ago, with major funding from SRAM. Under that banner, League and Alliance staff research issues vital to the bicycling community and create reports that give advocates the data and knowledge they need to effectively promote bicycling. The partnership also awarded more than $500,000 in direct grants, technical assistance and scholarships to build the capacity of local and state bicycle advocacy organizations and jumpstart innovative campaigns.

Building on these successes and stepping up to a new challenge, the Advocacy Advance Team is now strategically targeting federal funding. While bicycling and walking make up 12 percent of all trips in the U.S., those modes receive less than two percent of federal transportation dollars. By 2013, that will change.

“Our initiative to double the federal investment in bicycling and walking projects in three years is both bold and essential to creating more livable communities,” says Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “SRAM’s commitment to Advocacy Advance demonstrates its leadership in the industry, and its faith in the powerful partnership between the League and Alliance to accomplish this goal.”

“We know local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy leaders have both a remarkable passion and the community connections to make real change on the ground,” says Jeffrey Miller, Alliance President/CEO. “The Alliance and the League are committing to work even more closely with those leaders to deliver strategic training, assistance and grants so they can make communities better places to bike and walk.”

More details about Advocacy Advance will be released in coming months.

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