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Entries tagged: Oregon

This summer, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Oregon’s statewide advocacy organization, received a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Response grant to assist in its advocacy efforts to bring bike share to Portland.

Last month, the bike share program won its final stages of approval — a unanimous vote of the Metropolitan Planning Organization followed by a final allocation decision by the Metro Council — thanks, in large part, to the BTA.

The bike share program will have 740 bikes located at 74 bike stations throughout downtown Portland, encouraging thousands of new riders in the central business district and enhancing safety associated with increased ridership. The $2 million capital investment in bike share is on the list of regional transportation projects approved for federal “flexible funds” by the Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation (JPACT).

This decision reflects earlier campaign success, when the Portland City council voted in support of the $2 million in Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) money for a capital investment in bike sharing.

Concerns raised at the JPACT meeting will bolster BTA’s equity commitment in the region and emphasized the importance of ensuring that the program will meet the needs of all users equitably and affordably.

Advocacy Advance is a partnership of the Alliance and League of American Bicyclists aimed at boosting federal funding for biking and walking projects and programs on the state and local level. Thanks to the support of the SRAM Cycling Fund, Advocacy Advance has $13,000 remaining to fund organizations met with urgent and unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking. Visit the Advocacy Advance Grants page or e-mail Brighid O’Keane for more information on our grant program.

Last month, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) held a Bike Commute Challenge that attracted 12,000 individuals from 1,450 workplaces in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Collectively, that pool of participants commuted more than 1.3 million miles by bicycle and potentially saved taxpayers nearly $75,000 in road maintenance costs alone.

So how did they do it? I got in touch with BTA’s Programs Director, Stephanie Noll, to get some insight on that strategies and actions that made the event such a phenomenal success.

• First, the organization has a presence in area workplaces throughout the year. To draw in new participants less familiar with bike commuting, BTA regularly holds Bike Commuting 101 workshops at local businesses and companies. They also rely on current commuters to act as ambassadors for the Challenge and spread the word to co-workers. This year, a month before the Commute Challenge, BTA sent out posters to be displayed in workplaces, contacted former team captains and put out a press release for partners to include in their newsletters.

• To rev up the excitement once the Challenge started, BTA sent out weekly emails to all participants with tips, encouragement, and the announcement of weekly prize drawing winners. They also partnered with 50 bike shops that offered 10 percent discounts to participants, as well as an ad agency that ran 15-second TV ads about the Challenge.

• And they gave participants a way to engage and provide feedback — in a fun, simple way. “When you’re running a web-based Challenge,” Stephanie said, “it’s great to have some mechanisms in which people can reflect back to you the unique, fun, or impressive strategies they’re employing at their workplaces. So we ask riders to submit photos for our ‘Inspiration of the Day’ feature and to send us nominations for our ‘Team Captain of the Year’ award. Without those mechanisms for receiving feedback, we would have far less of an idea of how our program was actual playing out in individual workplaces.”

All of those efforts paid off. The Challenge attracted more than 2,000 first-time bike commuters and featured some workplaces with 100 percent participation rates. An awards ceremony on October 6th celebrated the winners of the competition with beer, tunes, pizza and prizes. And the festivities included a unique opportunity for member engagement with the organization’s executive director: Rob Sadowsky pledged to shave his beard if 50 new members signed up that night. By the end of the evening, Sadowsky’s chin was bare.

In addition to effective outreach and participant engagement, one of most important aspects of BTA’s success is the group’s development of an effective online platform for the Challenge website. Alliance member organizations interested in hosting their own Commuter Challenge are invited to create a login at www.bikecommutechallenge.com and try out the platform to see if it’s a good fit for their programming goals. Questions? Get in touch with Stephanie at stephanie@btaoregon.org.

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

Last week, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance won the first phase of its campaign to bring a bike share system to Portland, when the Portland City Council voted in support of $2 million in Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) money for a capital investment in bike sharing.

The BTA also received a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Response Grant to build on this success and prepare for the next phase of the campaign: Secure full funding at the regional Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the City of Portland to build and operate a new $11.5 million bike sharing program.

Thanks to the support of SRAM Cycling Fund, Advocacy Advance has $16,000 remaining to fund organizations met with urgent and unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking.

Read more about the BTA grant on the Advocacy Advance blog. Visit the Advocacy Advance Grants page or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for more information on our grant program.

Last week, Oregon advocates applauded as the Speed Reduction Bill passed the Oregon Senate by an overwhelming margin. If signed into law, the bill will give cities the authority to lower the speed limit by five miles per hour on residential streets, which is currently 30 or 25 miles per hour.

So what’s the impact of a mere five miles per hour? According to Federal Highway Administration studies, a pedestrian hit by a vehicle traveling at 30 mph has a 40 percent chance of being killed; when the car is going 20 mph that chance plunges to a 5 percent fatality rate. “We can substantially reduce the likelihood of fatalities in our streets by having this important piece of legislature in place,” Tom Miller, the director of the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), said in his February testimony in support of the bill.

Initially introduced by Representative Ben Cannon, the bill is designed to support Portland’s efforts to build a network of neighborhood greenways as alternatives to higher-speed roads. Should the bill pass, it doesn’t mean that cities can arbitrarily reduce the speed limit of any street by five miles. The road must meet the following criteria before city transportation departments can request the change:

• It must have 2,000 or fewer vehicle trips per day with 85 percent already traveling at 30 mph or less.
• It must already have signage, markings, or infrastructure indicating the presence of people biking and walking.

Rob Sadowsky, Executive Director of the Portland-based Bicycle Transportation Alliance, said the passage of this bill would make it safer and easier for Oregon residents to travel between neighborhoods. “We’ve just gained a tool that makes [neighborhood greenways] great for all users of the road and especially for neighbors who are fighting for lower speeds on their streets,” Sadowsky said. “We have neighborhood groups who desperately want to lower their speed limits on blocks to 20mph.”

The bill initially passed the House by a wide margin in March, and had been working its way through the Senate. Lawmakers feared the term “neighborhood greenway” was too Portland-centric as the bill was to apply to the entire state. The term was since removed from the bill, which will now head back to the House for a concurrence vote before landing on the Governor’s desk for signing.

Track the progress of the bill here.

Teaching the next generation about the benefits of bicycling and walking just got easier for Oregon educators.

The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and Oregon Safe Routes to School have partnered to develop and produce the Neighborhood Navigators curriculum, and they are now distributing it online, free of charge to educators.

Focusing on efficient and healthy transportation choices, pedestrian safety, and community and neighborhood design, the curriculum includes age-appropriate lessons and skill practice activities for students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

For more information and to access the Neighborhood Navigators curriculum, visit BTA at http://www.bta4bikes.org.

Image from Neighborhood Navigators Grades 4-5 Curriculum
Article courtesy of Jacob Knight

On January 21 the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) of Portland, OR launched a major campaign to get the Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 adopted, funded and built. According to Michelle Poyourow of the BTA,  “We’re calling on Portland City Council to not just adopt this plan, but to take first steps right away toward getting it built. That means building new bike boulevards, new safe crossings, and new safe routes to schools in the first year… We cannot wait until year 5 or year 10 to know whether we’re succeeding in making Portland America’s healthiest city or not. We’ll need to start right away.”

The BTA is inviting members and supporters to get involved in the campaign and show Portland City Council how many Portlanders value the health, safety, and livability benefits that 25% of bicycling would bring to the community. Supporters are invited to testify, call or e-mail city hall, and take their picture with the Build It logo and post it on the campaign website http://www.portlandbikenetwork.org/.

The Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030 is up for vote at the February 4th City Council meeting. According to the BTA, “It if adopted, funded and built, it will attract new riders, strengthen policies, build a denser bikeway network, increase bicycle parking, expand programs to support bicycling and increase funding for bicycle facilities. But it is just a document unless the Portland City Council approves the plan, funds the plan, and ultimately builds the Portland Bike Network.” Check out and add your support to the Build It Campaign at http://www.portlandbikenetwork.org.

In August of this year Portland, Oregon’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) asked its members and the public for feedback to help them plan for bike advocacy and organizational growth in the future. Over 2,000 people responded to the survey providing the BTA with data on a wide range of advocacy and education topics, bicyclists’ perceptions, and organizational direction.

According to the BTA, some of the findings include:

• “As cycling experience levels increase, so do the number and percentage of trips that occur by bicycle. Those extra bike trips are mostly replacing car trips: automobile usage decreases significantly as bicycling experience increases, but public transit and walking trips remain relatively consistent.
• People who rate themselves “intermediate” or “advanced” cyclists are more likely to ride for commute purposes than beginner cyclists. Conversely, beginners report a higher ratio of recreational and utilitarian trips.
• Virtually everyone responded “bicycling in my community is safer for me personally than for my family.”
• Advocacy work at the local, regional and state levels is more important than national advocacy.”

The BTA survey was developed and analyzed with support from Inavero Institute for Service Research in Portland. For more information and to download the pdf with complete survey results, visit http://www.bta4bikes.org/btablog/2009/11/11/bta-survey-reveals-trends-perceptions-of-bicycling-around-oregon/.

The Greater Eugene Area Riders (GEARS) is celebrating the announcement by the League of American Bicyclists that Eugene, Oregon has become one of only 10 cities in the nation to be designated a Gold level bicycle friendly community. After being designated at the Silver level in 2004, Eugene’s continuous commitment to bicycling has been reinforced with the award in October of 2009.

According to GEARS, “We have seen some great changes in the past few years at both the city and community level to earn this award. Here are a few of the projects GEARs has been active in coordinating, participating in, or is simply excited about:

  * Implementation of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Strategic Plan
  * Formation, meetings, & events of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC)
  * Growth in special events including a larger Bike Day celebration, the Spring Roll Ride, and Breakfast at the Bridges events
  * Completion of three successful Walk and Bike Summits
  * Growth in the Safe Routes to School program including several active SRTS schools, a growth from 8 participating schools for Walk + Bike to School Day to 29, the formation of the SRTS Team, and the start of Kidical Mass!
  * Hosting of several Webinars by the City of Eugene for the community and the BPAC
  * Opening of a new multi-use bridge over I-5 and work on one over Delta Hwy.
  * Creation of a new and updated bicycle/pedestrian map.
  * Work with the City to improve the “leaf collection program” to increase safety for cyclists.
  * Starting the Eye-to-Eye campaign; a share-the-road education program.
  *Growth of the Business Commute Challenge for National Bike to Work Month in May.

To celebrate these and other GEAR achievements, GEAR joined the City of Eugene City of Eugene and Mayor Kitty Piercy on Octover 22nd for a happy hour celebration entitled “Eugene Goes Gold!.” For more information, visit http://www.eugenegears.org/archives/1109.

According to Oregon’s Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), “The BTA and partners launched this summer’s Eye to Eye campaign activities with a press conference and bike bell giveaway on Thursday, June 25, with the theme “Room to Breathe.” As more people take advantage of summer weather to bike and walk, we’re reminding everyone to give each other some extra space on our streets and paths by slowing down when necessary, increasing passing distance, using turn signals, and giving pedestrians and other cyclists an audible signal (like the ring of bike bell!) before passing.” 



For more information on the Eye to Eye PSA video and BTA’s summer calendar of events, click here…