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The East Bay Bicycle Coalition (EBBC) is meeting the funding opportunity of a generation with the assistance of an Advocacy Advance Rapid Response Grant.

EBBC’s “One Billion for Bikes: Yes on the Alameda County Transportation Sales Tax Reauthorization” campaign targets a 30-year, $7.8 billion regional transportation plan. As part of the Citizens Advisory Working Group, EBBC helped develop the Expenditure Plan for the Reauthorization, galvanize the Community Vision Platform stakeholder group, and influence elected officials to include $883 million dollars – 11.34% of all funds – for bike/ped projects in the plan.

East Bay advocates have until November to work with their broad coalition of supporters to gain two-thirds voter approval for this ballot measure. They will leverage the $3,000 Rapid Response grant and use funds for voter outreach, publicity, and strengthening collaboration opportunities.

This campaign win would transform transportation in Alameda County and be a major win for the movement. This measure represents 75% of ALL transportation funding in the County over the next 30 years and for the first time in history, a transportation sales tax in California would allocate more money for bike/ped than for highway projects. It would also require all projects in the measure to comply with the County’s new Complete Streets Policy.

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 $29,000 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How many people can say that they turned $3,000 into $2 million? Kevin Hardman and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin can.

How’d they do it? With a little help from Advocacy Advance, the partnership of the Alliance and League of American Bicyclists that’s aimed at giving advocates, agency staff and public officials the tools and knowledge they need to tap into federal funding for biking and walking projects and programs.

The Bicycle Federation used a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Respond grant to support its campaign to restore dedicated bicycle and pedestrian funds cut from the state budget. They were successful. Instead of zeroing out the bicycle and pedestrian line in the budget, the state will spend $2 million over the next two years on bicycle and pedestrian projects.

Read all about it on the Advocacy Advance blog!

Advocacy Advance — the partnership of the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists — is pleased to announce the first Rapid Response Grant recipient.

The Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin has been awarded $3,000 for it’s “Restore the Wisconsin Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program” proposal. Established in 2009, as the first dedicated state funding source for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in Wisconsin, this program provides $2.5 million each year to supplement federal Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities Program and Transportation Enhancements grants.

Read all about it on the Advocacy Advance blog.