Alliance > Media center > People Powered Blog

Entries tagged: Spanish

In an effort to boost bicycling in U.S. cities, two bike industry leaders are giving a handful of Latino elected officials a free trip to Seville, Spain. And your organization could play a key role in determining who gets the ticket.

Next March, Seville will play host to Velo-City 2011, the premiere international conference on bicycling. Given the unique opportunities for Spanish speakers, SRAM and Bikes Belong are offering as many as 12 scholarships to Latino officials from the U.S. to take advantage of the conference and the common language to fully immerse themselves in Seville’s impressive cycling transformation.

To be eligible, officials must have a demonstrated interest in or connection to bicycling and sustainable transportation. Now, here’s where you come in: Applicants who are nominated or recommended by a local bicycling business or advocacy organization will get a significant leg up. Is there a Latino official on your city council or in your state legislature who supports bicycling and would benefit from a one-of-a-kind, educational and inspirational trip to Spain’s biking capital? If so, make sure you download the nomination form.

Adolfo Hernandez, advocacy director for the Active Transportation Alliance in Chicago, is working with SRAM and Bikes Belong to promote the opportunity and review the applications. He says the example set by Seville could make a huge difference back home in your community.

“Seville’s transformation into a bicycling city is nothing short of amazing,” Adolfo says. “In less than four years, 120 kilometers of separated bike lanes and a robust bike share program have multiplied the number of trips by bicycle from 0.6 percent to 6.6 percent of all trips. In large part these changes came about because of great advocates and elected officials who support bicycling. Removing lanes of traffic and parking for automobiles is not easy to do anywhere, but elected officials and city leaders in Seville have pushed forward with great success and have transformed Seville into a cycling city.”

“We will introduce our Latin American elected officials to Seville’s elected officials in meetings, tours and workshops designed to highlight the benefits that the city has experienced,” he adds. “Our elected officials will have an opportunity to hear firsthand from their Seville peers about the challenges, successes and political impact of the city’s commitment to increase the levels of bicycling. Our hope is that elected officials return with a sense of how quickly change can come about and ideas about how to transform our American cities in cycling cities.”

The deadline for applications is January 14th, 5 p.m., EST. But don’t wait. There’s a benefit to being first in line — some of the scholarships will be awarded early.

Click here for the full scholarship packet. Questions? Get in touch with .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Advocates who attended the Alliance Leadership Retreat already know that Ali Mangkang can sing a mean rendition of “Proud Mary.” Well, the outreach manager for the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition has a great radio voice, too.

Earlier this month, the Georgia advocates wrapped production on a series of new public service announcements that emphasize motorists’ shared responsibility to keep streets safe for bicyclists.

“The concept of the PSAs really grew out of a desire to educate a broader audience with simple, non-confrontational messages about operating bikes and vehicles on shared roadways,” Mangkang says. “We were very fortunate to enlist the pro-bono services of a professional studio who helped us fine tune the messages, record, edit and find the talent. They were amazing and kept putting resources in front of us. (It probably helped that the producer and audio engineer are both avid cyclists!)”

The short spots, produced by Soapbox Studios, cover the safety basics for bikes and automobiles, including not texting while driving, giving three feet when passing, and preventing right-hook collisions.

But ABC didn’t want to confine their message to one segment of the Atlanta community. Mangkang says ABC found several translators within their own network and got hooked up with prime voice talent from Soapbox Studios.

“We wanted to produce the messages in Spanish because we just wanted to get the word out to a large part of our metropolitan population we aren’t reaching on a daily basis,” she says. “We want to continue to reach out to organizations, stations and community groups who can help us widen our reach to Hispanic populations throughout Atlanta.”

“We absolutely would love to share these clips and make them available for anyone’s use,” Mangkang adds. “We only ask that members contact us should they wish to edit the content in any way.” (Click here to find the PSAs in the Alliance Resource Library.)

Learn more about the campaign on the ABC website.