| 2013 Advocacy Awards to be Announced | Will you be in Washington, DC for the National Bike Summit? If so, join us to honor some of the all-stars of the biking and walking movement at the Alliance's 2013 Advocacy Awards Reception! After the evening plenary at the National Bike Summit on Monday, March 4, we will highlight and celebrate the advocates, organizations and businesses that are making a difference for biking and walking in communities across North America. Join us on Monday, March 4 from 8:30 - 11:00 at RFD, located at 810 7th St NW, just a short walk from the National Bike Summit.
Special thanks to SRAM, Planet Bike, Bikes Belong, Transportation Alternatives, Breezer, and Bike Pittsbugh for sponsoring the reception. |
| The Alliance is Hiring a National Campaigns Director | Looking for a great job in the biking and walking advocacy movement? We're hiring!
The Alliance for Biking & Walking is working with the leaders of our member organizations to launch and coordinate campaigns in cities and states around the nation. These nationally coordinated campaigns will allow advocacy organizations around the country to share in research, messaging, materials, skill development and funding.
The Alliance seeks a dynamic and seasoned campaign organizer who can provide leadership and direction for a new level of coordination between cities and states that will build the biking and walking movement. The National Campaigns Director will collaborate and coordinate with the leaders of our 20 or 30 largest state and local organizations on national campaigns, foster collaboration with national partners, and boost the capacity of our member organizations.
The National Campaigns Director will be based at the Alliance's Washington DC office and will report to the President/CEO. Learn more here. |
| Recycle-A-Bicycle Hosts Third Annual Youth Bike Summit | Congratulations to Alliance member Recycle-A-Bicycle for hosting the third annual Youth Bike Summit. The three-day inter-generational exchange brought together youth, advocates and educators who are working to promote bicycling and community bicycle education in communities across the United States.
The Alliance was proud to sponsor the Youth Bike Summit as part of our efforts to support community bike shops and the nearly 400 leaders and youth from 17 states who participated.
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| Minneapolis Advocates Plan Winning Cycle Track Campaign |  The Alliance traveled to chilly Minnesota in February to facilitate our Winning Campaigns Training with the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition. This training was made possible in part by the generous support of local sponsor QBP. All of the attendees focused one one mission: launch and win a campaign to build world-class cycle tracks - also known as green lanes or protected bikeways - in Minneapolis.
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| Indianapolis Leaders Plan First Open Streets Event  If your city or town closed several miles of local streets to car traffic for one day, how would you want to use that open space? That's the question that Indianapolis leaders pondered during a daylong Open Streets Project workshop last month facilitated by the Alliance's Mike Samuelson. During the workshop, more than 15 organizations and agencies - ranging from a local art non-profit to the Indiana State Department of Health - came together to kick off the planning process for Indianapolis's first Open Streets event. The upcoming event will be the second such initiative in the state. Learn more about Indianapolis leaders' plans here. |
| Bike Cleveland Continues to Grow After Founding Summit | | A little over a year ago, the Alliance worked with Cleveland advocates to facilitate a strategic planning session with one goal: create a strong organization to advocate on behalf of Cleveland's cycling community. Over those two days, participants at the Bike Cleveland Summit plotted out how an advocacy organization could help make their vision a reality. The resulting strategic plan helped advocates bring in support from the community and from the Gund Foundation, allowing the organization to hire an executive director and become fully professionalized. Now, Bike Cleveland is a strong organization providing a unified voice for cycling in the region. Bike Cleveland's most notable accomplishments in first year included: - Piloting a sharrow program in the Rocky River Reservation to decrease car-bike conflicts;
- Securing funding from the City of Cleveland to construct 1.7 miles of bike lanes on Detroit Avenue, one of the city's most heavily biked corridors; and
- Passing the Bicycle Transportation Safety Ordinance, which protects cyclists by mandating an enforceable 3-foot buffer between cars and the cyclists they pass.
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| Upcoming Mutual Aid Calls
| Our Mutual Aid conference calls are a great forum to gain insight from your Alliance peers on the specific issues and topics that are important to your organization. Additionally, Advocacy Advance has been hosting a series of calls to help you direct funding sources toward investments in biking and walking.
All calls begin at 2 p.m. eastern and run for one hour. This month: -
- Is your organization thinking about organizing a fundraising bike ride? Or are you looking for ways to use your bike ride events to increase profits, grow your membership, and elevate your organizations status? Join this call to hear from an expert panel of Alliance leaders who will discuss how their organizations use fundraising rides to raise money, form new partnerships and elevate their status in the community.
Panelists will include: - Chad Taniguchi, Hawaii Bicycling League
- Nelle Pierson, Washington Area Bicyclist Association
- Chuck Ayers, Cascade Bicycle Club
- March 20: Financial Planning for Community Bike Shops
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Financial planning and fundraising are challenging for all advocacy groups, but it can be particularly difficult for community bike shops, which deal with the seasonal increases and decreases of ridership as well as the cost of purchasing parts and tools. Join leaders from three community bike shops as they discussed the key concepts of financial planning and give examples of how their shops have created stable funding streams. Panelists will include: - Momoko Saunders, Bike Farm, Portland, OR
- Rambod Behnam, Bikerowave, Los Angeles, CA
- Nathan Wilkes, Yellow Bike Project, Austin, TX
- March 27: Government Contracts and Consulting
- Alliance organizations can collaborate with local governments for opportunities to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of advocacy work. Partnering with an agency can increase chances of winning or subcontracting grants and, as governments cut back in providing direct services, they are relying on local nonprofits to do the work. Join this call to learn about government contracts and consulting.
This call is a supplement to the third guide in the Alliance Guide to Fundraising series.
April calls: - April 10: Mutual Aid Call: Marketing the Economic Benefits of Bicycle Tourism
- April 17: Mutual Aid Call: Insurance Options for Community Bike Shops
- April 24: Working with Transit to Win Ballot Measures
This past month: | What would you like to discuss on a Mutual Aid Call? Does your organization have expertise to share with peer organizations and other advocates? Email Mary Lauran with your ideas! |
| Welcome, Christine! |  Christine Rigby recently joined the Alliance as the Member Services Intern. She comes to the Alliance after spending a year in Pittsburgh, where she worked for the Group Against Smog and Pollution and volunteered for Alliance member organization Bike Pittsburgh. Originally hailing from Florida, Christine graduated from the University of Central Florida with a degree in Cardiopulmonary Sciences and first became interested in advocacy when she rode across the country after graduating. Christine is helping in membership by working to revamp the Alliance Resource Library, so if you have ideas on how the library could be more useful for your organization, email her or flag her down at the National Bike Summit. Welcome to the team, Christine! |
| | Livable Memphis Wins Complete Streets Policy After a long campaign to institute a Complete Streets policy in the city, Livable Memphis advocates are proud to report that Mayor A.C. Wharton has signed an executive order stipulating that all new road construction projects and major renovations include accommodations for biking, walking and transit in addition to automobiles. Here's how they won »
Cascade Bicycle Club's Polling Busts the "War On Cars" Myth Advocates at Cascade Bicycle Club didn't understand why Seattle reporters kept insisting that the city was waging a "war on cars." In the face of strong anti-bike sentiments in the media, the advocates decided to run an independent poll to test what Seattleites actually thought. They found that most residents did not believe there was no such assault on driving - and found broad approval for sidewalks, bikeways, and neighborhood greenways. Learn how they busted the myth »
East Bay Bicycle Coalition Launches Innovative Education and Enforcement Program Advocates at the East Bay Bicycle Coalition have found a great way to offer bicycle education to more people: partnering with police to offer ticketed cyclists traffic classes in exchanged for a reduced fine. The initiative has garnered media coverage and is catching advocates' attention as an example of a program to encourage safe bicycling while collaborating with local police. See how they're doing it » WABA Wins Smarter Enforcement in Washington, DC The Washington Area Bicyclists Association had a big problem: bicyclists in DC were consistently receiving police citations for laws that did not exist. In response, WABA kicked off a successful enforcement campaign to track and document common police mistakes. Thanks to WABA's hard work and a Rapid Response grant from Advocacy Advance, the Metropolitan Police Department has improved officer training. Learn more about their campaign » |
Safe Routes to School National Partnership Launches Fire Up Your Feet Increased physical activity can make a big difference for kids, especially when it comes to obesity and related health problems. The Safe Routes to School National Partnership recently launched Fire Up Your Feet, a new program that will help schools create new opportunities for physical activity to, from, and at school. Learn more » Bikes Belong and Portland State University to Research Green Lanes A new research study is underway at Portland State University (PSU), designed to measure the societal impact of next-generation protected bike lanes, called green lanes. The study, which is due out in January of 2014, will examine ridership, safety, and economic impact of protected bikeways in six cities. Learn more » America Bikes Urges Performance Measures for Nonmotorized Transportation It's a sad reality that even as motor vehicle deaths have declined in recent years, bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities are on the rise. To address the issue, the America Bikes coalition (of which the Alliance is a member) has urged Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to require states to establish performance measures for nonmotorized transportation. Such measures will encourage better data collection and funding for biking and walking safety. Read the coalition's letter here » |
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