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THE PEOPLE POWERED MOVEMENT IS GROWING
In recent weeks, active transportation advocacy jobs have been sprouting up all over North America. The biking and walking jobfulness rate has been so high that this weekly roundup has grown a "GET A JOB" section just to keep up. We may hire another intern to mop sweat off the brow of the intern who maintains the Alliance job board.
Here are some of the amazing positions that have crossed our radar just in the past two weeks:
- Want to teach kids life skills through bike mechanics? Neighborhood Bike Works, a community bike shop in Philadelphia, is hiring a youth program instructor and a program coordinator.
- Want summer all year round? Bike Florida is on the lookout for a tour manager.
- Want to work in Google's back yard, but not in tech? The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition is hiring a communications coordinator (their first-ever comms position!).
- Love communications AND healthy use of "y'all"? The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition seeks a communications manager (also their first comms position!).
- Want more misty mornings in your life? The Cascade Bicycle Club in Seattle, WA is hiring an advocacy director and a recreational riding director.
- Maybe you prefer your mist on a statewide level? Washington Bikes is looking for an administrative coordinator.
- Or maybe the Midwest is more your thing? You could be Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition's new community organizer, or development & communications coordinator.
The preponderance of jobs at biking and walking advocacy coalitions in every area of the continental USA is part of a wider, multi-year trend in the organizational capacity of North American active transportation advocacy. According to data tracked by the Alliance for Biking & Walking, the grassroots biking and walking advocacy movement grew from 10 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in 1996 to nearly 600 in 2013:
It's an exponential jump, testament to surging local interest in building bikeable, walkable communities. It's evidence that more people than ever are working for safer streets, more bike lanes, and better walkability throughout North America.
At the Alliance for Biking & Walking, we're dedicated to maintaining this strong growth curve. Our campaign trainings, resources, and retreats for active transportation advocates are geared towards fulfilling our mission to create, strengthen, and unite state and local biking and walking advocacy organizations.
We could really use your help to keep this growth curve facing upwards. Will you make a sustaining monthly donation to the Alliance?
Thank you. Now giddyup for the Roundup!
INFRASTRUCTURE NEWS
Welcome to the world, Tucson Modern Streetcar!
A Delaware planner reviews Philadelphia's brand new protected bike lane.
Contractors who improperly installed rumble strips on a Delaware road fixed their error on the second try.
A Minneapolis doctor supports protected bike lanes – both for better public health and because a protected bike lane might have saved his daughter's life.
Congratulations to HUB on the new Powell Street overpass.
THE BIG PICTURE
Barb Chamberlain of Washington Bikes has been knockin' it out of the park with think pieces. This week: why a multimodal system will be better for everyone as we get older and stop driving.
Trollies in West Philadelphia will close for two weeks in August; here's how to bike instead.
Sad stuff: last week in Delaware, one person was killed while walking and another was killed while biking.
More seniors are riding bikes, in San Francisco and around the country.
In a Madison TED talk, Dave Cieslewicz of the Wisconsin Bike Fed discusses the bike as a vehicle for social change.
ADVOCACY AVENUE
WalkBoston is training seniors on conducting walking audits in communities throughout Massachusetts.
The California Bicycle Coalition announces their goals to educate drivers about the state's new three-foot passing law.
A new report card from Transportation Alternatives shows the NYPD is making progress on enforcing the most dangerous traffic violations, but some precincts lag behind Vision Zero goals.
Lee County, FL advocates lament service cuts as bus ridership numbers fall.
A bike plan in suburban Evanston, IL has hit a rough patch.
WalkBoston is training seniors on conducting walking audits in communities throughout Massachusetts.
LEGISLATION LANE
San Francisco advocates push back against a ballot measure that threatens the city's "Transit-First" policy. It has been dubbed the "Transit-Last" measure.
Remember when it was illegal to wear a balaclava in Virginia, but then the Virginia Bicycle Federation worked on a bill to legalize public face mask-wearing? This week, those advocates gave a bike-friendly award to the delegate who shepherded that bill.
Georgia advocates ask supporters to tell the Georgia Department of Transportation about their transportation priorities.
The Massachusetts state legislature considered a bill to prohibit motor vehicle parking in bike routes.
And in the U.S. Congress this week, lawmakers passed a bill that will fund transportation until May of 2014, leaving everybody cranky that we still don't have a long-term transportation bill with real funding. The stopgap is financed through a (sort of gimmicky) short-term pay-for called "pension-smoothing:" allowing companies to set aside less for pensions, resulting in temporarily higher corporate taxes.
PROGRAMMING
Tucson advocates joined forces with a new downtown grocery store to strategize about optimizing the location for walkers, transit-takers, and bikers.
Step 1: Hold a fundraising raffle and give away awesome stuff. Step 2: Publish a guest blog about one winner's awesome vacation. Step 3: More people come to your next raffle.
Here's how to get a bike rack installed in Washington, DC.
BikeWalkKC works to make bike sharing more accessible in under-resources communities of Kansas City, MO.
A good idea from the Active Transportation Alliance: showcase your print newsletter on your blog, so non-members see what they're missing.
The League of Illinois Bicyclists created an online lesson for driver education students about safe and legal driving around bicycles.
The Iowa Bicycle Coalition lists their top ten RAGBRAI 2014 memories.
Here's a fairweather blog post on how to avoid dooring (and what to do if you ARE doored) from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
GET A JOB
New postings this week:
- The Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition is hiring a development & communications coordinator.
- Neighborhood Bike Works is hiring a youth program instructor and a program coordinator.
The state and local biking and walking advocacy movement is growing. Check out the Alliance for Biking & Walking job board for listings all over North America.
TRAILER
Kudos to this fellow for building a bicycle boat. (Via Bike Newport)
