Last week, Sec. Anthony Foxx launched U.S. DOT's Mayors' Challenge for Safer People, Safer Streets at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. This week, he needs your help to make it meaningful.

So far, 24 cities have signed up, according to U.S. DOT. They'll be releasing the list soon, to be updated in real time as more cities sign up. But for now, it's safe to say that most of us still have some work to do to make sure our communities are part of this nationwide effort. 

You have less than a month to make it happen. Cities should sign up by March 1. Mayors and their transportation safety teams are invited to participate in a Mayors' Summit in Washington, D.C. March 12 -- perfectly timed around both the National Bike Summit and the National League of Cities' conference the same week. 

The seven activities that cities commit to when they become part of the Mayors' Challenge are:

1. Take a Complete Streets approach;
2. Identify and address barriers to make streets safe and convenient for all road users;
3. Gather and track biking and walking data;
4. Use designs that are appropriate to the context of the street and its uses;
5. Capture opportunities to build on-road bike networks during routine resurfacing;
6. Improve walking and biking safety laws and regulations; and
7. Educate and enforce proper road use behavior by all.

There's a one-page explainer sheet on each of these seven points on the initiative's website. Throughout the year, U.S. DOT will hold webinars around these seven challenge areas, and officials encourage advocates to make them an explicit part of their program as well. 

U.S. DOT officials told national advocates today that they need help with outreach -- not just to city officials but also to planners and other advocates. "Let them know this an opportunity to accelerate and build political will around bike and pedestrian safety for all ages and all abilities," one official urged. They have a target list of 150 cities they think would be good partners on this effort, but the push can't just come from the feds: It needs to come from local constituents who think this is important.

To help with your outreach, they already have a hashtag: #Mayors4Safety.

There are no enforcement mechanisms for cities that don't follow through. "We won’t dis anyone who doesn’t make progress," one official said on the call with advocates this morning, "but we’ll celebrate the ones that do make progress." They called the initiative "a year-long conversation that we’re having so we can advance the work in a coordinated way.”

At the Pro-Walk, Pro-Bike, Pro-Place conference in Pittsburgh in September, Foxx kicked off his bike/ped safety Initiative with the announcement that the department had just wrapped up safety assessments in Boston, Fort Worth, and Lansing, Michigan and that they would be leading similar assessments in every state in the country. Officials say those will be done at the beginning of June.

Send your questions (including whether your city has already signed up) to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .