The “people-powered movement” came together Tuesday night, between Tuesday’s Women’s Bicycling Forum and Wednesday’s National Bike Summit, to honor its best advocates in the annual Advocacy Awards ceremony, presented by the Alliance for Biking & Walking. The Alliance is a national coalition of more than 200 state and local organizations that promote healthy and sustainable transportation and recreation options. This is the seventh year the Alliance has hosted the Advocacy Awards, held each year during the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC.
Advocate of the Year
Keith Holt, southeast region director of the Wisconsin Bike Fed, beat out 13 competitors to win the Advocate of the Year award. Holt has worked in Chicago and Milwaukee to improve access to bicycling for everyone. He is leading the biking and walking movement into a greater understanding of how to incorporate diversity and equity into its work. In his own advocacy work, he’s consistently built partnerships with communities of color to encourage healthier lifestyles and to use bicycling as a tool for social change. In addition to his work at the Wisconsin Bike Fed, Holt helps with the formation of Milwaukee Bicycle Works and serves as chairman of the Milwaukee Bike Ped Task Force.
Keith's win took him so much by surprise that he didn't even show up to the awards ceremony, so we got this picture off the Active Trans website!
Advocacy Organization of the Year
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition beat out 12 competitors to win the Advocacy Organization of the Year award, having impressed the judges with its stunning wins of 2014, including the Cesar Chavez Street redesign that has quadrupled the number of bicyclists on the street, its successful push for the city to adopt a Vision Zero goal of eliminating all traffic deaths and severe injuries by 2024, its victory in getting the SFMTA to commit to doubling the amount of funding dedicated to bicycle projects, and the passage of Propositions A and B, which helped provide much-needed transportation investments in the city, as well as the defeat of Proposition L, which would have prioritized car parking over people. You can read more about the coalition’s year here.
Business Advocate of the Year
REI is much more than a retailer of outdoor goods. Each year, REI donates millions of dollars to support conservation efforts nationwide and sends dedicated teams of volunteers -- members, customers and REI employees -- to build trails, clean up beaches, restore local habitats and more. In 2014, REI provided a total of $45,000 for the Rapid Response Grant program from Advocacy Advance -- a partnership of the Alliance for Biking & Walking and the League of American Bicyclists. “We’re grateful not just for REI’s investment in Advocacy Advance but for its leadership within the outdoor industry,” said Jeff Miller, president and CEO of the Alliance for Biking & Walking. “REI invests heavily in a number of organizations that are working to make our communities healthier, more active, and more sustainable places to work, live, and play.”
Business Advocate of the Year (additional recognition)
Jamestown, LP, was recognized separately for its significant achievements as a bicycle-friendly business. Jamestown impressed the judges with Atlanta's largest and boldest project, the redevelopment of Ponce City Market, in which bikes are front and center. Jamestown was instrumental in getting funding for a bike lane and other safety improvements, helping draft the grant proposal and even funding the local match. The developers are encouraging bike transit by including direct bridge access right into the building from the BeltLine trail. There will also be showers available to office tenants, a free shuttle to/from MARTA for office tenants and residents to reduce car transit, and Zipcars on property for when car transit is the only option. They are aiming for a bike-share location when the City of Atlanta implements the program. Their transportation plan at Ponce City Market includes over 400 bike parking spaces, both self-park and the first bike valet in Georgia.
Winning Campaign of the Year
In 2014, Bike East Bay scored the biggest financial win the biking and walking movement has ever seen. Bike East Bay successfully campaigned to pass Alameda County's monumental transportation Measure BB in the November 2014 election, extending an existing half-cent sales tax to a full cent for the next 30 years. Bike East Bay threw its support behind the measure’s passage after petitioning to significantly increase the percentage of this funding going toward biking and walking projects and programs. The passage of Measure BB, with the changes to the funding split, has resulted in a four-fold increase in the amount of bike and pedestrian funding available for the county, translating into approximately $1 billion for bike improvements alone over the next three decades. Measure BB will not only facilitate a sustainable transportation future for Alameda County, but it also sets the standard for neighboring Contra Costa County's similar sales tax Measure J in 2016, as well as for other states and counties across the country.
Bicycling Magazine's People's Choice Award
Bike Walk RVA – a program of the Sports Backers in Richmond, Virginia – beat out eight competitors to win Bicycling Magazine's People's Choice Award. Bike Walk RVA took the Richmond region by storm in 2014. They started the year by successfully campaigning to increase the Richmond city budget’s allocation for new bikeway and trail projects to $4.5 million (a 90-fold increase from the $50,000 in the mayor's proposed budget). By the end of the year, the money was already beginning to be spent, paying for the city's first buffered bike lanes. Bike Walk RVA also helped drive the vision behind the city's first Bicycle Master Plan. And in October, the city adopted its first Complete Streets policy and is now moving toward implementing a bike-share system. Bike Walk RVA has been working on a project team with Chesterfield County staff to draft the county’s Bikeways and Trails Plan, which lays the groundwork for a network of 350 miles of paved shared-use paths and on-road bikeways. The plan is up for adoption later this year. And finally, the organization launched and completed its first Bike Walk RVA Academy in the fall of 2014, a program designed to develop effective, empowered advocates for comfortable and connected walking and biking infrastructure in their communities. Bike Walk RVA’s busy 2014 deserves recognition, and the Alliance for Biking & Walking was proud to present it to them at Tuesday night’s award ceremony.
Susie Stephens Joyful Enthusiasm Award
Jeff Miller, outgoing president and CEO of the Alliance for Biking & Walking, received this award, which commemorates Alliance co-founder Susie Stephens by honoring an individual who has exhibited enthusiastic and joyful passion for advocating for bicycling as a fun and economical means of transportation, as well as creating a safe biking and walking environment for all. Miller has “taken the Alliance to new heights” and he’s always done it with “the enthusiasm that is what the biking and walking movement is all about,” says Alliance Board Chair Rob Sadowsky. You’ll rarely see Jeff without a smile on his face. If anyone walks proudly and joyfully in Susie’s footsteps, it’s Jeff Miller.
