In the past year, individual advocates and teams at advocacy organizations accomplished feats that would have been unthinkable just five years ago. From a hard-fought campaign to allow bikes on trains in the Bay Area to bike lanes in downtown New Orleans just in time for the Super Bowl to CitiBike’s massively impactful launch in New York, it’s plain to see that our people powered movement is growing and thriving.

It makes me positively giddy.

To lead up to the Alliance Advocacy Awards in DC on March 3 (you’re coming, right?), we’ll be highlighting all the nominees and the illustrious judges’ panel right here on our blog. To kick us off, let’s take a look at the ten final nominees for the Bicycling Magazine People’s Choice Awards.

First, a note on how we got to the nominations. Alliance staff spent a long time combing through all the impressive nominations. This task would have been 100% great if it weren't for an unfortunate fact: we had the unenviable task of choosing just ten standout final nominees in each of six categories. It was tough. Ultimately, final decisions were made based on how well nominees met the criteria of each award, whether or not the associated organizations were state / local advocacy organizations that are current members of the Alliance, and some tough side-by-side comparisons with the most standout nominations.

We’re thrilled to be working with Bicycling Magazine as the presenting sponsor of the Advocacy Awards this year, not least of all because we got to work with them to create the brand-new Bicycling People’s Choice Award. This award will be given to a state or local bike advocacy organization in recognition of exemplary work in the past year to make an exceptional positive impact on bicycling and bicyclists in their community, whether through breaking ground on bike infrastructure or programs to make bicycling accessible to more people more often. We collected nominations through our public online process, and the winner will be decided by popular vote on Bicycling.com.

The finalists are truly fantastic. Take a look at the awesome initiatives below, then vote for your favorite over at Bicycling.com.

• The Active Transportation Alliance fought for and won what is arguably America’s best new bike lane.
• The Bicycle Transportation Alliance of Oregon successfully lobbied to access state lottery funds to support bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.
• Bike Cleveland made their Rust Belt city better for biking by distributing free lights to lightless riders.
• Bike Delaware did away with “Share the Road,” a slogan that was frustrating for both bike riders and drivers.
• Bike Easy of New Orleans gave NOLA’s downtown a bike-friendly facelift, just in time for the Ravens to play the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
• The East Bay Bicycle Coalition teamed up with a coalition of advocates including the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to legalize bicycles onboard BART.
• Georgia Bikes defeated the most anti-bicycle bill ever.
• MassBike helped homebrew bike advocacy in local communities all across Massachusetts.
• The Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition found a way to get counties with contradicting road rules on the same page.
• Transportation Alternatives of New York City heralded the launch of the largest bike share program in the United States.

Can you choose one winner from this killer lineup? Go vote!