Blog

This week, California got a jump on the rest of the nation yesterday, celebrating Bike to Work Day with massive turnouts, including bicyclists commanding 76% of traffic on San Francisco's Market Street and more than 17,000 participating in the East Bay. At the same time folks were pedaling on the West Coast, U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx  emphasized the critical link between job opportunity and affordable, accessible and equitable transportation options.

This is a guest blog post from Jessica Meaney, Managing Director at Investing In Place. Advocacy Advance is the Alliance's dynamic partnership with the League of American Bicyclists.

This week, more than 2,400 events marked National Bike to School Day, and thousands of kids learned firsthand the sheer joy and sense of community when they get out of the car and into the fresh air. But, as the Safe Routes to School movement has gained incredible traction for America's children, bike advocates are also recognizing the other side of the equation: empowering more parents to keep riding or incorporate bicycling after they have kids.

With limited time and resources, we often consider a sophisticated online strategy and inclusive organizing as an admirable asset — after everything else on the priority list. Or, perhaps even more often, we have the desire but we don’t have the tools. That’s why the Alliance is hosting its 2015 National Training on “Leadership, Organizing and Digital Strategy for a Stronger Movement” this summer — led by a leading consultancy on inclusive, online organizing.

In the days leading up to National Bike Month, thousands of supporters of local bike advocacy voted in the Xtracyle Cargo Bike Contest. It was a friendly (but tight!) competition and today we're delighted to announce the winner: Local Motion. And they've got inspiring plans for their new Edgerunner.

This week in biking and walking advocacy: The curtain rises on Bike Month 2015 with hundreds — nay, thousands! — of creative events happening in communities nationwide to promote the benefits of bicycling, from a Bicycle Second Line in New Orleans to an Employers Bike Summit in Portland to a Toronto leader donning a cape and rolling into Lake Ontario.

This week in biking and walking advocacy: The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition heralded 2015 as the Year of the Protected Bike Lane, while Minneapolis debuted a draft Protected Bikeways Plan, Kansas City painted its first buffered bike facility and Malibu announced the ribbon cutting on its first bike lane.

Last week, we hosted a webinar on Maximixing Bike Month with Liz Murphy from the League of American Bicyclists, Elizabeth Williams from EMPACT Communities, and Serena Lehman from Cascade Bicycle Club. Tap into their communications tips, ideas for new events and strategies to turn Bike Month campaigns into a membership opportunity.

This week in biking and walking advocacy: The push for Vision Zero gained a new national voice, while advocates in Chicago launched a renewed push to eliminate all road deaths in the Windy City and Walk SF announced a partnership with a local school district to teach kids pedestrian safety.  

Earlier this month, we were excited to share the news that Julie Harris had gotten her dream job, as the first executive director of the Nebraska Bicycling Alliance. A longtime leader in active transportation advocacy as the Program Manager of Live Well Omaha, Harris chatted with me this week about some of her lessons learned, her vision for bicycling in both urban and rural areas of the Cornhusker State and a uniquely Nebraskan value that she hopes can propel bicycling as a point of pride among policymakers.