Leaders from New York, San Francisco and Portland talk about what bicycling means for their city.
Darren Flusche League Policy Director
Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.
Sad to say that the awful series of fatal bike crashes in Tampa last year has carried over into the new year. Despite a gratifying response to the need for improved bike safety in the area – including the development of a Bike Safety Action Plan – yet another rider was killed last Sunday, this time by a driver who was likely racing and was certainly going way too fast for the roadway. No charges have yet been filed against the driver.
(Photo by Alan Snel)
After reviewing this latest cyclist fatality, AND looking at the dreadful pedestrian crash story in this area AND the almost daily serious crashes involving just motorists throughout the Tampa Bay area, we figure it’s time to really challenge the community to tackle the scourge of careless, dangerous and reckless driving behavior that is making life miserable for everyone out there. We also realized that most of the action plan, and most of the pedestrian safety plans and programs in the area over the years have all focused on cyclists and pedestrians…and at some point that just isn’t ever going to be enough. Cyclists are getting hit while they are doing everything right – even when they are standing on the sidewalk with their bikes they are getting hit by cars.
Therefore, we are encouraging Tampa area residents to get out and support the bicycle safety action plan in the coming weeks but also to demand something more: that the police and court system hold drivers accountable, and get dangerous drivers off the road. The Florida Bicycle Association lobby day in Tallahassee is March 24 – maybe it’s time to get a vulnerable road user law on the books that gives the law enforcement community a tool they can use to charge dangerous drivers with something that carries a meaningful penalty and sends a message that this kind of criminal behavior isn’t acceptable.
Hillsborough County residents, send this action alert to your elected officials. Everyone, click on that link to read our letter to Tampa City Council and Hillsborough County Commissioners.
The three public meetings on the proposed bicycle safety action plan are: February 24, 2011, 6:30pm – 8:30pm
Pizzo elementary School (cafeteria), 11701 USF Bull Run Dr, Tampa
Broward Elementary School (cafeteria), 400 W. Osborn Ave, Tampa
Andy Clarke League President
Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.
Around here we love data, so after I sent the latest safety in numbers data around the office, it took Andy less than an hour to try to one-up me. He passed along this graph showing the Portland Metropolitan Region’s expenditures on biking and walking, transit, and motor vehicles (1995 – 2010) along side the number of new daily commute trips by those modes (1990 – 2008). There were increases in the number of commuters for all three modes. What the graph makes clear is how cost-effective the biking and walking investments were. The city spent about 11 times the amount on motor vehicle infrastructure that they spent on active transportation per new commuter.
[Updated, Feb 18th.] “In 2008, Portland had 14,912 more daily bicycle commuters, 13,191 more daily transit commuters and 37,0006 more drive alone commuters than in 1990,” explains Portland’s Bicycle Coordinator, Roger Geller, ”During that time period bicycling grew appreciably compared to population. Drive alone trips dropped, from 67.3% to 64.6%, transit trips grew 18% from 11.4% to 13.4% and bicycling grew 440% from 1.2% to 6.4%.”
Here are the graphs separated out:
If you can’t read the graphs, I’m happy to email them. (Request it at darren [at] bikeleague.org.) The blue bar is the total expenditures (1995 – 2010). The red bar is the increase in daily Portland commute trips (1990 – 2008). The black line towards the bottom is the estimated cost of complete Portland’s 2030 Bicycle Master Plan. UPDATE 2: You can now click on the image for a larger version. Many people — advocates, planners, and other interesting folks — requested the larger version. I would still love to hear how you are using this data.
Thanks to Roger Geller for sending us these graphs.
Darren Flusche League Policy Director
Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.
We’re delighted to welcome Brighid O’Keane to the Advocacy Advance team. Brighid, pictured below with Jeff Peel and Bill Nesper from the League staff, is actually a brand new employee of the Alliance for Biking and Walking and will be working alongside Jeff and Darren Flusche on our joint advocacy advance initiative that is supported by SRAM.
The team is working on an exciting series of resources and training materials for state and local advocates that will help unlock more Federal funding for biking and walking – Brighid has a ton of experience with effective communication techniques that will be a great help as the team hits the road for training courses later this year.
Andy Clarke League President
Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.
As a companion piece, here’s a blog post I happened on the day after the webinar — Online Marketing Terms in Plain English. It’s a helpful primer if you’re just getting started in online marketing.
Griff also showed off the newsletter guidelines for the Bluegrass Cycling Club, which several attendees expressed interest in emulating. They can be found at the end of these meeting minutes. If you use them, please attribute to the Bluegrass Cycling Club.
Recordings and presentations from previous webinars on membership, budgeting, succession, and the League’s insurance, as well as dates of upcoming trainings, can be found on the club leadership training page.
Scott Williams League Director of Membership
Williams joined the League in April 2010. For the four years prior, he worked providing technology consulting and solutions to nonprofit organizations with Community IT Innovators.
Almost every day we get fresh confirmation that getting more people on bikes is a good idea, and that the kinds of things we’ve been advocating for years are actually effective and useful. So in the immortal words of the Ian Dury and the Blockheads song, we’ve got reasons to be cheerful…and of Tim Blumenthal, “when people ride bikes, great things happen.”
Today we learned that the percentage of major employers offering financial incentives to their employees to engage in health and wellness programs increase from 57% in 2009 to 62% in 2010 and the average value of that cash incentive rose to $430 per person. 56% of employers found these programs to have a better than expected impact on participation!
A couple of days ago, Science Daily reported on a study that shows exercising outdoors makes people feel better than indoors: “ compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. Participants also reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and stated that they were more likely to repeat the activity at a later date.
Last month, corporate leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos confirmed that these issues are receiving attention at the highest levels. Two dozen global companies have created a Workplace Wellness Alliance and are reporting “Return on investment of workplace health has been demonstrated to be as high as 4 US dollars per 1 dollar spent, contributing not only to increased productivity but also to better health in the general population with the workplace as an entry point for prevention at community level.”
Obviously the need for this exercise is more compelling than ever. We continue to get fatter at an alarming rate – not just in the US but worldwide, according to the latest numbers reported in the Lancet: “In 2008, an estimated 1.46 billion adults worldwide had a BMI of 25 kg/m2 or higher, including 502 million who were obese. During the study period, the age-standardized prevalence of obesity increased dramatically in both men (from 4.8% to 9.8%) and women (from 7.9% to 13.8%)”. And we learned that lifestyle, not genetics, is the stronger indicator of longevity and childhood obesity.
So the need for bicycling is there and the corporate world is clearly realizing the benefits of wellness to their bottom line. We’re just about to enter the review phase for the latest round of Bicycle Friendly Business applications; it will be interesting to see if bicycling is featuring more in their collective definition of what constitutes “wellness” programming. Earlier this week Darren wrote about the Minneapolis “safety in numbers” report, which adds to the body of knowledge that suggests that getting more people to ride is not only NOT a dangerous thing to be doing, but actually improves the overall level of safety for everyone riding. So come on corporate America…let’s get people riding!
Andy Clarke League President
Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.
On October 1st, fifteen cyclists left Outspokin’ bike shop in Savannah Augusta, GA on their weekly ride across the state border into rural Aiken, SC. While riding along Beech Island Ave. the cyclists heard the revving of a truck’s engine moments before it collided with the group. The crash injured four cyclists and tragically left one other, Dr. Matthew Burke, critically injured with severe head trauma. After months in a coma, Dr. Burke passed away on Sunday. The driver, Daniel Johnson, claims to have been distracted while reaching for something.
Dr. Matthew Burke
Dr. Burke is survived by his wife Bonnie and 11-month-old daughter, Anna. At the time of the crash, Dr. Burke, a U.S. Army major and orthopedic surgeon, had been home from Iraq for about a year. Dr. Burke will be buried at Arlington National Cemetary. He was 38 years old.
Thanks to the vigilance of the Palmetto Cycling Coalition and South Carolina cycling attorney Peter Wilborn, Daniel Johnson was charged with reckless homicide. If convicted, Johnson faces a maximum of 10 years in jail and a mandatory five-year driver’s license revocation. The League commends the South Carolina Highway Patrol and the Aiken County Solicitor’s office for the thorough investigation, and having the courage to bring appropriate charges against Johnson.
The loss of Dr. Burke is a tragedy and it is our hope that justice will be served. Far too often we hear of similar stories in which law enforcement and prosecutors claim their hands are tied, that a gap exists in the law that lets offenders off with simple traffic violations. Unfortunately cyclists and other vulnerable road users exceedingly feel the brunt of this loophole. Several states are working to change these laws.
In New Mexico, HB 68 will add another layer of punishment options for careless drivers when the result of their actions causes severe injury or death. The bill will allow for misdemeanor punishment of up to one year in county jail and fines up to $1,000. Cyclists in New Mexico can take action to move the legislation forward here.
In Maryland, HB 363, Manslaughter by Vehicle or Vessel – Criminal Negligence, will provides a misdemeanor option for those who cause fatalities by driving in a criminally negligent manner. If convicted, drivers would be subject to imprisonment up to 3 years and/or a fine up to $5000. Cyclists in Maryland can take action here. HB 363 will be a major component of the Maryland Bicycle Symposium on February 22nd.
If your state is working on similar legislation, let us know.
Read more about Dr. Burke at the Alliance for Biking & Walking.
Jeff Peel State and Local Advocacy Coordinator
Peel joined the League in March 2008 as a Program Specialist for the Bicycle Friendly Communities program. Peel has a BA in American Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi.
The average annual number of bicycle/motor vehicle crashes in Minneapolis between 1993 and 1999 was 334. Since 2000, the number has dropped 20 percent to 269.
Why? Are fewer people in Minneapolis riding these days? No.
In fact, according to the US Census and American Community Survey data, the number of Minneapolitans regularly biking to work more than doubled between 1990 and 2008 (3,000 to 8,000). This increase is supported by the city’s counts, which show a 174 percent increase in bicyclists in downtown Minneapolis between 2003 and 2008.
[Click on graphs for larger images. Note: The flat grey line between 1993 and 1999 is because the Census did not have yearly counts until the ACS came around in 2005.]
“People are so used to seeing bicyclists — love them or hate — and they don’t want to hit them,” Shaun Murphy, coordinator of the city’s non-motorized transportation program, told the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune. He also told the Tribune that the “hot spots” for bike-motorist accidents are not located around the University of Minnesota, where bicycling is common, because drivers there are so used to watching for bikes. Here is that heat map:
The data from Minneapolis are just the latest example of this counter-intuitive relationship between more bicycling and fewer crashes that has become known as the “safety in numbers” concept after the famous 2003 study from Peter Jacobsen. New York City has shown a similar trend (source: Transportation Alternatives):
This is the kind of news we love to report on. Thanks to UrbanVelo for drawing our attention to it. Please let me know (darren [at] bikeleague.org) if there are any Safety in Numbers examples that I missed.
Darren Flusche League Policy Director
Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.
The League of American Bicyclists is proud to announce that it received the maximum four star ranking from Charity Navigator. This ranking reflects several years of rigorous attention to our financial management from our staff and board.
In informing us of the ranking, Charity Navigator’s president and CEO Ken Berger wrote:
[The] League of American Bicyclists has earned our 4-star rating for its ability to efficiently manage and grow its finances. Approximately a quarter of the charities we evaluate have
received our highest rating, indicating that League of American Bicyclists executes its mission in a fiscally responsible way, and outperforms most other charities in America. This “exceptional” designation from Charity Navigator differentiates League of American Bicyclists from its peers and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust.
Williams joined the League in April 2010. For the four years prior, he worked providing technology consulting and solutions to nonprofit organizations with Community IT Innovators.
It’s been awhile since we’ve shared an update on the Black Hawk, CO bike ban. According to our colleagues at Bicycle Colorado, a local judge has denied a request to dismiss the tickets ofthree of the cyclists ticketed as a result of the ban. The court’s ruling can be found here. While these cyclists have yet to decide whether to appeal to a higher court, Bicycle Colorado is seeking a legislative solution.
…that a local authority may not prohibit the operation of bicycles or electrically assisted bicycles on a street or highway unless a suitable bike path, horseback trail, or other trail is available within a specified distance for use as an alternate route and an engineering and traffic investigation has been done to determine whether the operation of such vehicles is incompatible with the normal and safe movement of traffic.
Colorado residents: contact your state legislators (find contact info here) and urge them to support House Bill 1092 (Kerr-Brophy). Let them know bicycle bans are bad for Colorado’s bicycle and tourism industry and limit your freedom to travel by bicycle.
Jeff Peel State and Local Advocacy Coordinator
Peel joined the League in March 2008 as a Program Specialist for the Bicycle Friendly Communities program. Peel has a BA in American Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi.
Like a lot of the country, D.C. weather has been miserable this winter. Cold, wet and slippery. As bitter as the weather can get, commuting by bike is still my best option. Thanks to the D.C. Department of Transportation who has been doing a much better job than ever before in clearing snow from our bike network, winter bike commuting has been much easier. The noticeable increase in the number of additional year round bike commuters is a testament to that.
Many communities still have room for improvement in their winter maintenance. As northern cities continue to work to be more bike-friendly, better snow removal practice and policies from bikeways regularly finds their way into feedback to those who apply for BFC designation. Boulder, CO- one of three Platinum designated communities- brings us an often shared best practice:
Multi-use paths in the City of Boulder are maintained to high-level transportation standards. Separate snow removal crews begin plowing the city’s multi-use paths at exactly the same time that other crews are plowing city streets.
For those still waiting on their community to adopt such policies or for maintenance budgets to increase, is there anything that can be done?
Last winter Bike Pittsburgh! could no longer wait on the city to clear snow from a popular bridge path, and organized a snow clearing party of their own. We’ve also heard of trail friends groups organizing similar shoveling parties. For those of you with the same DIY ethic who want to take on this task alone, you can build your own pedal-powered snow plow with an old bike, a trip to the hardware store and a few hours in your garage. Enjoy the video below, and if you’re inspired to create your own machine, please share your hard work with us!
Jeff Peel State and Local Advocacy Coordinator
Peel joined the League in March 2008 as a Program Specialist for the Bicycle Friendly Communities program. Peel has a BA in American Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi.
We are well on track to have the biggest and best National Bike Summit yet, and we want you to be there! Register before 5:00 EST February 3 (that’s tomorrow!) to take advantage of our early bird pricing: $375 for members and $455 for non-members.
This year is make-or-break for bicycling advocacy. We don’t have all of the friends in Congress that we used to, which makes it even more important to go to Capitol Hill to make our voices heard. Click here to register now!
Want to learn more about the National Bike Summit? Click here.
Katie Omberg Events and Outreach Manager
Katie joined the League in April of 2010. For the two years prior, she worked at the Corcoran College of Art + Design as a programs coordinator. Katie has a BA in Religion from Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass. She enjoys biking to work.
One of the hurdles to passage of the next transportation bill is the even-longer overdue reauthorization of the Federal aviation program – this was being debated in the Senate today. In the last Congress, we were disappointed to learn that Senator McCain (R-AZ) proposed an amendment to the bill to prohibit the use of Passenger Facility Charges to provide bike parking at airports, which seemed like a singularly mean-spirited and unnecessary thing to do.
The PFC (oh yes, we know the aviation lingo as well) allows the collection of up to $4.50 for every passenger at commercial airports to be used for projects that enhance safety, security or capacity at airports as well as noise reduction, etc. Intermodal projects are funded with this levy at airport terminals and on access roads – and it’s no trivial sum of money. In FY2009, close to $2.5billion was collected through PFCs.
Bike parking at Portland Airport; Photo: BikeMontclair via Picasa
Lo and behold, Senate Bill 223 in the 112th Congress, Section 207(b), contains the language proposed last time by McCain. For some reason, either McCain or someone else has decided that bike parking at airports is worth singling out for exclusion; that it doesn’t somehow count as an “intermodal” facility; that it should never be part of the airport experience. One can only speculate as to why.
Source: Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia
Bicycling to the airport may never be a major means of access given the nature of air travel and the trips people make by air (but it does happen — including by airport employees). Even cycling meccas like Copenhagen (CPH) and Amsterdam (AMS) airports have a limited number of people riding to and from them – but it certainly isn’t precluded or deliberately made more difficult, and nor should that happen at US airports. Demand may only require a few bike racks and maybe a locker or two for longer term storage in more accessible airports – not exactly the kind of volume that would eat deeply into the $2.5billion fund.
Hopefully, as the bill progresses we can find a way to strip this provision from the bill and restore equity to the funding of landside airport facilities.
Andy Clarke League President
Andy Clarke was appointed to the position of Executive Director in April of 2004 after successfully leading efforts to create, interpret and implement the various transportation programs that are available to improve conditions for bicycling and walking as the League’s State and Local Advocacy Director. Before joining the League in February 2003, Clarke was on contract to provide technical assistance to the highly regarded Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center on site at the Federal Highway Administration. He is on the Board of Directors for America Bikes, and a member of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycling Professionals.
Attending the National Bike Summit can make a difference in your community. Here’s how it did in mine:
A few years ago during the Summit, I met with my Congressional Representative at the time, Marilyn Musgrave. I invited her to a school back home that had a Safe Routes to School program in place. Doing so would enable her to see how federal transportation dollars were being used at the local level.
Previous to her visit, the Congresswoman had refused to join the Congressional Bike Caucus and had not been a supporter of legislation that was going to divert transportation tax dollars from road construction or repair.
Buzz Feldman (in bike jersey) with Congresswoman Marilyn Musgraves, bike winners, and Tom Cobb, who donated one of the two bikes that were given away.
On the day that she chose to visit Columbine Elementary School in Longmont, Colorado, no special effort was made by the school to encourage increased participation in their Safe Routes to School program. The Congresswoman stood on one of the sidewalks use by students as they enter the campus. Her job was to give each student who walked or biked a recognition sticker that read, “I walked to School” or “I biked to school”. On that special day, out of 417 students at the school, only 12 arrived by car. The remainder all either walked or biked to school. No youngsters are bused to Columbine. Congresswoman Musgrave was amazed at the level of participation and the lack of traffic around the school! It was an eye opening experience for her.
While at the school, the Congresswoman had the fun of picking two winners of new bicycles from raffle tickets the students had earned throughout the school year for walking or biking. (See accompanying photo.)
Upon her return to her office in D.C., Congresswoman Musgrave immediately joined the Congressional Bike Caucus and became an ardent supporter of Safe Routes to School and other initiatives that encourage people to walk or bike more.
Guest blogger Buzz Feldman is League Cycling Instructor #1316 and a founding member of Bicycle Longmont in Longmont, Colorado. He’s currently the Coordinator for Safe Routes to School in St. Vrain Valley School District and serves on Longmont’s Transportation Advisory Board. He’s the former owner of High Gear Cyclery in Longmont.
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In informing us of the ranking, Charity Navigator’s president and CEO Ken Berger wrote:
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