Archive for August, 2011

This morning at a White House briefing in the Rose Garden, President Obama, flanked by U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumpka and officials from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called upon Congress to pass a clean extension of the surface transportation bill immediately upon their return next week. Emphasizing the importance of infrastructure investment on jobs and the economy he called upon Congress to stop the partisan gamesmanship and put the country first.

Given the current efforts in Congress to strip away funding for programs important to the bicycling community such as; Transportation Enhancements; Safe Routes to Schools; and Recreational Trails program, the League wholeheartedly supports the President’s message to Congress. We look forward to working with his Administration and supporters in Congress to see that a clean extension of the current transportation bill (SAFETEA-LU) is past. A clean extension means that all current programs in SAFETEA-LU will forgo any cuts or policy changes. Communities across the country will be able to continue to build upon the successes of the past decades to get more people riding more often.

~Walter Finch
Director of Advocacy, League of American Bicyclists

Finch joined the League in 2006 and has more than 20 years of experience in the transportation industry. He worked as a government relations associate with G.S. Proctor & Associates, served as the chief of staff for a member of Maryland’s House of Delegates, and worked at the U.S. Department of Transportation as the Special Assistant, Office of the Secretary, Office of Intermodalism.

Health and bicycling advocates are teaming up to fight a battle that will determine whether an Interstate-90 bridge connecting Minnesota and Wisconsin will accommodate cyclists for the next 100 years or  be a barrier. Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota (BikeMN), Active Living LaCrescent (ALL) and Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin have worked hard to get Complete Streets policies passed. Now the policies are being put to the test.

Brighid O’Keane writes on the Advocacy Adavance blog:

The Interstate 90 Dresbach Bridge — connecting LaCrescent, Minnesota and LaCrosse, Wisconsin over the Mississippi River — is being replaced with a bridge that has a 100-year design life. Currently, that design does not include bicycle pedestrian accommodations, even though both states have Complete Streets policies and bike-ped accommodations are included in the LaCrosse area 2035 Transportation Plan.

Local and state advocates have already taken successful action. Working with the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), advocates forced the Minnesota Department of Transportation to reexamine bicycle pedestrian accommodation on the bridge. Advocates now have five weeks to convince MnDOT to include bicycle and pedestrian accommodations on the Interstate Bridge and work with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to create a plan that connects the bridge to the three popular Wisconsin trails.

The stakes are certainly high. If transportation officials don’t include bike-ped accommodations now, ” there will be no bicycle pedestrian connections across the Mississippi River at Dresbach for the next 100 years,” says Nick Mason, Education and Technical Assistance Program Manager for BikeMN.

Agency staff and advocates reached out to us after reading our report, Bridging the Gaps in Bicycling Networks: A advocates guide to getting bikes on bridges. The League wrote a letter of support for the projects and worked with advocates to talk through strategy. Now, Advocacy Advance has awarded a $3,000 Rapid Response Grant to BikeMN and Active Living LaCrescent for their Dresbach Bridge campaign. Read more on the Advocacy Advance blog.

Advocacy Advance is a dynamic partnership of the Alliance and the League of American Bicyclists aimed at dramatically increasing funding for biking and walking projects and programs.

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.

If yesterday’s East Coast earthquake and the subsequent scramble to get home taught us anything, it may be that there is no better vehicle in emergency situations than the bicycle. As traffic in downtown DC was bumper to bumper at 3:00 in the afternoon, bicyclists navigated fairly smoothly through the jammed streets, smiling and waving to each other.

Capital Bikeshare in high demand after East Coast Earthquake, photo by Camera Slayer, Flickr

League Communications Director Meghan Cahill helped several people rent Capital Bikeshare bikes yesterday afternoon. Later, “two Australian tourists came up to me at a traffic light and said ‘Where’d you get that bike, we have to get out of here,’” Cahill said, “I explained where to find a station and what to do. They ran off saying ‘Cheers, mate!’”

Meanwhile, we keep hearing stories about the grueling experiences so many people had getting home.

In all seriousness, walking and biking are often the best modes in unusual situations, including terror attacks, transit strikes, extreme weather, and yes earthquakes. The ability of large numbers of people to evacuate quickly is one of many reasons that non-motorized accommodations are so important on bridges.

In DC, buildings were evacuated after the earthquake. Here is the view of First Street Northwest. Photo by Douglas Graham for Roll Call.

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 latest from the Advocacy Advance Partnership between the League and the Alliance for Biking & Walking:

Last week, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance won the first phase of its campaign to bring a bike share system to Portland, when the Portland City Council voted in support of $2 million in Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) money for a capital investment in bike sharing.

The BTA also received a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Response grant to build on this success and prepare for the next phase of the campaign: to build on this success and prepare for the next phase of the campaign: Secure full funding at the regional Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for the City of Portland to build and operate the new $11.5 million bike sharing program.

Read more at Advocacy Advance.

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.

Construction costs are increasing, according to the Washington State DOT, which tracks costs in several western states. For example, after a steep decline from its peak in 2009, the cost of hot mix asphalt is beginning to tick back up. As state budgets are tightening, it is a good time to invest in transportation projects — like bicycling projects — that rely less on materials and commit a greater share of their totals costs to labor, putting people to work.

In June, the Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, released their report,  Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure: A National Study of Employment Impacts, which showed that for each million dollars spent, bicycling projects create 46 percent more jobs than road-only projects. In addition to the employment benefits, as DOTs face shrinking budgets and rising costs of materials, bicycling projects can provide the biggest bang for the buck.

Hat tip: Transportation Issues Daily

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 majority of the Federal Transit Administration’s grant programs allow money to be spent on the design, construction, and maintenance of walking and biking projects that “enhance or are related to public transportation facilities.” But how do they determine if such a relationship exists? Until now the FTA had used 1,500 feet from the transit stop or station as the rule of thumb.

Today, the FTA announced that “all pedestrian improvements located within one-half mile and all bicycle improvements located within three miles of a public transportation stop or station shall have a de facto physical and functional relationship to public transportation.” Apparently in response to public comments, the agency also stipulated that projects located beyond those distances can be eligible if walkers and cyclists could reasonable be expected to make longer trips.

Photo: Subway and bike, iStock, By Ethan Fink

This policy, which the League enthusiastically welcomes, recognizes that successful transit depends on safe and attractive first-and-last-mile access to stations and stops. Making bicycling and walking safe and attractive makes transit more accessible, practical and appealing. In addition, providing secure bike parking is cheaper than car parking.

When the FTA first proposed the policy in 2009, the League lent its voice in support:

The League of American Bicyclists welcomes the renewed emphasis on livability in the Department of Transportation, especially initiatives to diminish the barriers between the modal administrations within DOT and between USDOT and other Federal agencies. The ability of people to use a combination of walking, bicycling and transit is an essential component in the sustainable growth of cities in the United States.

We also recommended including funding eligibility for bike share programs. Here’s what the FTA had to say in response:

FTA agrees that bicycle sharing systems provide meaningful access to public transportation and help address the problem of the ‘‘first and last mile.’’ Moreover, bicycle sharing programs, like all forms of active transportation, provide numerous benefits, such as reduced carbon emissions and improved public health.

Federal Transit Law limits the use of FTA funds for ‘‘public transportation.’’ Historically, FTA has not included ‘‘bicycle’’ within the definition of ‘‘public transportation.’’ Therefore, while a grantee may use FTA funds to purchase aspects of a bicycle sharing system if those aspects are located near public transportation stops and stations, an FTA grantee may not use FTA funds to purchase bicycles.

We hope that this historical view changes as more and more public bikeshare systems connect travelers to bus, subway, and train systems. London, for example, includes it’s bikeshare program on its transit website.

The policy is good news and we hope that local transit agencies take full advantage of this opportunity to make their transit system more accessible. The following FTA funding programs can be used for capital projects to provide biking and walking access to public transportation facilities:

• Urbanized Area Formula Program
• Major Capital Investments (New Starts & Small Starts)
• Fixed Guideway Modernization
• Bus and Bus Facilities
• Transportation for Elderly Person and Persons with Disabilities
• Formula Grants for Other than Urbanized Areas
• Public Transportation on Indian Reservations
• Job Access and Reverse Commute Program
• New Freedom Program
• Paul S. Sarbanes Transit in Parks Program

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.

Back in July, we reported on the US DOT seminar How Lessons on how to compete for a US DOT TIGER Grant. Today, the US DOT’s Chief Economist Jack Wells hosted a webinar to describe what TIGER application reviewers are looking for in the project’s Benefit Cost Analysis section of the application. Here are the slides of the presentation; here’s the webcast. Applicants (agency staff and the advocates helping them) should thoroughly review the notice of funding availability (links to the original version that they requested comments on. No major changes were made.)

The webinar got deeper into the methodology of benefit cost analyses than can fit into a quick blog post. Here are a few points to consider, however:

• The economists evaluate the credibility of the benefit cost analysis on a 1 to 4 scale
• They are looking for positive net outcomes greater than one, but beyond that they’d rather see quality estimates than exaggerated estimates
• It can be difficult to estimate livability benefits, but they really want to see estimated usage — ie estimated numbers of bicycling and walking trips
• The notice of funding availability has a table of dollars values to calculate the emission-reduction benefits of mode shift
• Much attention was paid to avoid “double counting” of benefits and the inclusion of all costs, see the notice of availability and webinar slides for more

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 was just added as a beneficiary of Climate Ride — but there are only 20 spots left. Register for Climate Ride to raise money to support the League and take the ride of your life for five days in Northern California!

You’re invited to join us on Climate Ride, an incredible 5-day bicycle ride in Northern California and the best part is that you can help the League of American Bicyclists while you’re doing it! For the first time, we’re recruiting members for our new Team Bike League on this year’s California ride, and you can be part of the fun and raise funds for the League of American Bicyclists at the same time.

Climate Ride is an amazing journey and ‘green conference on wheels’ where people who care about a clean and green future for our nation pedal the stunning California coast together to make a difference. The event is a 5-day, fully-supported bicycle ride from Fortuna to San Francisco under towering redwoods, through the Russian River Wine Country, and along the Pacific Coast Bicycle Route – one of the most scenic coastlines in the world.  Climate Ride also features nightly speakers who focus on bicycle advocacy, sustainability, and renewable energy.

Everyone who has participated in Climate Ride raves about the tour as a ‘life-changing’ and ‘eye-opening’ experience. What is even better is that you can enjoy this great event, while at the same time helping to support the League’s mission. Climate Ride has opened up the beneficiary choices so now you can choose to support the League specifically with your fundraising dollars. If you select us as your beneficiary when you register or join our Team Bike League, we will be the sole recipient of the funds you raise, which means our efforts will gain even more traction in the future.

Registration for Climate Ride California 2011 is $75 (which includes a beautiful jersey and more) and then you raise at least $2400 to participate for the all-inclusive event. The ride is fully-supported by a team of talented leader-hosts, bike mechanics, medics, and massage therapists. Climate Ride is also one of the ‘greenest’ multi-day charity ride events in the world. Riders are asked to bring no bottled water (recyclable water bottles will be used, and filtered water will be provided). There is no disposable plate ware or cups, the support vehicles are highly fuel efficient, and every effort is made to recycle and compost materials used on the ride.

When you sign up, you’ll be joining many other people who want to do something to help create a better future for us all. Climate Ride is a great way to get involved and experience an amazing adventure, powered by your own energy. The best bet is to sign up early not only so you have time to fundraise and train, but also because spots fill up!

If you don’t want to do the ride, you can support Team Bike League here with a donation. Thanks!

Find out more and register at www.climateride.org.

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.

Cycling and fashion have hit an uptick in America thanks to many fashion designers getting on board with stylish bike commuter pieces and selling them online, including: bags, helmets and jeans — and this is in addition to some pretty sweet rides.

What influenced the recent interest in stateside Cycle Chic commuters? Perhaps it is how many fashion trends form — European inspiration. Men, women and children in many European countries are raised with bicycling. They bike everywhere, and they don’t wear special clothes to do it. They wear their fancy clothes, their going out clothes, their work clothes and their play clothes while bicycling. They save the bike shorts for the professionals.

Philip de Roos of Bear Bicycles, recently featured on Copenhagen Cycle Chic, wrote to me about a stylish customer:

Petria Lenehan is a Dublin fashion designer schooled in New York, Florence and London. She owns Dublin fashion boutique Dolls — a store for fashion lovers — and at the entrance stands a matte green Dutch bicycle. Petria primarily has that bike because it brings structure to her days. With a dual role as fashion designer and boutique owner, Petria’s life is hectic. Five years on from opening Dolls, she still finds herself sketching dresses in business hours – meaning she will have to do bookkeeping later that night. But now, with help of her bike, a change has come about.

*Petria Lenehan bikes to her studio and boutique.

Petria recently rented a studio, forcing herself to be business woman in her boutique and fashion designer in her studio. It does require Petria to frequently travel between studio and shop, though. She heavily relies on her bike, which has become the beacon of structure. Every day at her boutique, she loads shirts and skirts in her bicycle basket and cycles to her new studio. But Petria also has the bike for its style.

When the Irish Times recently wrote an article about Dolls, it said, ‘you don’t have to arrive (…) by Dutch bike, but if you do you will be among your tribe. This is Dublin 8, darling.’ And so Petria decided to display her handmade Dutch bike alongside dresses, hats, scarves, frocks, jumpers, socks and clogs.

So there you have it. The fashionable want a sensible way to get around town, and the bike is the answer. Plus, they get to show off their smart ensembles and chic bicycles while they cruise.

*Photo by Rich Gilligan.

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.

In line with a goal to double federal funding for biking and walking, Advocacy Advance is awarding $100,000 in direct grants to four advocacy organizations.

Using the grants to tap into federal funding streams and build their political influence, recipients will work to triple bicycle mode share in Atlanta, Ga., dramatically improve infrastructure in Pittsburgh, Pa., empower Latino cyclists in Los Angeles, Calif., and create a new model to win state dollars in Delaware.

Since 2009, Advocacy Advance — a partnership of the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking & Walking  — has awarded more than $500,000 in direct grants to 25 state and local advocacy organizations. This year, more than 60 applications with proposals totaling more than $1.3 million were received in the two grant categories: Model Grants and Capacity Building Grants.

Model Grants provide multi-year support for efforts that significantly increase federal investment for biking and walking. Capacity Building Grants catalyze the growth of advocacy organizations that are poised to dramatically increase biking and walking in their communities. Based on the organizations’ successful track records and innovative strategies, 2011 grants will be awarded to Bike Delaware, Bike Pittsburgh, the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition and the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition.

“We are excited to support these grantees, as they help lead the way toward a more equitable and rational use of limited federal transportation funds, especially as the lessons we learn will be applicable to accessing state and local funds,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists.

“Receiving this Model Grant is a testament to the decade of work we’ve poured into building strong relationships with key city, county, regional, and state transportation officials – and winning the cultural battle that bikes belong in the transportation mix,” Scott Bricker, Executive Director of Bike Pittsburgh, said. “Now it’s time to identify and fund specific projects that will keep bike riders safer and result in more people bicycling.”

Advocacy Advance Grants are made possible thanks to generous support from SRAM and Planet Bike.

2011 Model Grants

Bike Pittsburgh
Receiving the largest grant ever awarded through the Advocacy Advance program, Bike Pittsburgh will use $40,000 per year, for three years, to leverage partnerships, identify key bicycle and pedestrian projects and get them funded. Advocates will work closely with the City of Pittsburgh on MOVEPGH – Pittsburgh’s first comprehensive transportation plan – to ensure the plan includes recommendations for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects that are eligible for federal funding. Advocates will also work with county officials to get projects in surrounding municipalities in the queue for federal funding.

Atlanta Bicycle Coalition
The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition (ABC) will receive $35,000 per year, for three years, to double federal spending on bicycle and pedestrian projects and programs in the Atlanta region, and triple the bicycle mode share from 1 to 3 percent. To meet these ambitious goals, ABC will hire additional staff and work with the local metropolitan planning organizations, and the Georgia Department of Transportation, to tap into two federal funding streams currently underutilized for bicycle and pedestrian projects – the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program and the Highway Safety Improvement Program.

2011 Capacity Building Grants

Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition
The Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC) will receive a $15,000 matching grant to hire a dedicated bilingual education/outreach staff member to empower Spanish-speaking residents who lack access to bike safety and advocacy tools, and build political power for improved bicycling in L.A. by better including populations of color.

Bike Delaware
Bike Delaware advocates recently won $5 million in new dedicated funding for bicycling in Delaware in 2012 – more money than the state has ever allocated in the past. A $10,000 matching grant will help Bike Delaware create a national model to increase state bicycle and pedestrian funding by creating an action plan for state bicyclists, advocating legislation, monitoring and communicating with DelDOT, and tracking progress.

In addition, Advocacy Advance will grant $25,000 in Rapid Response Grants throughout the year to help state and local organizations take advantage of unexpected opportunities to win, increase, or preserve funding for biking and walking.

For more information, contact:

Brighid O’Keane
Advocacy Advance Program Manager
Alliance for Biking & Walking
(202) 621-5442
Brighid@AdvocacyAdvance.org

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.

We all know how expensive it can be to fly with your bike. We update the airplane bike fees on our Web site for the National Bike Summit every March, and the rates are inconsistent and pricey. Luckily for those of you who fly Frontier, there is good news!

Frontier has removed the flat fee for checked bicycles and will now include them in the standard baggage allowance, meaning customers traveling on Classic or Classic Plus fares can include their bike as one of their two complimentary checked bags and Economy passengers would pay $20 if the bike is one of their first two checked bags. Bikes will be exempt from any oversize fees, but subject to overweight fees and excess bag fees, if applicable. This is similar to the carrier’s current policy for golf clubs and skis. Frontier recommends to give yourself an extra 30 minutes for check-in if you are checking your bike — a small price to pay for free or exceptionally low bike check-ins!

What is allowed: non-motorized touring or racing bicycles with single seats. Bicycles must have the handlebars fixed sideways and the pedals removed and encased in a protective, durable case or box. Pedals do not need to be removed if wrapped in plastic foam or similar material.

What is not allowed: Items which exceed 99.9 lbs or 109 linear inches will not be accepted. According to Frontier, the definition of linear inches is L+W”H. A standard hard-plastic bike box is around 85 linear inches, so must of us should be compliant with these specifics.

Thanks Frontier for making it easier for bicyclists to travel with bicycles. It is appreciated.

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.

The following is a white paper written by the League of American Bicyclists and America Bikes, a coalition of national bicycling advocacy groups. Download the PDF of  ”Why Eligibility Isn’t Enough.”

Why “Eligibility” Isn’t Enough

The case for dedicated bicycle and pedestrian funding in the federal transportation bill

Representative John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently introduced an outline of his proposed transportation bill. The proposal eliminates all dedicated funding for bicycling and walking – programs such as transportation enhancements, recreational trails and safe routes to schools program – and maintains “eligibility” for these activities only if states choose to spend their funds on these kinds of activities and these meet [undetermined] performance measures and are in the national interest.

As supporters of these programs attempt to preserve dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, they may well hear an argument along the lines of “don’t worry, these are still eligible activities, so if States think they are important they will continue”. While it is true that basic eligibility for federal transportation funds is important (it at least removes the argument that “we aren’t allowed to use these funds for bicycling and walking projects”), all the evidence of the past 20 years and beyond suggests that mere eligibility is totally insufficient: most states will simply stop spending any of their Federal transportation funds on anything related to bicycling and walking.

1. It didn’t work before. In 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) created the Transportation Enhancement (TE), Recreational Trails (RTP) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality programs (CMAQ), all of which have become major sources of funding for bicycling and walking projects. Before ISTEA, states had the option of spending up to $4.5 million of their highway funds each year on independent bicycling and walking projects (up to a national cap of $45 million), and the funds required NO state matching funds. In the 18 years before 1991, a total of $40 million was spent by all 50 states combined – approximately $2 million a year. Most states spent nothing between 1988 and 1991.

2. States seem to wait for programs to end. The chart below shows how spending on bicycling and walking projects and programs has increased since 1991. Notice the dips in spending when transportation bill expires. While this lack of planning for bike/ped projects may partly be explained by the general level of uncertainty caused by numerous short-term funding fixes (continuing resolutions), there is also a strong possibility that States are hoping these programs will go away in the new bills – and in 1995-96 and 2003-04 there were active efforts underway to eliminate the Transportation Enhancements program.

(more…)

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.

How many people can say that they turned $3,000 into $2 million? Kevin Hardman and the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin can.

How’d they do it? With a little help from Advocacy Advance, the partnership of the League and the Alliance for Biking & Walking that’s aimed at giving advocates, agency staff and public officials the tools and knowledge they need to tap into federal funding for biking and walking projects and programs. The Bicycle Federation used a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Respond grant to support its campaign to restore dedicated bicycle and pedestrian funds cut from the state budget. They were successful. Instead of zeroing out the bicycle and pedestrian line in the budget, the state will spend $2 million over the next two years on bicycle and pedestrian projects.

Read all about it on the Advocacy Advance blog!

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.