Blog
Voters flocked to the polls on Tuesday and we saw many changes in State Houses and Congress. But what did November 4th mean for biking and walking? Advocacy Advance tracks and supports campaigns to win public funding for active transportation. Here is an update to highly-anticipated transportation ballot measures that open up funding for local walking and biking projects.
Read More →
This guest post comes to us from Chris McCahill, a senior associate with the State Smart Transportation Initiative. Despite gradual improvements, the U.S. is falling behind its peers in terms of traffic safety. Making matters worse, our nation’s most vulnerable road users—pedestrians and cyclists—make up a growing share of traffic fatalities in recent years. In response, the U.S. DOT has made bicycle and pedestrian safety a high priority, state laws are beginning to address the needs of non-motorized road users, and many cities are installing new bike facilities and stepping up traffic enforcement.
Read More →
Election Day is here, and we’ve got the breakdown on what’s at stake for bicycling at the ballot box. In the U.S. Senate, a change of party control, which is looking likely, could spell trouble for bicycling at the national level. Here’s why: We could be looking at a May 2015 vote to cut funding for bike projects and removed eligibility for bike and pedestrian facilities from the transportation bill. Senate allies have successfully fought off amendments and legislative maneuvers on this in 2009, 2011 and 2012. If Republicans have more than 55 seats, bicycling priorities will liekly face some opposition, and many of bicycling’s strongest champions in the Senate will no longer be heading up the important committees making the decisions.
Read More →
One key question that has arisen from attendees as we enter our fourth year of a day centered on women’s issues in bicycling is whether its appropriate or effective to have this remain a separate event. It is in that spirit that we have chosen to update the name. Rather than be the National Women’s Bicycling Forum, we are now calling this day the National Forum on Women and Bicycling.
Read More →
Last Friday, the League hosted a live discussion about the term “invisible cyclist” with Dr. Stephen Zavestoski, of the University of San Francisco; Najah Shakir, of Boston Bikes; Do Lee, of the Biking Public Project; and Erick Huerta, of Multicultural Communities for Mobility.
Read More →
Their claim that bicycling has become much more dangerous is based on only data from 2010 to 2012 and is extremely misleading. Using official data from the US Department of Transportation, the total number of bike trips more than tripled from 1,272 million in 1977 to 4,081 million in 2009. During the same period, the number of cyclist fatalities fell from 922 in 1977 to 628 in 2009, a decrease of 32%. Taking into account the increased level of cycling, the cyclist fatality rate fell by a dramatic 79%. In short, cycling has become roughly four times safer per bike trip over the past three decades.
Read More →
Scores of you have already declared: I Bike, I Vote. With Election Day just a week away, join us in recognizing that bikes bring us together, uniting us across political lines for a common bipartisan goal: Building a bicycle friendly America for everyone. Whether or not you bike to your polling place on election day, you are a citizen cyclist — and your values for safer streets makes a difference no matter who’s on the ballot.
Read More →
The current federal transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) was a two-year bill that started on October 1, 2012. Two years later, MAP-21 was set to expire on October 1, 2014 but has received a slight extension through May 31, 2015. This week, Advocacy Advance held a webinar looking back on MAP-21, and looking ahead to what’s next for federal transportation funding for bicycling and walking.
Read More →
Under current law people who drive to work get almost twice the parking benefit as transit riders get for transit. It’s time for Congress to respect ALL commuters. Starting this past January, transit benefits slipped from $245 a month to $130, and parking benefits increased from $245 to $250. Meanwhile, the bike benefit stayed at $20 a month — but under a current bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, the bike benefit would be repealed all together.
Read More →
If all you read was the press release of a new report by the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA), “Bicyclist Safety,” you would be forgiven if your take-away was: More bicyclists are being killed on American roads but they’re mostly helmet-less drunks — and there aren’t enough deaths to make it a national issue anyway. The tone-deaf press release focuses on the share of fatalities of helmet-less riders and those with a high blood-alcohol level, without a single mention of speeding or driving behavior, and only a passing reference to Complete Streets.
Read More →