Blog Post
In June 2012, Kellie Morris created a dream board with a group of friends from church and hung the inspirational reminder above her desk at home. But after the adhesive slipped, the board fell hidden behind the furniture for months, as Kellie stayed busy launching an entrepreneurial venture and the daily duties of being a mom and grandmother. Before long, she’d forgotten entirely what was on the board.
In 2012, nearly one-third of adults and 50% of students were overweight or obese in Fort Worth, Texas. But Mayor Betsy Price is looking to roll back those numbers and use bicycling as a prescription for improved community health. “We’ve watched this growing epidemic of obesity and diabetes among children and adults,” Price says, “and so many people I know, their health has gone down.” So Price has made it her goal to transform Fort Worth into “Fit Worth,” spearheading a citywide initiative focused on promoting active lifestyles and healthy habits.
In this LCI Corner, educator Robert O’Conner of South Windsor, Conn., shares how his community’s efforts are helping to create lifelong bicyclists from an early age, by integrating bicycle education into the public schools’ curriculum. The Town of South Windsor, Conn., a Bronze Bicycle Friendly Community, is taking a new approach to bicycle education — working to integrate bike safety instruction into the curriculum of its school system.
The 2014 National Bike Challenge saw unprecedented participation from more than 47,000 riders across the country, pedaling more than 23 million miles.The National Bike Challenge, wrapping up its third year with a new award-winning website, saw 36% increase in riders and 25% more miles pedaled over last year. Challenge riders burned a collective 500,000 Ilbs. From May to September, riders logged miles, shared personal triumphs and united around bicycling, whether for fun, for work or for health.
This week Advocacy Advance released its latest resource, “Public-Private Partnerships for Transportation” (PDF). This concise primer answers basic questions about public-private partnerships (PPP, or P3) and how bicycling and walking can fit into these projects. Though P3s are becoming an attractive option, our resource goes over some potential benefits and problems with P3s, as well as additional considerations for bicycling and walking advocates.
A few years ago Advocacy Advance recognized the rise of local ballot initiatives to boost funding for transportation as a key opportunity to raise new funding for biking and walking projects. This summer we had the opportunity to partner with Americans for Transit to invest in new research to identify voters who support funding for transit and biking infrastructure.
When the League first started analyzing the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS) journey to work data to publicize bike commuting rates across American cities, we included a 350-word disclaimer cautioning readers to take the data with a grain of salt. This year, we took to Twitter to parse out the good, bad, and surprising aspects of this year’s ACS bike commuter data. It was a lot more fun.
Over the past three years, Rapid Response Grants have supported campaigns that have won over $120 million in public investments for active transportation projects. The grantees have produced real-world campaign plans to show other advocacy organizations how it has been done. This fall 2014, Advocacy Advance is announcing its “Big Ideas” Grants. Modeled after our successful Rapid Response Grant program, Advocacy Advance will award $30,000 total—3 grants of $10,000 each—to organizations that are pushing forward on some of the most important areas of bicycling and walking advocacy. “Big Ideas” Grants are intended to help with unforeseen opportunities, short-term campaigns or to push campaigns into the end zone to win funding for biking and walking infrastructure and programs.
Last week in Pittsburgh, U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Anthony Foxx, announced a groundbreaking agenda by US DOT to address the safety of people who bike and walk in all 50 states. “Safety is our highest priority and that commitment is the same regardless of which form of transportation people choose, including walking and biking,” Foxx told the more than 1,000 attendees at the Pro Walk Pro Bike Pro Place conference.
Today we are featuring Jim Silcott, principal extraordinaire and National Bike Challenge rider. Silcott has been an educator for 35 years and is now in his 26th year as principal of Trinity Catholic Elementary school in Columbus, Ohio. He set the impressive goal of riding to school every day no matter what the weather, no matter what he has on his daily schedule and no matter what time he may end his work day. Rain or snow, early arrival or late departure, he is ready to ride and he is recording his miles in the National Bike Challenge for all of us to cheer him on.