Local and State Advocacy

Hopefully by now you’ve heard about the 2014 National Bike Summit in March. (Register here.) Every year hundreds of advocates come to Washington, DC, to lobby Congress and it’s a great event. What you may not know is that each year at least 27 states hold statewide bike and/or walking summits or conferences.

For presidential candidates, winning Iowa is a game-changer. For the Women Bike movement, understanding the successes and barriers for female riders outside the big cities is just as important. This past weekend, I had the pleasure of both presenting and hearing from women who ride in the Hawkeye State.

Our friends in Georgia are currently working to beat back an anti-bicycling bill, HB 689, in the state legislature. The law would require tags and registration for bicycles, remove the righ to ride two abreast in the road, place strange requirements on group rides and make some unrestricted public roadways “off limits” to bicyclists. Georgia Bikes is working to stop this anti-bike bill from becoming law. This blog is cross-posted from their site — read more below to learn how to make your voice heard and stop this bill.

Campaigns to get bicycles on commuter trains are cropping up across the country. We’ve seen recent success in the Bay Area, and there’s been a national push to get Amtrak on board with increased bicycle services. This week, we’re seeing more positive movement in Chicago, where the South Shore Line rail is planning to announce a bike program by next spring, according to the Chicago Tribune. Last week, a number of local groups, including the Active Transportation Alliance, sent a letter to the rail line operator’s board, requesting bikes be allowed on the trains beginning next summer, with a pilot program phase in spring.