Supporting the future of transit

What is #BikesForTransit?

This Bike Month, as we celebrate biking, we can’t help but feel a gap in our normal transportation routines. That’s why today we’re all about #BikesForTransit to show the bike community’s support and appreciation for buses, trains, and other public transit that link us, our bike trips, and so many of our neighbors to work, school, the store, and so much more.

Check out our Bike Month blog for the National Center for Mobility Management

Amid the covid-19 pandemic, frontline transit workers are risking their lives to provide rides to essential workers and people in our community who need access to food, healthcare, jobs, and other critical services. The transit community is suffering: many bus drivers and rail workers are dying and falling ill. Transit agencies have reduced service in many areas for public health reasons and waived fares to reduce the risk to drivers. To ensure transit remains an option in post-pandemic life, transit needs our support – please ask Congress to provide $32 million in emergency operating support to transit today.

Transit and biking have a long history of working together to provide people with more transportation options. The Federal Transit Administration supports improvements for biking and walking networks near transit, advocates work with transit agencies to provide first and last mile solutions by biking and walking, transit funding has helped launch and operate bikeshare systems, and transit is critical to communities having real choices other than cars. 

In addition to offering vital transportation for many, transit benefits people who bike who rarely utilize it themselves. By moving people without private cars, transit makes more space for bikes. By providing bike racks at transit stops and on buses, transit expands bike networks and bridges otherwise insurmountable gaps. By integrating with bikeshare and bike infrastructure improvements, transit shows the way forward to a future with more mobility options rather than car-centric communities. There are many reasons for people who bike to support transit and #BikesForTransit is all about expressing that support.

Here are the League’s suggested next steps that just require a few clicks or a copy-and-paste to support transit with #BikesForTransit: 

1. Post on social media! Copy-and-paste our suggested posts below or craft your own.

2. Take Action! Transit needs emergency funding for operation expenses, direct your followers to actions that support transit. Click here to take action.

3. Collaborate with transit! Advocate for transit improvements locally, work with your transit agency to identify routes that may benefit from improved bike networks and temporary bike lanes while transit capacity is reduced, or work with businesses that rely on transit to help them welcome back workers with bike education and help so that they don’t have to rely on cars. Click here to use our map to find your local bike advocacy organization and get started being an ally for transit. 

Supporting transit is personal for the League’s Policy Director, Ken McLeod, who says “In one of my first jobs, I rode my bike to a bus transit center so that I could cross the 520 bridge to a transit stop on a highway offramp that connected to Seattle’s University District. Thanks to bike-transit integration, as a 15 year old I could travel from the suburbs to the city for work. Without a bike rack equipped bus, good sidewalks and trails, and a few bike lanes, my commute would not have been possible.”

Congress has included $15 billion in emergency funding for transit operating support. Research from TransitCenter suggests they need far more. Please join the League of American Bicyclists in supporting #BikesForTransit today.

SAMPLE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

• I support Transit. I support Bikes. #BikesForTransit helps everyone move without cars!
• Thanks to @FTA_DOT “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.” #BikesForTransit https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/environmental-programs/livable-sustainable-communities/bicycles-transit
• According to @APTA_Transit, millennials see transit as a transportation mode that works best in combination with other modes. #BikesForTransit to make transit and biking better! https://bikeleague.org/advocacy-advance-first-mile-last-mile
• Buses and trains help bicyclists bridge gaps in bike networks and extend trips. Now is the time for people who bike to support transit and help transit bridge past Covid-19 #BikesForTransit http://t4america.org/2020/05/20/over-160-sign-letter-in-support-of-32-billion-for-transit-but-the-fight-isnt-over/
• Why #BikesForTransit? As @FTA_DOT said in 2017, good biking and walking connections can “alleviate overcrowding” and “serve as a redundancy” when transit is interrupted: https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.dot.gov/files/docs/research-innovation/64496/ftareportno0111.pdf
• “Between 2000 and 2008, the percentage of buses equipped with bicycle racks rose from 27% to 71%” for all the times that transit has helped you bike, now is a time for #BikesForTransit https://www.transit.dot.gov/sites/fta.dot.gov/files/docs/research-innovation/64496/ftareportno0111.pdf