Legislative Update: Time runs out on 20 mph bill

By baw_admin | Published April 6, 2011

It’s the end of the road for HB 1217 20 mile-per-hour bill this session. The bill had to be voted out of the Senate Transportation Committee last week and it did not make it. Many thanks to all of you who supported this legislation and contacted legislators. The Bicycle Alliance’s Legislative Committee will review progress made on this bill at their June meeting and decide whether or not to attempt moving this bill in next year’s session.
We have better news on others bills that we have been working on:
  • Traffic School Safety Education bill, HB 1129 awaits the Governor’s signature. 

  • The Complete Streets bill SHB 1071 was passed in the Senate, but amended.  It now just needs House concurrence then goes to the Governor for her signature.   

  • HB 1700, which addresses transportation project design in a way that could greatly benefit bicycle and pedestrian facilities, is currently in Senate Rules.  Once pulled from Rules, it goes for a Senate floor vote. It has already passed in the House. 
  •  Vulnerable Users, SB 5326 has passed the House which amended the bill.  Next up is Senate concurrence, and if that occurs, then it is off to the Governor. 
The current proposed budget still includes the combined $11 million for the Safe Routes to School and Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety programs. We will continue to track these programs in the budget. 
As always, check our Legislative Page for more details about these bills and the work of our Legislative Committee.
Posted in Advocacy, Complete Streets, Education, Funding/Policy, Issues & Advocacy, Politics, Safety | Comments Off on Legislative Update: Time runs out on 20 mph bill

April showers bring the Daffodil Classic

By Louise McGrody | Published March 31, 2011
flickr/Mr Ush

It’s spring, we’re on daylight savings time, and you’re probably itching to ride your bike more. How about signing up for the Daffodil Classic on April 10?


Organized by the Tacoma Wheelmen’s Bicycle Club, the Daffodil Classic winds through the scenic Orting Valley and surrounding countryside and offers route options of 40, 60, and 100 miles. There is also a family fun ride. And did I mention that they serve up strawberry shortcake at the end of the ride?
The Daffodil Classic is one of many event bicycle rides that support Washington Bikes’s advocacy and education efforts with a per rider contribution. Check our Rides calendar for a complete listing.
Posted in Bike Clubs, Rides, Tacoma | Comments Off on April showers bring the Daffodil Classic

Create a Bicycle Friendly Wenatchee

By baw_admin | Published March 31, 2011

Bicycle friendly communities don’t just happen. It takes public planning, citizen support, political will, funding and engineering.

The Wenatchee Valley  Transportation Council is developing a Metropolitan Bicycle Master Plan for the communities of Wenatchee, East Wenatchee, Rock Island and Sunnyslope. They are seeking input from area cyclists to identify how and where people currently ride, as well as where they would like to ride but can’t for whatever reason. This information will be used to create a regional bicycle network.

If you are a Wenatchee Valley bike rider, please take a few minutes to complete the online bike survey. Your participation and support of the Bicycle Master Plan can improve the bikeability of the region.

Posted in Advocacy, Funding/Policy, Wenatchee | 1 Comment

The “Mutual Responsibilities” Bill—What’s Up?

By baw_admin | Published March 30, 2011
The legislature won’t act on the proposed bill to set out drivers’ and cyclists’ rights and responsibilities until cyclists’ concerns are met; next steps will be taken at Bike Alliance Legislative Committee early summer 2011 meeting



“Rumors of my death,” Mark Twain once remarked, “have been greatly exaggerated.”
The opposite might be said about the existing version of House Bill 1018, the proposed “Mutual Responsibilities” law introduced at the beginning of this year’s legislative session. Internet rumors to the contrary, the bill isn’t going anywhere, this year or next, without more input from cyclists and a thorough vetting to ensure that concerns have been met and it accomplishes its intended goals.
HB 1018 was an attempt to set out motorists’ and cyclists’ rights and responsibilities—including more specific language about safe passing distances. The Bike Alliance’s Legislative and Statewide Issues Committee, comprised of cyclists from around the state, drafted the bill; and Rep. Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, agreed to be its prime sponsor. A number of other legislators joined as co-sponsors. A companion bill, SB 5193, was introduced in the senate, with Sen. Scott White as its prime sponsor.
However, after the bill’s introduction a number of cyclists raised concerns about some of its provisions, some believing that it reduced cyclists’ existing rights. Because of these concerns the Bike Alliance asked the bill’s sponsors not to take action on the legislation, as reported earlier on our web site’s legislation page and blog.  The sponsors in turn asked the legislature’s Transportation Committee chairs not to schedule the bill for a hearing during the 2011 session. In fact, no legislative action has been taken on either the House or Senate versions since January.
Nothing more will happen until the Bike Alliance’s Legislative and Statewide Issues Committee discusses the bill and conducts further outreach to the bicycling community. Committee members will discuss the bill at their early summer 2011 meeting, which will take place in a few months. (Check the Bike Alliance website and blog, where information on the meeting’s date and location will be posted once they are confirmed.)
However, a recent post in the Seattle Likes Bikes blog has apparently raised concerns among some that the legislature will act on essentially the same bill next year.  Not to worry: these fears are misplaced.
Technically, the state legislature operates on two-year cycles, each of which includes two regular legislative sessions, as explained on the Washington State Legislature’s “overview of the legislative process” web page.  The 2011 legislative session is the first of the current two-year cycle. Bills that are introduced during the first regular legislative session of a cycle don’t “die” if they aren’t acted upon; instead they carry over to the second regular session.
Thus, it’s literally true that HB 1018 isn’t “dead.” But that doesn’t necessarily mean that the same bill (or any bill) will be resurrected and acted upon in 2012.  Practically speaking, this will happen only if the bill’s sponsors ask the committee chairs to set some version of the bill for a hearing—and that won’t happen until both the Bicycle Alliance and the bill’s prime sponsors are convinced that the bill meets cyclists’ needs.
In the meantime, we’d like your input. Take a look at the bill and forward any comments or ideas to Bicycle Alliance Executive Director Barbara Culp at barbc@wabikes.org. 
Posted in Bike Blogs, Issues & Advocacy, Politics | 2 Comments

Membership Matters: Fix A Flat, Grow The Alliance

By Guest Blogger | Published March 29, 2011

Today’s guest blog post was submitted by Bicycle Alliance board member Joe Platzner of Bellevue. Read more about Joe here.
As with any advocacy organization, there is power in numbers.  A diverse growing membership helps as we advocate for bicyclists and a bike-friendly Washington.  Most likely, if you are reading this, you are already a member.  If so, thanks again; your membership gives us leverage.  If you are not yet a member, consider signing up.  For the price of a tire or a handful of trips to your favorite coffee shop, you can add your voice to the Alliance.
As a new member of the team, I’m hoping to help out with a growth plan.  I suspect you will see a bit of activity and focus here as we create and implement this plan. 
To get the ball rolling, here is one idea, and we need your help to make it work.
Has this ever happened to you? 
  • You are riding along and see a cyclist stopped on the side of the road.  Perhaps the bike is upside down.  (Why is it that roadside repairs for the uninitiated often involve upside down bikes?)  Perhaps the rider has a sheepish “what now?” look.  Perhaps there is even a gaggle of riders engaged in what appears to be a corporate team building experience centered on a surprisingly quiet bike. You offer help and get an enthusiastic acceptance.  You fix a flat, boot a tire with a bar wrapper, or pull out a multi-tool, and soon they are on their way.   They are thankful. 
  • People at your kid’s bus stop know you as “The Mom Who Rides All The Time,” and they ask you to teach their kid to ride.  You work your magic in a few trips to the park, and their kid wobbles off for the first time filled with pride and excitement.  Ice cream and pictures may even be involved.  They are thankful.
  • A casual riding buddy adopts your garage as his favorite bike shop.   It is convenient and affordable!  You teach him the mysteries of handlebar tape wrapping.  They are thankful.
  • A neighbor stops by with a kid’s bike they picked up at a garage sale.  You chip in some parts and teach the kid basic maintenance as you fix it up.  They are thankful.
  • You pass your daughter’s outgrown bike to the next kid in line. But first, you take off the pink streamers and find a Spongebob bell.  Oh, and here’s a helmet you might want too.  They are thankful. 
  • You talk a friend through his first century.  They are amazed to learn they should probably eat and drink on all-day rides.  “Chamois cream” may even be dropped into the conversation.  They are thankful.
I’m sure you see the pattern here.  We like to help people with their bikes, and we would do it without reward or payback.  Sure tasty beverages are often involved in these transactions, but clearly the door is open with people happy to return the favor.  When that door is open, ask them to consider joining the Bicycle Alliance. 
Don’t hesitate to ask.  I’m new to this too, and I don’t like to be pushy, but if I fix a flat from now on, someone is going to learn about Washington Bikes.
Want some help getting started? E-mail this page to a few of the people you helped recently.
It’s that time of year; bike shops are busy, and people need new bar tape.  Help them out and help us out. 
Posted in Advocacy, Guest Blogger, Membership | 2 Comments

Biking Investments Yield Health Care Savings

By baw_admin | Published March 24, 2011
ped-bikeimages.org/LSandt

Many of us are drawn to bicycling because it’s fun and healthy.  Now there’s a study that shows a community can reduce its health care costs by investing in bicycle infrastructure.  We need only look south of us to Portland.

Swiss epidemiologist Thomas Gotschi selected Portland, Oregon as the subject for his paper “Costs and Benefits of Bicycling Investments in Portland, Oregon,”  published in the Journal of Physical Activity & Health. His paper provides the first cost benefit analysis of an urban bicycle network in the US.  Gotschi’s analysis was made possible because of Portland’s nearly 20 years of bike investments and growth in the number of people who bike, and by the long-term data analyzing the impact of their investments.

In short, Gotschi concludes that Portland will see a savings in health care costs due to its investments in bicycle infrastructure– – possibly in excess of $500 million over 40 years.
Furthermore, Gotschi’s analysis shows that you don’t have to invest in world-class facilities to reap the benefits. Even basic investments in bicycling can lead to an increase in the number of people who bike and a decrease in health care costs over time.

Isn’t this the kind of cost efficient investment all of our communities should be making?

Posted in Funding/Policy, Health, Infrastructure, Transportation | Comments Off on Biking Investments Yield Health Care Savings

Recap: 11th annual National Bike Summit

By baw_admin | Published March 22, 2011
It’s a Simple Solution

Eight hundred bicycling and walking advocates gathered in the nation’s capital in early March for the 11th annual National Bike Summit hosted by the League of American Bicyclists. Our purpose: deliver the message that biking and walking are economical, efficient, and clean transportation options.

As Congress debates the future of transportation policies and programs funding levels, bicycle advocates anticipate proposals to eliminate or dramatically change the primary sources for bicycling, walking and trail programs. Representatives from Washington Bikes, Cascade Bicycle Club, the Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance, REI, Raleigh and Bike Lid met with the Washington representatives and senators asking for support of the popular and effective Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails programs.

In every office we delivered the message that even in tough economic times, we must invest in solutions that solve multiple problems like biking and walking which improve safety, health and air quality and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. The outcomes of this advocacy effort will play out over the coming weeks and months. Watch for action alerts to save these important programs.

Notable Quotes:

US Secretary of Transportation, Ray LaHood, “It’s critically important to make communities that are cycle-friendly, and it takes all 800 of you in this room to build the political leadership to create those communities.”

Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) to his fellow Congressman, “Don’t cut what you haven’t visited or experienced!”

Janette Sadik-Khan, New York City Commissioner of Transportation, “In five years, New York City has transformed itself with 250 miles of bike lanes on city streets, protected bike lanes, bus rapid transit, bike parking in buildings AND a significant decrease in traffic fatalities = the lowest in 100 years!”

Big Announcement

The National Association of City Transportation Officials unveiled its guidance for cities seeking to improve bicycle transportation in places where competing demands for the use of right of way present unique circumstances. Check it out: Urban Bikeway Design Guide.

Happy Experience

Riding the Capitol Bike Share bike to the conference. It was a big red comfort ride. It was a blast and super-easy to use. I highly recommend it.

Inaugural award

University of Washington won a League of American Bicyclists inaugural bicycle friendly university silver award.

Posted in Advocacy, Education, Events, Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, Politics, Transportation | 1 Comment

Hub & Spoke: next up Mount Vernon

By baw_admin | Published March 21, 2011

The Bicycle Alliance is hitting the road again with its Hub and Spoke tour. This Thursday we will be in Mt. Vernon and we’re inviting area cyclists to meet up with us for some networking and discussion of bicycle issues. We’ll have an update on our legislative priorities and current projects, including our work on the US Bicycle Route System (USBRS) in Washington State.  Please join us!

Hub & Spoke: Mount Vernon
March 24 at 5:30PM
Skagit River Brewery
404 S. 3rd Street
RSVP Louise McGrody if you plan to attend
Posted in Advocacy, Events, Skagit County | 1 Comment

Let’s Lawyer Up!

By baw_admin | Published March 21, 2011
Opponents of bicycle facilities have turned to the courts. The litigation isn’t likely to stop until cycling advocates win in the court of public opinion.

Baseball, it seems, is no longer the National Pastime. No, America’s favorite activity now appears to be the filing of lawsuits. And lately those lawsuits are being used as a weapon to stop the construction of cycling facilities, or remove the facilities that do exist.
Litigation is not an inherently bad thing. In fact, it’s sometimes a necessary thing (The lawsuit brought against the tobacco industry by a number of state attorneys general comes to mind). Nonetheless, litigation is always frustrating, costly and time-consuming; ramps up the emotional ante and creates an adversarial mindset; and delays resolution of the issue at hand.  
In the case of cycle-facility litigation, in fact, lawsuits can serve to postpone—sometimes for years—the construction of needed infrastructure.   But even more disturbing is what such litigation says about the negative perceptions toward cycling that persist in the United States, and about the cycling community’s limited success in combating it.
Witness a tale of three lawsuits in three cities.
The first, familiar to Puget-Sound area cyclists, is the litigation that’s delayed completion of the last one-and-a-half mile section of the Burke-Gilman Trail in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood—the trail’s so-called “missing link.”
The bulk of the 15-mile Burke-Gilman was finished in 1978, with short additional sections built since then.  When the “missing link” is complete, cyclists will be able to travel from Seattle’s Shilshole Marina to Issaquah without ever having to ride on the street.
But according to the Pacific Northwest magazine, the Ballard segment, which would pass through an industrial neighborhood, has been mired in controversy since at least 1996. After the city finally decided on an alignment for the section in 2003, some local businesses objected, then sued, claiming that the trail would harm their industrial activities and present a safety hazard. (Editorial comment: I’m not sure how anything could be less safe than the status quo, which, as the Pacific Northwest article noted, involves cycling along a street “with the shoulder the width of a laptop and 36-ton cement trucks bearing down on you.”)
The Missing Link (Seattle Times photo)

The city won most of that lawsuit, although a judge did order an environmental review for one section of the missing link before construction could proceed.  Seattle’s transportation department (SDOT) finished that review last month, concluding that the trail would have no significant impact.
This would seem to have been the end of the delays—until a group of businesses appealed the transportation department’s conclusions to the city hearing examiner. One can presume that if the hearing examiner rules in the city’s favor, it’s off to court again to appeal the hearing examiner’s decision.  And on it will go.
So the missing link, which the city says it has the money to build and would have started building in 2009 but for the lawsuit, remains in limbo 33 years after the bulk of the trail was constructed.

But things could be worse.

In San Francisco, a lawsuit brought by gadfly and frequent cycling critic Rob Anderson put that city’s bike-lane plan on hold, at least in part, for four years.  Anderson, who shares his thoughts on the “war on cars” on his District 5 Diary blog, claimed that the City should have conducted an environmental review before proceeding—a claim not unlike that made by the plaintiffs in Seattle’s “missing link” lawsuit.
A court agreed with Anderson, so the City did the review, at a cost of $2.2 million.  The result? No changes had to be made to the plan as originally proposed.
As a result, a superior court judge last August lifted the injunction that had blocked the plan, and the San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom finally got to lay a ceremonial strip of paint on one of the contested bike lanes.
S.F. Mayor Gavin Newsom prepares to paint a long-awaited bike lane (The Bay Citizen, San Francisco)

Finally, New York City’s plans to make the city safer and more pleasant for pedestrians and bicyclists are under serious attack, as is the city transportation commissioner who is making it happen.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg had set out an ambitious agenda for changing New York’s transportation balance. To help bring that about he hired Janette Sadik-Kahn as the city’s transportation chief.
A recent New York Times profile noted that Sadik-Kahn, who is lauded as visionary by some but criticized as high-handed by others, has made huge changes, nearly doubling the miles of bike lanes in the city, creating separated European-style cycle tracks, introducing “rapid-transit” buses that use dedicated lanes, and turning once car-clogged Times Square into a pedestrian plaza. During her tenure bicycle ridership in New York has doubled and fewer people have been killed in traffic accidents in the city than at any other time during the last 100 years.
But as elsewhere, the backlash has grown. One tabloid gossip columnist has taken to calling Sadik-Kahn the “wacko-nutso bike commissioner.”  Even the New Yorker magazine’s John Cassidy, normally a sober commentator on financial issues,  has said that “it’s time to call a halt to Sadik-Kahn and her faceless road swipers.” Cassidy criticized the Bloomberg bike-lane plans as “a classic case of regulatory capture by a small faddist minority intent on foisting its bipedalist views on a disinterested or actively-reluctant populace.”  (Whew!) 
To cap it off, a group of well-connected Brooklyn residents recently filed suit against the city to force removal of a bicycle track along Prospect Park West, claiming among other things that the city had ignored required environmental review. While the lawsuit focuses on the Prospect Park bike track, the New York Times has noted that it also “incorporates criticism of the administration’s overall approach in carrying out [Sadik-Kahn’s] high-profile initiatives…” 
The Prospect Park West cycle track (Park Slope Neighbors website)

Litigation notwithstanding, the new cycle track enjoys the support of 70 percent of the neighborhood’s residents and about half of those who live along the affected street. And according to the Times, a spokesman for the New York transportation department noted that since the track was installed “speeding is down dramatically, crashes are down, injuries are down, and bike ridership has doubled on weekends and tripled on weekdays.”

The mere fact that bike-facility opponents are motivated to litigate shows the depth of opposition that remains toward cycling in America.  Baffling as it may be to regular cyclists, some part of the American public seems to perceive bicycling as a threatening proposition, bad for business and for transportation.  There seems to be a widespread belief that the roads belong exclusively to cars, and that urban transport is a “zero-sum” game: if the cyclists “win,” then cars “lose.”  It’s not that way, of course. Adding bicycles to the transportation mix can actually help decrease traffic congestion and increase overall mobility, as the experience of Copenhagen has demonstrated.

But in bicycle advocacy as in other political endeavors, perception often trumps reality—in fact, perception is reality. So the most important task that bike advocates face is changing the average person’s perception of cyclists and cycling. Until we can do that, bike advocacy will continue to be an uphill fight.
That means that what cycling-advocacy organizations really need is a good marketing strategy.  Even the best product won’t sell without one. So while we should continue to lobby and organize (and in rare instances litigate), we need to realize that just isn’t enough. Perhaps it’s time to bring in the Mad Men. 
Posted in Advocacy, Attitudes, Infrastructure, Legal, Politics, Transportation | 1 Comment

Poster Contest for Fifth Graders: Bicycling is fun…and healthy too!

By baw_admin | Published March 17, 2011

Calling all 5th graders!

The Bicycle Alliance is serving as the Washington State lead for a national poster contest for fifth graders. The objective is to ask the students to create a poster that reveals his or her understanding of the significant purpose bicycling can play in their community. We want the posters to show the students’ enthusiasm for why bicycling is fun, healthy and green!

Each state’s first place winner receives a Schwinn bike, Planet Bike light, and Lazer helmet and the school will receive a Saris Bicycle Parking System. Each state submits its winning poster to the national contest, and the national winner receives an all expenses paid trip for two to the 2012 National Bike Summit in Washington, DC.
The deadline for submitting posters to the Bicycle Alliance is April 22, 2011. State and national winners will be contacted by National Bike to Work Day on May 20.
Interested? You can find contest details on our website.
You can also contact me at davej@wabikes.org or 206.224.9252 Ext. 302.
And please help spread the word!
Posted in Advocacy, Education, Events, Health, Kids, Sustainable Living | Comments Off on Poster Contest for Fifth Graders: Bicycling is fun…and healthy too!