Commute Challenge Lessons Learned: Part 2

By Barb Chamberlain | Published May 13, 2013

Working on the annual Bike to Work Week campaign to encourage more bicycling in Spokane was incredibly rewarding. In a continuation of lessons learned from putting on a commute challenge, here are a few more takeaways.

In Part 1:

  • How do you get started?
  • What miles count?
  • What motivates people?
  • What’s wrong with May?
  • Does it work?

What Can You Do with the Data?

Bike advocacy gold, baby! We took our miles traveled by bike and calculated every possible benefit: Money saved at the gas pump at current prices and average mileage, calories burned, CO2 emissions avoided.

We put all that data into press releases, speeches, and follow-up presentations to City Council (captured on cable and replayed many times). This really showcased both the number of people riding (far higher than I think people had assumed) and the benefits of our transportation choice and we got great media coverage as a result.

Phase 2: Use all that contact information to keep those people in the loop on bike issues as they unfold in your community. I didn’t stop emailing after the reminders about the pancakes, the mid-week energizer stations, and all the rest wound down.

Every so often I’d send out a round-up of local bike news–things like upcoming hearings on a bike master plan update, local bike events, people announcing as candidates for public office who made it clear they intended to support investments in a transportation system that works for every way of getting around. We kept together as a community of people interested in better policy for better bicycling.

This ongoing communication also let me keep scrubbing the email list as I got bouncebacks or heard back from someone that he/she had moved away and wouldn’t be around to ride with us any more, so I started off the next year with a nice clean data set. You went to all this effort to get these people to self-identify as bicyclists–don’t just drop them until next year!

Outcome? The first year it took us five weeks to get from zero to 300 people registered. In year 2 we got there in two weeks. We were over the previous year’s registration by May 5 and reached 1,472 by the events week–over a 57% increase. The next year we registered over 2,200 people.

What Does It Take to Pull This Off?

  • A dedicated band of volunteers who will do what they say and stick to a timeline.
  • The discipline to recognize that the easy, fun thing everyone will jump onto is generating lots of awesome ideas–the tough part is winnowing that long list down to those ideas that someone will actually execute so you only bite off what you can chew. Our rule: If someone wants to see something happen, that person has to head up that effort or someone else has to agree to take it on. If no one will, it isn’t important enough to the group as a whole to add to the to-do list.
  • Local business sponsors to help come up with some prizes and support for the promotional and event costs you’ll incur (posters, banners in your downtown if you can, maybe some donated print advertising from the local paper, sources of things like pancakes and coffee at a kickoff or a Friday-night wrap-up party for Bike to Work Day).
  • A registration system: See below for what Tri-Cities is doing in conjunction with the National Bike Challenge.
  • A promotional plan so have someone on the committee who can write press releases/blog posts, set up your Facebook page, etc. and who will keep up that effort throughout the registration drive. This is not a “set it and forget it” event, especially when it’s new.
  • A succession plan: What happens when your founders move on to other things? Key volunteers who get everything rolling often carry a lot of lessons learned in their heads. Get them to write down the checklist and timeline for their set of responsibilities and put all that someplace central where more than one person has the log-in and password. Recruit and train assistant leaders for every subcommittee.

How Do You Help the Beginners?

As a warm-up I think it’s easier for people to try riding for an errand or a social engagement on a weekend than to have the time pressure of needing to be at a particular place by a particular time with a particular type of clothing. I usually advise people to try their work commute first on a Saturday or Sunday if they’re really new so they can see how long it takes, get used to some of the decision points that feel different on a bike, and so forth.

For those putting on a local challenge you might have some pre-rides on a weekend. Meet at a local bike shop–the owner will probably be happy to work with you on some kind of bike check-up special deal to get more customers in the shop. Go over the rules of the road (and get in touch with us if you want a batch of our pocket-sized guide to Washington bike laws to hand out).

We also worked with our local League-Certified Instructors (LCIs) to put on Traffic Safety 101 skills courses during mid to late April to help prepare people.

Local to National–Think Big!

To address this pesky weather thing (see “What’s Wrong with May?” in Part 1) you can also incorporate the National Bike Challenge. It runs through September and counts ALL kinds of riding, whether it’s mountain biking, commuting, tooling around, going on a bike tour vacation, or sprinting toward the finish line.

In addition to counting all types of riding it runs longer so people who have travel conflicts or bad weather during May still have the chance to get in some miles that count, and it makes a national statement.

You can sign up for both your local commute challenge and the national one and have the chance to win prizes, including prizes at the state level that we’re donating from the Bicycle Alliance as the statewide host.

At the Bicycle Alliance we’ve worked with the League of American Bicyclists, who organize the National Bike Challenge, on behalf of 3 Rivers Bicycle Coalition so they can use the national system to run their local challenge, and they’re rocking the registration–they’re the top community in the state for the national challenge so far!

If you want to start a community challenge without having to set up all the separate registration and what-not, let us know and we’ll work with you for next year to give the Tri-Cities a run for their money.

Bottom Line: Just Do It!

Your community will be a better place for bicycling if you step up and help make it more visible. If your town or county isn’t on our statewide list of commute challenges this year, take this as your own challenge to get started planning for next year!

Let us know you’re working on it and we’ll help you connect with other bicycle advocates in your area. You’ll have a head start on that list of people you send emails to for the first planning meeting.

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Commute Challenge Lessons Learned: Part 1

By Barb Chamberlain | Published May 12, 2013

I started the Bike to Work promotional efforts in Spokane with help from Washington Bikes (so it was very cool to come full circle when I became the executive director at the Bicycle Alliance last August) and chaired it for several years.

The effort is still going strong and putting on great events, so if you’re from Spokane County, go sign up with Spokane Bikes! (We’ve rounded up a list of commute challenges in Washington state to help you sign up other places too.)

Every community’s challenge takes on a different flavor. I thought I’d share a few of the lessons learned from my time at the helm in Spokane as food for thought to those who are currently mounting challenges and celebrating Bike to Work Week.

How Do You Get Started?

You ask people to help.

Okay, that sounds overly simplified, but seriously….

I looked up contact information for every bike club, bike shop, bike-what-have-you I could find. (Luckily you no longer have to do that research from scratch if you’re in Washington state; we’re rounding up those lists for you in our statewide resources.)

I sent out emails to everyone I found (strangers then, now friends) with a time and place for an early-morning initial meeting saying that we’d start something if people responded to the invtation. (I had told the Bicycle Alliance staff I’d be happy to chair a committee but only if other people joined the committee–I wasn’t stupid!)

A dozen people showed up! Out of that initial meeting I got pledges for the kickoff breakfast pancakes, the wrap-up party beer and chips, an idea for how to handle registration that later panned out, and we were off and running.

I will also note that I started our planning process early–first week of November to plan for something taking place in mid-May–to give us plenty of time to figure out what we were doing and pitch potential sponsors. Don’t start in April. (Look for more tips on what you’ll need in Part 2.)

What Miles Count?

We started with the traditional language, calling ourselves Bike to Work Spokane. We quickly learned that people who didn’t travel to work, whether because they were unemployed, going to school, working from home, or retired, still very much wanted to be counted as bicyclists because they knew there was a lot of power in that for us to be recognized by city leaders.

It’s especially painful to have to say you have no job to ride to when you really, really want one.

We also had one woman–an absolute leader in the bike community–who worked at home and who asked if she could ride on her stationary bike, work in her home office, and still “count” to get one of the T-shirts we were giving away. (Our answer was yes, for her.)

We ended up changing our mileage definition so that it was “vehicle miles avoided,” meaning that we counted any bicycling for something that would otherwise have involved using a vehicle. This could be miles to work, school, the grocery store, the dentist, or anywhere else. We didn’t include recreational/health/competition miles because we wanted to make the policy point that we were keeping cars off the road.

We also ended up changing our name as a campaign from Bike to Work Spokane to Spokane Bikes to reflect that more inclusive definition.

What Motivates People?

Well, for one thing, T-shirts and pancakes! We set our goal for the first year (2008) at 300 registrants. We were starting from zero and had no idea how many people already commuted by bike, let alone how many of those would come to our website and sign up.

We raised funds with help from the Bicycle Alliance and I built a budget that included giving a free T-shirt to the first 300 people to sign up. Mountain Gear, a Silver level Bicycle-Friendly Business, volunteered to cook a pancake breakfast at Riverfront Park for the Kickoff Breakfast and they’ve done it every year since then. We got prizes donated from a variety of businesses and a wrap-up party at a local brewery that supplied the beer, chips, and salsa.

Boy, did that ever work! March 17, 2008, registration went live. I checked the stats daily, worrying about making our goal, until April 28, when #300 signed up. And then, whoa Nelly! I scrambled to adjust the budget and allocate funds to produce more T-shirts so we could reward more people. Look at how fast it rolled as word started to spread:

April 30: #400

May 1: #500

May 5: #600

May 7: #700

May 10: #800

May 12: #900

May 16: Our last registrant, #934–over three times as many as we’d guessed at.

So–schwag and calories will do the trick. (One more takeaway here and it isn’t a small one: If we’d set our goal at 1,000 registrants we would have fallen short. Instead we set a goal we thought was reasonably attainable and got amazing results. If you’re just starting out, think big but talk small!)

We tracked total mileage and total days ridden–pretty standard in most of these events. But that really just rewards the uber riders who are going to ride with or without any kind of challenge or event. So one year we tried to change the competition from total miles ridden to “how many people did you help get started riding?” so we could reward what we were really after: getting new people riding.

That failed utterly. Altruism just didn’t seem to motivate the way racking up the miles did, which saddened me. I do think there’s a way to do this but it would take more than we were able to accomplish with our volunteer effort.

We were also expecting people who signed up to tell us who helped them, so it was essentially them nominating someone else who would be the winner. Maybe if we’d asked people to tell us who they helped start riding, then checked to see if those people registered, then…..

You see why this is a complicated set of motivators and data to get to the reward! But there must be a way. Maybe team captains are rewarded based on the number of brand-new commuters they’re able to sign up.

What’s Wrong with May?

We scheduled our event in conjunction with National Bike to Work Week. May in Spokane is often still cold and rainy. People protested the dates but we figured we were better off going with the national flow and tagging onto all that publicity.

Year after year, though, it rained on our Kickoff Breakfast! If not at the beginning then by the end. The hardiest bicyclists in the world showed up to stand in the rain, shivering and smiling and pouring syrup onto stacks of fluffy pancakes and warming up with Roast House Coffee.

So one year we figure we’d outsmart Mother Nature: We delayed our events by one week to be later in May with a better chance of good weather. How did this work for us?

National Bike to Work Week: Gorgeous. Sunny. Blue skies. Fluffy puffy cloudlets.

One week later: It rains buckets on our Kickoff Breakfast.

Okay, Mother Nature, we get the message–you’re stalking us. Back to hardy bicyclists and the national week. You can schedule your events at a completely different time to suit your local weather conditions but you can never, ever guarantee a nice week. Have a rain plan.

Does It Work?

The Commute Challenges everywhere absolutely DO get people riding. They know they’ll see more riders on the street, they have the safety-in-numbers feeling, they want to be part of a larger effort.

Plenty of people came up to me every year to tell me that this was their first time riding their bike to work, that the event motivated them to start, or that they were a regular commuter and had felt lonely for a long time but at long last they were seeing other people on their route.

Chamberlain-Barb-June2012Watch for Part 2 tomorrow for more lessons learned:

  • What can you do with the data?
  • What does it take to pull this off?
  • How do you help the beginners?
  • Local to national–think big!
  • Bottom line–just do it!
Posted in Bike to Work, Commuting, Encouragement, Events, News, Spokane County | 3 Comments

Bike to Work Day is May 17

By Louise McGrody | Published May 8, 2013

Drop by our Pioneer Square energizer station!

zeitgeistBike to Work Day is May 17 and Washington Bikes is hosting an energizer station for Pioneer Square bike commuters from 6-9 am in front of our office at 314 First Ave S.

We’re serving coffee from Zeitgeist and shortbread cookies from Grand Central Bakery to fuel you up for the day. Bike safety checks and minor mechanical adjustments will be offered, as well as local bike maps and Share the Road information. We’ll also have a Metro bike rack on hand so you can practice loading your bike on one.

Grand Central - smallGrand Central Bakery will treat all bike commuters a second time on Bike to Work Day. Drop by any of their retail locations with your bike helmet and receive a complimentary baguette!

Do you live or work in Federal Way? We’re co-sponsoring a Bike to Work Day station with Forterra at the north end of the BPA Trail. Drop by between 6-9 am for some coffee, treats and high fives!

Many Washington communities are planning Bike to Work Day activities. Check our Bike Month Round-up for a summary with links to other events.

Posted in Bike to Work, Encouragement, Events, News, Seattle | 1 Comment

Bike Poster People’s Choice Award

By Seth Schromen-Wawrin | Published May 7, 2013

For the month of May, we are donning our office walls with the entries from the 5th Grade Bike Poster Contest. They are beautiful and inspirational.

During our art opening on May 2nd, participants voted for the People’s Choice Award from all the posters. Akasha from Hough Elementary in Vancouver is the nights winner!

 

Winner of the People's Choice Award for the 2013 5th Grade Bicycle Poster Contest

Winner of the People’s Choice Award for the 2013 5th Grade Bicycle Poster Contest

You have until 2pm today to vote for the National Winner for the bike poster contest. Ruby from Port Angeles is Washington’s contestant. Vote for her poster (#16) now to win her elementary school bike parking!

 

 

Posted in Education, Encouragement, Kids, News, Northwest WA, Olympic Peninsula, Safe Routes to School, Vancouver | Comments Off on Bike Poster People’s Choice Award

Open Streets: Coming to a community near you?

By Louise McGrody | Published May 6, 2013
Seattle residents enjoy Summer Streets on Alki

Seattle residents enjoy Summer Streets on Alki

Imagine a street closed to motorized traffic. Now imagine this street alive with human activity and energy—people of all ages dancing, biking, walking and playing in the street.

Welcome to ciclovia! Ciclovias, or open streets, temporarily transform that public space—a roadway—into a public place for residents to bike, walk, socialize with friends, play games and celebrate their community.

An open streets event is not a block party or a street fair. It’s an opportunity to engage community members in physical activity, allows them to imagine living somewhere that can be easily biked or walked, and gives them a new perspective on how we might use our urban public space.

Seattle’s Bicycle Sunday, introduced in 1965, is the oldest continuous open street initiative in North America. A three-mile stretch of Lake Washington Boulevard between Seward Park and Mount Baker Beach is closed to vehicles on scheduled Sundays from May to September. Children learn to ride their bikes at Bicycle Sunday. Residents stroll and jog along the car-free route.

Seattle holds another open streets event called Summer Streets. Now in its fifth year, Summer Streets temporarily closes streets in various parts of the city throughout the summer. Volunteers organize games and activities to encourage residents to celebrate and enjoy their neighborhoods in a different way.

Spokane’s Summer Parkways started in 2010 and is organized by the nonprofit Spokefest. This year’s ciclovia-inspired event will close a four-mile loop in the Comstock-Manito neighborhood to motorized traffic and opens it up to all kinds of creative human-powered activities.

The Five Mile Drive loop in Tacoma’s Point Defiance Park is closed to motor vehicles until 1pm every Saturday and Sunday. This weekend closure offers residents a great place for family bike rides. Bicyclists and pedestrians can peacefully wind their way through an old growth forest as they take in scenic sound and mountain views.

Sunday Streets AliveNew in 2013 is Vancouver’s Sunday Streets Alive. Five major activity centers will be located along the 4.2 mile route, offering a range of fun activities to keep the body and brain moving. Organizers anticipate 3000-8000 residents will participate in this inaugural open streets event in southwest Washington.

Would you like to bring a ciclovia or open streets initiative to your community? The Open Streets Project offers resources and technical assistance that can guide city agencies and nonprofit organizations in developing an event for the community.

Posted in Attitudes, Encouragement, Events, Health, Seattle, Spokane County, Sustainable Living, Tacoma, Vancouver | Tagged | Comments Off on Open Streets: Coming to a community near you?

Support Port Angeles at the National Bike Poster Contest

By Seth Schromen-Wawrin | Published May 3, 2013

Ruby from Port Angeles, won first place for Washington State in the 5th Grade Bike Poster Contest. Now it’s time to support her at the National Contest. The competition around the country is stiff, but check out Ruby’s romantic aesthetic and that bounding joyful squirrel. Her bike is even prepared for the wet with a front fender! Vote for Ruby’s poster on Saris’ Facebook page (Ruby is poster #16).

First Place - Ruby - Dry Creek - Port Angeles

If Ruby wins the contest, Dry Creek Elementary School in Port Angeles will win a new bike rack for 20 bikes and the Hub System to help encourage biking. A rural school in Port Angeles, Dry Creek Elementary has been teaching the Bike and Pedestrian Safety Education Program to their 5th and 6th graders for the last two years. These students would benefit from the added bike parking and nifty way to track and encourage bike trips with the Hub. Additionally, Ruby will win a trip to Washington, D.C. for the 2014 National Bike Summit, a great opportunity to inspire the next generation of riders.

Vote for Ruby’s poster (Poster #16) between now and May 7th at Saris’ Facebook Page.

Thank you to Saris Cycling Group for organizing the bike poster contest and providing prizes for the winner.

Posted in Bike Culture, Encouragement, Kids, News, Olympic Peninsula, Safe Routes to School | Comments Off on Support Port Angeles at the National Bike Poster Contest

May 15 and GiveBIG Approaches!

By Jack Hilovsky | Published May 1, 2013

In two more weeks Washington Bikes will participate in one of the largest philanthropic events in the Northwest!

GiveBIG 2013 arrives on Wednesday, May 15, providing an opportunity for the Puget Sound region and surrounding communities to give generously to over 1400 non-profits that are making a difference in our community and quality of life. Between midnight and midnight (PDT) on May 15, each donation made will receive a pro-rated portion of matching funds from both The Seattle Foundation and multiple GiveBIG sponsors. The amount of the match will depend on the size of the matching fund pool and how much is raised in total donations on GiveBIG day.

We encourage supporters of our mission to grow bicycling in Washington State and create a more bike and pedestrian friendly landscape to mark your calendar and make a donation on May 15! To learn more about our programs and current need, visit Seattle Foundation’s  Bicycle Alliance Donation Page.

GiveBIG is only possible with the generous support of community-minded organizations that contribute matching funds making this event a unique and even bigger financial success. We’d like to thank them with the hope you’ll support them in your future purchasing and investment decisions.

In addition to The Seattle Foundation, individual donors and sponsors like Seattle International Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Boeing, Microsoft, Medina Foundation, and Starbucks, we’d like to acknowledge the Seattle Sounders for partnering with GiveBIG and promoting the event at their games.

So mark your calendar for May 15 and while you’re at it make sure to  RSVP on our GiveBIG 2013 Facebook event page to get upcoming reminders from us!

Posted in News | Comments Off on May 15 and GiveBIG Approaches!

Washington Ranked #1 among Bicycle Friendly States

By Barb Chamberlain | Published May 1, 2013

Bike Month brings latest Bicycle Friendly States ranking from League of American Bicyclists


In honor of National Bike Month, the League has released its latest Bicycle Friendly States ranking. Washington state achieved the top ranking nationally for a sixth consecutive year (League Bike-Friendly-State 2013 Scorecard).

“I’m proud that Washington state has again claimed the mantle of the most bicycle-friendly state in America,” said Governor Jay Inslee. “Here in Washington, we recognize a 21st-century transportation system not only includes roads, rail, airports, transit, and ferries, but also bike lanes, sidewalks and trails. Bicycles create jobs, connect communities, and give Washingtonians healthier choices to get around.”

“We’re pleased to again be number one; bicycles play an important role in managing our transportation system,” said WSDOT Secretary Lynn Peterson. “As we continue to find efficiencies in our system, we look forward to partnering with organizations like Washington Bikes to improve safety and grow bicycling statewide.”

The Bicycle Friendly States Ranking is now more comprehensive than ever, capturing more information than ever before and delving more deeply into the issues embedded in becoming a more bicycle-friendly state. The League of American Bicyclists partnered with Washington Bikes to review and provide recommendations for next steps to make Washington’s streets safer and to grow bicycling statewide.

“We are encouraged to see significant progress in top states like Washington, Delaware, Colorado and Oregon,” said Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists. “But, as the scores clearly highlight, there’s much work to be done in critical areas like infrastructure and planning in every state.”

Washington’s top ranking was based on a number of key indicators, including infrastructure and funding that provide on-the-ground bicycle facilities; education and encouragement programs that promote cycling; and passage and enforcement of bicycle-friendly laws that make it safe and comfortable for people of all ages to ride. While the state still has much more to do in making Washington’s roads safer for bicycling, this ranking recognizes Washington’s progress relative to the rest of the nation.

Washington state was recognized as a leader in using the previous federal Transportation Enhancement program and the new Transportation Alternatives federal program for bicycle and pedestrian projects; the League notes that other MAP-21 federal funding programs can be utilized to include biking and walking in all transportation projects.

The Bicycle Friendly States program is more than an annual assessment. Throughout the year, League staff will work actively with state officials and advocacy leaders to help Washington state identify and implement the programs, policies and campaigns that will improve conditions for bicyclists.

Our view at the Bicycle Alliance: We’re proud of Washington’s continued recognition as one of the best places to bicycle in the entire country. At the same time we will continue to work for improvement in how we identify and overcome barriers that keep people from riding, how we better collect and track data and then address issues around bicycle safety and collisions, and how we identify and prioritize opportunities for investment in non-motorized transportation.

To see how Washington ranked in the five evaluation categories and to learn more about the Bicycle Friendly States program, see www.bikeleague.org/states. For a list of Washington businesses, communities, and universities that have earned recognition from the League, see our Bike-Friendly Washington page.

About the Bicycle Friendly America Program

The Bicycle Friendly Community, Bicycle Friendly State, Bicycle Friendly Business and Bicycle Friendly University programs are generously supported by program partner Trek Bicycle. Learn more about the Bicycle Friendly America program at www.bikeleague.org/bfa.

About the League of American Bicyclists

The League of American Bicyclists promotes bicycling for fun, fitness and transportation, and works through advocacy and education for a bicycle-friendly America. The League represents the interests of America’s 57 million bicyclists, including its 300,000 members and affiliates. For more information or to support the League, visit www.bikeleague.org.

Posted in Funding/Policy, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, News, Safety, Transportation, WSDOT | 4 Comments

Ann Weatherill Cycling Classic

By Louise McGrody | Published April 29, 2013

A cyclist’s death inspires advocacy, education and more bicycling

Scenic views abound on the Ann Weatherill Cycling Classic.

The Ann Weatherill Cycling Classic on June 15 showcases the vineyards, orchards and wheat fields that surround Walla Walla. Organized by the Wheatland Wheelers, this ride offers several scenic route options that tour through the Walla Walla valley, and the century route climbs into the foothills of the nearby Blue Mountains.

The Ann Ride—as the locals call it—has its roots in bicycle safety education and advocacy.

Ann Weatherill was a mother, an avid cyclist and member of the Wheatland Wheelers Bicycle Club, and a teacher at Garrison Middle School in Walla Walla. She was struck and killed by an oncoming motorist attempting to pass another vehicle while on a Mother’s Day bike ride with friends in 2004.

Ann’s death galvanized local bicyclists to take action. The bike club hosted a meeting and invited Washington Bikes to discuss how this tragedy could be turned into something positive for bicyclists.

The Bicycle Alliance worked with the Walla Walla cycling community to introduce and pass HB 1108 – Ann Weatherill Safe Passing Act in 2005. The law makes it illegal to pass another vehicle if there are bicyclists or pedestrians approaching from the opposite direction on the roadway.

Governor Gregoire signed HB 1108 into law in 2005.

The Wheatland Wheelers decided to organize the Ann Weatherill Cycling Classic as a way to remember and celebrate Ann’s life. This year marks the ride’s eighth anniversary, and proceeds from it benefit local bike safety projects and the Bicycle Alliance’s statewide efforts.

We are featuring the Ann Ride in a Walla Walla Bicycle Weekend package that we are raffling off. Tickets can be purchased online until May 8.

Posted in Advocacy, Bike Clubs, Education, Events, News, Rides, Walla Walla | 1 Comment

Legislative Session Update: Almost There! (Sort Of)

By Blake Trask | Published April 27, 2013

With one day left before Washington state’s 2013 regular legislative session ends, key votes for transportation remain. Here’s the Bicycle Alliance’s legislative session update evaluating Washington state’s progress on improving safety for our kids and for bicyclists across Washington state.

Policy Priorities

Investments in Safe Routes to School make it possible for kids to enjoy bicycling safely

HB 1045, Neighborhood Safe Streets Bill passes! At literally the last minute before the policy bill cutoff on April 17, Senator Andy Billig helped usher in a special order of business to make Rep Cindy Ryu’s HB 1045 the 4:59 bill in the Senate (the last policy bill voted on). We’re elated to get this smart legislation passed, which gives cities and towns across Washington state the authority to lower speeds to 20 miles per hour on neighborhood streets–all while cutting red tape.

SB 5263, Concerning motorcycles overtaking and passing pedestrians and bicyclists. While originally not included in this legislation, an amendment facilitated by the Bicycle Alliance and Cascade Bicycle Club and introduced by Senator Christine Rolfes added a 3-foot passing distance requirement for motorcycles overtake bicycles and pedestrians in the travel lane. This legislation provides everyone who supports sharing the road an important and incremental start to develop a uniform safe passing law that incorporates a 3-foot passing requirement. After passing with no opposition, this bill now sits on the governor’s desk for signing.

Transportation Budget & Revenue

The transportation budget and revenue legislation is gaining clarity, but resolution for when agreement will occur between the House and Senate remains uncertain.

Transportation Budget. The AP reports that the House and Senate negotiations appear to have reached agreement on a two-year transportation budget, which could be voted on Sunday. Until the final vote occurs, we will continue to monitor the status of investment levels for the Bicycle/Pedestrian Safety & Mobility Grant Program, as well as the Safe Routes to School Grant Program. The Bicycle Alliance has been working to ensure that Safe Routes to School Grant Program investments are restored to their pre-MAP-21 federal funding levels and that a 1935 gas spillage tax exemption is removed to fund safer streets for kids.

Transportation Revenue Package. With our Transportation for Washington Partners, Bicycle Alliance has coordinated and provided testimony in the past week for the House and Senate proposed 12-year transportation revenue packages. Our message is simple: support the amendments offered by Representative Marko Liias, which would invest $100 million upfront in the backlog of statewide walking and biking projects while then providing $100 million and $50 million respectively for the Bicycle/Pedestrian Safety & Mobility and Safe Routes to School grant programs over the following ten years. Please contact your legislators to voice your support for increased investments in walking and biking.

And, just in case you’re wondering, this proposed revenue package does not include a bike fee.

What didn’t make it?

The Bicycle Alliance introduced a Safe Passing bill that would have provided more flexibility for motor vehicle drivers to safely pass people biking or walking. Despite the bipartisan sponsorship, the bill faced some concerns in the Senate Transportation Committee and was ultimately held by its sponsors. In the interim leading up to the 2014 legislative session, the Bicycle Alliance will be working with our partners to ensure that all sides better understand the legislation moving forward.

Additionally, legislation to add health as one of the state’s transportation system policy goals failed to make it out of the House this year. We look forward to working on that next session.

What’s next?

Barring unforeseen resolution on a host of budget and revenue issues where significant divides still exist, the legislature will be called into a special session as early as next week to resolve its outstanding differences. We’ll stay with it through the entire process to continue our work to expand funding for bicycle infrastructure.

Posted in Advocacy, Alert, Funding/Policy, Health, Infrastructure, Issues & Advocacy, Kids, Legislature, News, Safe Routes to School, Safety, Transportation | Comments Off on Legislative Session Update: Almost There! (Sort Of)