{"id":6803,"date":"2014-04-08T22:14:02","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T05:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/?p=6803"},"modified":"2014-04-08T22:14:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T05:14:02","slug":"30-days-biking-day-eight-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2014\/04\/08\/30-days-biking-day-eight-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Days of Biking, Day Eight: Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Day Eight in the 30 Days of Biking, 30 Words, 30 Pictures series<\/em><\/p>\n

From beginning to end, today’s riding took me to meetings with a leadership element–what’s more, a strong theme of women leaders at every level of leadership in bicycling and transportation from neighborhood to national.<\/p>\n

\"Rosie<\/a>First up: A discussion of Seattle’s participation in round 2 of the\u00a0Green Lane Project<\/a>\u00a0with Martha Rostkowski, who heads up Green Lane as a VP at\u00a0People for Bikes<\/a>, a couple of her colleagues, and some of Seattle’s organizations that have women as executive directors (see below for a list of biking organizations and others we partner with).<\/p>\n

A few months ago we partnered with Cascade Bicycle Club<\/a> (where Elizabeth Kiker serves as executive director) to bring Martha to Seattle before applications were due so we could learn what was needed for a successful application. Women lead staff at SDOT including Sam Woods and Kristen Simpson shepherded the application through and Seattle was selected.<\/p>\n

As the state organization we hope to bring lessons learned and next-generation design principles to other communities around the state interested in adding protected bike lanes in the right places in their mix of bike network connections.<\/p>\n

Next I spent some time preparing for my trip to Spokane at the end of this week for the Spokane Bike Swap<\/a>, where we’ll have a table and you can meet our newest member of the staff, Kate Johnston.<\/a> Sparkplug LeAnn Yamamoto in the Spokane County Commute Trip Reduction Office<\/a> helped make this event a reality. The event benefits\u00a0Friends of the Spokane River Centennial Trail<\/a>, headed by another woman, Loreen McFaul.<\/p>\n

While I’m there I’ll talk with other bike leaders. The list of local leaders includes the chairs of\u00a0Spokane Bikes<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Spokane Bicycle Advisory Board<\/a>\u00a0and members of the Pedals2People<\/a> board–all women. (Yes, the\u00a0entire<\/strong> board of P2P, which is a community bike shop, consists of women.)<\/p>\n

Via email I also had contact with staff in the Washington State Dept. of Transportation concerning the US Bicycle Route System<\/a>. The WSDOT staff we work with most directly on bicycle\/pedestrian issues are women (hi, Charlotte and Paula!) in a department headed by Sec. Lynn Peterson, with Amy Scarton as Assistant Sec. for Community & Economic Development.<\/p>\n

Later in the day it was back to Seattle City Hall for a meeting of the advisory committee for the Seattle Dept. of Transportation director search. I sat between Cathy Tuttle, founder\/executive director of Seattle Neighborhood Greenways<\/a>, and Marci Carpenter, West Seattle Transportation Coalition<\/a>,\u00a0both examples of local grassroots organizing around a desire for safe, connected networks for all forms of transportation.<\/p>\n

It was in this meeting that I was struck anew by the number of women leaders I interact with every day and what a pleasure it is not to be the only woman in the room in a meeting on transportation. Just a few years ago no one in my position would have been able to list as many women counterparts and colleagues.<\/span><\/p>\n

I then had a meeting to prepare for another meeting (welcome to my world)–tomorrow’s first meeting of Gov. Inslee’s Blue Ribbon Task Force on Parks and Outdoor Recreation<\/a>, which I’m honored to co-chair.<\/p>\n

Seattle happens to have a lot of women executive directors at many of our partner organizations right now. A list of such organizations headquartered in Seattle (which I’m sure is incomplete) is an impressive one:<\/span><\/p>\n