Author Topic: Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town  (Read 2860 times)

igthebold

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Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town
« on: November 01, 2012, 08:44:55 AM »
Hey folks,

After I found out it's illegal to ride bicycles on sidewalks in my town I sent the following email to one of my city councilmen: https://gist.github.com/fc731941ed303d30313a

I normally avoid sidewalks, but I also want my children to ride their bicycles. I'm not prepared to let them ride on the streets yet, so sidewalks it is (walking speed). Note that the sidewalk law has never been enforced on us.

In the email I offer to make a presentation to the city council. In order to prepare for it, do you have any resources for bicycle advocacy that I should be aware of? My audience is a mix of conservative pro-Walmart types and liberal pro-Government-does-everything types. I sent my email to the latter. :)

sheepstache

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Re: Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town
« Reply #1 on: November 01, 2012, 10:31:01 AM »
I really like your email and the various notes it strikes.   

If you send the email to anyone else (I think the conservative types would like it too because they'd be against over-regulation and figure ordinary common sense should tell any decent, god-fearing american when it's appropriate to ride on the sidewalk or not), I think the flow in the fourth paragraph could be a bit stronger.  Because you've been talking about particular areas where biking on the street is dangerous but then you switch to talking about particular areas where riding on the sidewalk is dangerous,  without being explicit.  The point you're making is that the government would retain the right to exclude bikes from the sidewalk in areas that are inappropriate, but you don't actually say that so the reader has to stop and think for a second.

Another option you may want to plan for is to update the law just for children.  For example in nyc it's legal for children under 12 or younger (and with the bicycle wheels are less than 26 inches in diameter) to be on the sidewalk.

Also you might research towns that are more similar to your infrastructure than Boston that have taken the kind of action you want.  The only nationwide bicycling advocacy that I can think off the top of my head is People for Bikes but from what I've seen they deal more with advocacy on the federal level.  Transportation Alternatives is an nyc-based organization but they're really responsive so I bet if you wrote to them asking for resources they might have some ideas. 

capital

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Re: Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town
« Reply #2 on: November 06, 2012, 11:29:09 AM »
Sam at BikeSD has been doing very good work bootstrapping bike advocacy in the car-oriented Sunbelt suburb-city of San Diego, if you are looking for advice on taking things further. It looks like Charlotte has a decent bike advocacy group, as well: http://charlottebikes.org/who-are-we/

Conservatives often have a cultural aversion to bicycles, which is silly because they embody the self-reliance and personal responsibility conservatives claim to hold dear. Roadways should be built to give citizens the freedom to choose their mode of travel, rather than a central government mandate to build roadways only safe to travel by a single means, the automobile, also subsidizing said means of transportation. If you're in a conservative town, you should probably emphasize this side of bicycle advocacy, rather than anything about the environment.

igthebold

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Re: Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town
« Reply #3 on: November 07, 2012, 12:47:08 PM »
Thanks folks. All valuable feedback. I'll probably tweak my email in the style of essay writing.

The councilwoman did get back to me with a very favorable response. It sounds like the conflict (if there is one) will be inside the council itself.

I'll keep the conservative side of it in mind. The councilwoman did talk in terms of choice of transportation, so that echoes what ehgee is saying.

JT

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Re: Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town
« Reply #4 on: November 08, 2012, 10:17:08 PM »
I liked your email; good luck in making your town safer for cycling. 

We're in NZ, but this web site might give you some ideas.  It's designed to encourage new riders to give cycling a go.

http://cyclingauckland.co.nz/


igthebold

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Re: Bicycle Advocacy in small, Southern, suburban-oriented town
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2012, 07:34:54 PM »
Thanks JT. I've bookmarked the site and will peruse later. :)