Advocacy & Safety - What can I do...

With the new year around the corner I thought it might be fun to discuss what we can do to advocate for cycling next year.

For me:

1. Ride more. The more we are seen on the roads the sooner it will become "normal" not "different".

2. Promote Bike to Work week at work. I am one of the few who ride to work but a lot of people live close enough to do it easily, within 10 miles of work.

3. Try to be more involved in local issues. I have been reading about them but haven't actively been involved. Time to get off the bench and in the game.

Anyone else?

With the new year around the corner I thought it might be fun to discuss what we can do to advocate for cycling next year.

For me:

1. Ride more. The more we are seen on the roads the sooner it will become "normal" not "different".

2. Promote Bike to Work week at work. I am one of the few who ride to work but a lot of people live close enough to do it easily, within 10 miles of work.

3. Try to be more involved in local issues. I have been reading about them but haven't actively been involved. Time to get off the bench and in the game.

Anyone else?


All these hold true for me as well... But let me add one to your list:

Join the local advocacy group... no matter what that entails... they could be a local club or in my case, an specific group for advocacy.

In my case, I have to renew my membership... which keeps email and newsletters coming.

I'll try not to let my Bicycle Coalition of Maine (http://www.bikemaine.org/) membership lapse next year. (Oops! Purely an oversight!)

I've been attending meetings of the Portland (Maine) Bike/Ped Advisory Committee (http://www.portlandbikeped.org/) since last spring, and the city is actually wanting to implement more bike lanes (so you see that my recent agonizing is not completely theoretical), so it will be very interesting to see how that unfolds, including my role in it. I've been starting a lot of discussions with local people along the same lines that we debate them here, to prepare us for the process. I hope it will also be a way to shoehorn in my long-standing desire to post a bunch of MUTCD "Wrong-Way Ride with Traffic" signs (http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/2003r1/part9/fig9b-02_longdesc.htm).

For my Bike Commuter's Meetup (http://bike.meetup.com/132/), I want to start two special programs in addition to the monthly meetings: (1) "Ride My Commute", where once a month we meet in the morning at or near someone's house and ride to work with him or her, and (2) offer to run Bike Valet Parking at some local community events.

Since I actually live in Westbrook, a small town just outside of Portland, I may try to start some kind of Bike/Ped Committee there as well. I've scheduled two meetings with our City Planner so far, but for various reasons both have fallen through.

Oh yeah, and ride my bike a lot! :)

Advocate for stricter accountability for all road users and for stricter penalties for hit-and-run and for any flavor of DUI.