A bicyclist riding in a designated bicycle lane. (Source: http://www.pedbicycleimages.org)

Get Informed! So, you want to do something to help make your community more bicycle-friendly. Great! The first thing you need to do is get the lay of the land. Is there someone else or a bike organization already at work in your community? Does your town or city have a bike plan? Is there someone on the town or city council who supports bicycling? Do you have a local bike coordinator? What are the rules your state department of transportation uses to manage bicycle-related programs?
 

Here are some things you can do to get started:
 

Although you can learn a lot from bicycle plans and other official documents, sometimes the best way to truly asses what’s going in your community is to see it for yourself! For this, you may consider taking a bicycle ride yourself and try to identify the places where the infrastructure needs improvement. It is good to use a checklist to document your findings in an organized way. You can prepare a bikability checklist yourself, or you can use one of those available on the internet  —  one example of a bikability checklist is available here.
 

Another way to prepare for your campaign is to educate yourself with convincing facts and figures that will back up your case for improved bicycle infrastructure. There are many resources from which to draw knowledge and inspiration; web sites, national bicycle organizations and the like. Attend national rallies and workshops, or training seminars on bicycle planning and design in your area. Go to a national conference on bicycling where you’ll meet other advocates and learn from their war stories. Obtain copies of important national reports, guidelines and even state traffic laws to become familiar with common bicycling language and issues.
 

When you’ve boned up on these and other resources, you can recruit new members to your cause, attend public hearings, testify at transportation planning meetings, and much more!
 

Get Organized! Making your community more bicycle-friendly is likely to require many people working together over a period of years-don’t even begin to think about taking this on by yourself. If there is a local group, join it. If there isn’t, start looking for other like-minded folks to get an advocacy group organized (see next chapter for how to manage this process). One of the lessons of advocacy is that you should always be recruiting new people. Share the effort: everyone can and should contribute. There is always more that can be done.
 

As you begin to find your way with your fellow travelers, start thinking about how to shape your effort. Develop a game plan: what would your community look like if it were bicycle-friendly? As management expert Peter Drucker says, “If you don’t know where you’re going, any plan will do.” What needs to happen — to change — to bring about your vision? What are the steps that need to be taken to realize your goals?
 

Connect with like-minded groups. Meeting with groups who may be doing the same thing as you are will be good for strengthening your campaign. California residents can find a list of local bicycle advocacy groups online or jump to “Who you Gonna Call?” section for a list of local and regional bicycle coalitions.
 

Apart from looking for bicycle advocacy groups, you may also look for other groups who may also be interested in your campaign, even if their primary objective is not related to bicycling. For example, groups of parents may be interested in joining your campaign because they may want a safe bicycling environment for their children. Public health professionals or environmentalists may be interested because encouraging bicycling is a healthy and environmentally friendly alternative to the automobile.
 

Another approach to expanding the power and influence of your group and its agenda is to get other groups and leaders to support you. Bicycling offers a community a wide range of benefits; who wouldn’t support these common objectives?
 

Seek out these kinds of groups, agencies, and individuals. Let them know what you’re trying to do. Ask them for their suggestions and for their support. If you are considering writing to an agency or official on some specific matter, consider asking other groups to join you in a “sign-on” letter. This is a technique frequently used by advocacy groups to demonstrate to officials that there is a broad base of support for a particular proposal. For a good example of how a bicycle infrastructure campaign successfully enlisted a group of kids to help, see the Who Else Is Doing It? section.
 

Increase public awareness about your campaign. Raising awareness among bicyclists about the current condition of bicycle infrastructure in your neighborhood is an important step in your campaign. It is very likely that they are already aware of many of these problems – but doing a formal outreach will raise awareness of your efforts and potentially get them involved. Consider calling public meetings in your community to discuss your findings –this will also let them add information that you may have overlooked. You may also consider distributing flyers encouraging bicyclists to report any lack of infrastructure that they notice.

When speaking in public about your campaign, you can follow a few simple rules to be most effective:
 

Develop a specific proposal. Based on your own observations, the data you have gathered from local resources, and the input you've received from other bicyclists in your community, write up a clear proposal that states exactly what you believe needs to happen to improve bicycle infrastructure in your community. You may want to include everything into a "wish list," but make sure you prioritize those projects which would do most to improve safety and to encourage new bicyclists. With a clear proposal with specific demands, you're now ready to broadly advertise your campaign and bring it to the people who may have the power to meet your demands.
 

Raise awareness through the press. An important step to make your campaign visible and effective is conducting an effective media campaign. Understanding the general concepts of publicity and promotion will help you promote your campaign to a wider audience, which may help you get more support from people in other communities, too. Also consider holding a press conference and invite local media, elected officials, and community leaders to attend. By writing press releases you will be able to draw attention to your campaign and publicize your events. You can find more advice on writing an effective press release.
 

Meet with your elected representatives and transportation officials. Keep in mind that most decisions affecting where you live will be made by your local government — the town, city, or county  —  and that the officials you elect to represent you are people that you should give primary attention to influencing. They will be the people involved in making the decisions at the regional and state levels that you want to have go your way. So get to know them, make them aware of your wants and needs, and ask them to help you. Also, look for ways to help them. One of the easiest is to thank them whenever they do something that is good for bicycling. Let your local newspaper know, too.
 

It’s critical to develop an ongoing relationship with key elected and appointed officials, not just meet them once and then never speak to them again. Think back to your school years: remember that it was always a good idea to get to know — and be known! — by your teachers or professors? The same holds true in the political world.

And these are relationships that are best initiated before there is something that you really want from the people. So plan to get to know them early. Ask for an opportunity to meet with them to introduce yourself, your group, and your agenda. Be brief and be specific. Let them know who you are and who else supports your vision and goals.
 

Talking about things that make a community bicycle-friendly provides a great opportunity for politicians to speak about quality of life issues. Safer streets for our kids, recreational opportunities for adults, slower traffic speeds, and new sources of money for communities are all topics that most elected officials are willing to support.

What can you do to get things started?
 

Ask them for their comments and suggestions — and for their support. If they appear to be unfamiliar with bicycling issues, invite them to join you and your group for a ride around town. This is an excellent way to generate media coverage of local bicycle issues as well as a good techniques for increasing the awareness of officials regarding some of the problems and needs in the community.
 

Use an election year to bend their ear. Contrary to what you might think, elected officials probably sleep well at night, no matter how much anxiety they can — intentionally or unintentionally — create for you and other bicyclists. There’s one thing these tough-skinned individuals have in common, however, and that is that they all want to be elected and re-elected.
 

Take a politician out to lunch, or make an appointment to have a series of chats over coffee. Frame issues that will benefit both the politician and bicyclists in the community. If an election is coming, educate the candidates so that their words are really your words. The most effective time to bend a politician’s ear is during an election year. Here are five actions to make the most of election year opportunities.
 

Defend your project and debunk the myths. We’ve all been there. After a fine presentation before the city council, public works director, or the chief traffic engineer, you’re faced with someone who just keeps on coming up reasons for saying NO.
 

In overcoming a negative response, it may be helpful to understand that most of us, including public officials, are fearful of change. Moreover, few traffic engineers were trained in school to design bicycle facilities. Frankly, the technical issues involved weren’t understood until recently. As a result, these people may not have the expertise, or the backing from their superiors, to deal with bicycles on the roadway and they didn’t have bicyclists banging on their doors until recently. There are always officials who are just not willing to do anything for bikes or who consider the needs of bicyclists a low priority.
 

Here’s what you should know when you hear these old saws:
 

When such distinctions are made, programs and actions that are incomplete and not fully responsive to the needs of bicyclists or walkers can be the result. Here’s how to rebuke this argument:
 

TEA-21 retains the requirement that bicycle projects be “principally for transportation rather than recreation purposes.” FHWA has determined that to meet the “transportation purpose” requirement, a bicycle facility must be more than a closed loop trail within a park that can only be used for recreational purposes — users must be able to get somewhere other than back to their starting point. Beyond this, any bicycle facility providing access from one point to another can and will be used for transportation purposes and is therefore eligible for funding under TEA-21.
 

Meet other private organizations and individuals in your community. Many of the infrastructure improvements you wish to see may be in the hand of private organizations – and thus it may be fruitful to approach them directly. For example, for requesting secured bicycle parking in shopping centers and apartments, or acquiring private land that may be helpful in building a quick short-cut for bicyclists to their destinations, approach those landowners and be prepared to make your case for why are proposal is important to them and to the community.
 

Monitor transportation projects and make them bicycle friendly. Transportation agencies are required to consider public input. When it comes to actual projects (such as roadway widening, bridge construction, or impending land development), opportunities for public input may be offered as a public hearing (when public testimony is recorded) or an informational meeting (where testimony is not required to be recorded but comments, opinions and questions may be raised). For either format, some form of public notice is required, usually in the classified section of the local newspapers.
 

Make it your practice to scan the papers for upcoming transportation meetings, and make plans to attend. Even if you’re not fully informed about what’s going on, stand up and ask, “What provisions are you planning to make to accommodate bicycles?” This will usually reorient the discussion in your favor, or at least make everyone in the room aware that bicycles should be considered. Again, keep asking questions and don’t give up until you get what you want.
 

Campaign for funding to carry out improvements. Funding your proposed improvements may be possible through different private sources. You may consider approaching local corporations, and businesses in the bicycling and outdoor recreation industry. For a comprehensive discussion on funding resources, check the site for him bicyclinginfo.org.
 

Get involved at the regional level. If you live in a large metropolitan area, you and your fellow advocates may have to prepare to work at a couple of different levels of government. The federal transportation bill, or the Transportation Equity Act of 21st Century (TEA-21), directs that transportation planning and most of the decision-making on the allocation of funds be made at either the state level or, in major metropolitan areas, by Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs). The nature, structure, and operation of MPOs varies widely but all typically include representatives from each of the local governments in the region as well as from the state department of transportation. The MPOs for larger regions frequently have many committees operating on a variety of issues, including (sometimes) bicycling. If you live in a metropolitan area with an MPO you will need to get involved with its activities.
 

Smart bicycle advocates watch the regional transportation plan development process and work to have bicycle projects included. Importantly, regional and state transportation plans must also involve public participation, unlocking the door to bicycle advocates so they may become involved in the plan’s development. However, getting bike projects and programs in these short-range programs can be challenging given the stiff competition for funds.
 

Here are some things advocates for bicycling can do to ensure that bicycle projects are included in transportation plans: