Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Report from 2014 National Bike Summit

Last week CAZBike prez Bob Beane, along with Global Bikes co-owner Brandee Lepak, and PortaPedal's Al Capello attended LAB's 2014 National Bike Summit in Washington D.C...

Report #1, Monday, March 3
Keynote Speakers – Phillip Darnton, Executive Director, Bicycle Association of Great Britain, and Andy Clarke, President, League of American Bicyclists


How to be successful in bicycling advocacy…

  • Focus programs
  • Work with the willing (rather than wasting energy on those who are not)
  • Talk to people who want to listen

Keys to success

  • Get a mayor (and city council or county supervisor) on board (most successes come from local leaders of change)
  • Continuity of effort and communication
  • Work on building resources: People, organizations, sources of funding, etc.
  • Emphasize route networks and connectivity (broken and incomplete routes/networks don’t encourage people to ride)
  • Have a long term strategy/plan/goal to provide a framework for shorter term projects and “asks” and to help maintain priority perspective
  • Train children to ride at ages 8-12. This is the critical time when persons incorporate bicycling into their lives…or not
  • Women need to feel safe bicycling…they determine whether children ride, or not, which affects the next generation’s view of bicycling

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