Bike Nation: One view of the national bike summit
By Landon Hilliard
When I pulled open the curtain in my hotel room, there was no mistaking that I was in our nation's capital. The Washington Monument stood tall in my direct view, and if I craned my neck and peered east from the seventh floor window, I could make out a piece of the giant rotunda of Capital Hill. I was staying in the Washington Hotel that is known for its rooftop garden-bar overlooking the White House. It was 7am, 5am Boulder time, on the second day of the National Bike Summit and soon I would meet with elected officials from Colorado in the Congressional and Senate office buildings that flank the Capital. Primarily, I had come here for my work promoting transportation options to students of the BVSD. I was also acting as an emissary and fact-finder for Boulder Bicycle Commuters. Armed with a fully inked Bic and legal pad, I was prepared to record all salient information.
Bikes, Bikes, and Bikes
The League of American Bicyclists hosts the National Bike Summit (March 3-5, 2004) to bring together advocates as well as industry, transportation, and public health officials to learn about and discuss bicycling issues. It's bikes, bikes, bikes for three days! The scope of topics is wide and the tone is decidedly political. Given the locale, this should come as no surprise. The Summit is both a forum for national bike policy and a large-scale tool used to promote this bike policy in national legislation -- namely TEA-3, the massive federal transportation funding act. For this reason, the schedule is split between two days for presentations from experts and groundbreakers and one full day for lobbying elected officials with a team of fellow Colorado advocates.
Something For Everyone
My main interest for attending the Summit was to learn about the best-practices of youth education and bike-to-school programs in the U.S. The development of the Safe Routes to School Program into a national curriculum particularly interested me. With so many choices, there is something for everyone, I kept my ears open for ideas and strategies that might appeal to BBC members. By the end of three days, I picked up loads of information by chatting with fellow bike advocates and attending four (of twenty) breakout presentations. The following are highlights.
An Engineer's Delight
A speaker on the subject of designing bike facilities pointed out that advocates should be familiar with design concepts and issues. It is important, he said, to know design language and have a basic grasp of design concepts when talking to engineers about bike facilities. In particular, two reference manuals were highly recommended. The AASHTO (American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials) Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities (1999) and the ITE (International Transportation Engineers) Book of Innovative Design contain useful guidelines for the design and engineering of bike facilities.
Another presentation elaborated on topics to be included in the next Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). For example, the Manual will outline how to design bike lanes to get cyclists out of the "door zone". It will recommend colored crosswalks but not the colored bike lanes with which Portland, Oregon has experimented. More safety studies need to be undertaken in the U.S. to determine the effectiveness of colored bike lanes. Though used extensively in Europe, colored bike lanes are not yet coming to American.
Get Moving USA!
Here is a question: according to the US Surgeon General, what is the greatest threat to the well-being of America? If you are thinking, the problem of sedentary living and obesity, you are right. Public health officials are using the term epidemic to describe obesity and its related diseases. A Commander in the Surgeon General's office, also a member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness, spoke about the Healthier US Initiative to encourage Americans to be more physically active. More than half our population is overweight and children are suffering adult diseases at an alarming rate. The Healthier US message is “Get up, get out!” As the Commander said, “You don't have to join a gym, you don't have to feel the burn, you only need to get up and move”.
Urban Visionary
In the Summit's keynote address, Enrique Penalosa, former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia, invoked a vision for a healthy & safe city and asked the more than 400 members of the audience to imagine our own Emerald City. He defined a healthy city as a place where children are seen traveling by themselves and a safe city where a four year-old can ride a tricycle anywhere. Mr. Penalosa asked us to stretch our imaginations beyond the car-world of today. He associated the threat of the automobile with the mythological danger of the wolf, both of which violently take children's lives. He made the point that children today grow up in terror of the auto. “Is this the kind of place we wish to live?” he asked. Mr. Penalosa weaved stories about the transportation successes in Bogota, known for car-free Sundays and extensive bicycleways, into a theme of creating social equity through the use of public spaces. He proposed that urban planners “make sidewalks as wide as you value your citizens”. To make a healthy and safe city, citizens need public places to share. Cars tend to separate and isolate, while walking, biking, and bus riding have the power to integrate.
To the Hill We Go
Day Two of the National Bike Summit turns participants into messengers for America Bikes, the national advocacy coalition, headed by home-grown talent Martha Rostowski, former director of Bicycle Colorado. We were sent on a mission of arranged meetings with elected officials to promote bike legislation in the omnibus transportation bill known as TEA-3. The Colorado contingent numbered twelve and was ably led by Dan Grunig, current director of Bicycle Colorado. Participants were pumped with issues and facts to prepare to meet our representatives. The main three requests, called “asks”, made for TEA-3 were:
• Strengthen major bike programs such as Enhancements, Congestion Mitigation, and Air Quality (CMAQ) and Scenic Byways.
• Fully fund a national Safe Routes to School Program.
• Include a new principle in road construction known as Complete Streets. This would legally require that bike-ped facilities be added to all new road projects paid for with federal funds.
Our group must have walked a full 10k through the corridors of power to visit our elected officials.
Pleasure Cruise
Day three continued with break out sessions with participants mellowed from the previous day's effort. The Summit was capped off with the Bike Caucus Ride. This bike tour of Summit participants and invited Congressional staff makes the rounds of city sights. It's a beer-drinking assembly to celebrate the close of the Bike Summit and kick off the weekend.
Positive Thinking
Thinking about the results of the Summit, I remain positive for the future of funding and development of cycling for fitness and transportation. Bicyclists of many stripes have organized into a full fledged and respected interest group that can influence public policy in Washington. For example, America Bikes, a coalition of eight national organizations for bike advocacy, has learned the power of a clear agenda that will result in taking a larger share of funds from TEA-3, the U.S. transportation bill. A national Safe Routes to School Program has gathered so much support from lawmakers that some say it has gained protection from attack as if shielded by a force field. We bike advocates working at the local level can be assured that support will be coming from Washington.
BBC Manifesto
At the most recent BBC meeting, I was asked if I learned lessons at the Summit that could apply to BBC. I answer with three lessons learned:
• Start with the premise that an engaged citizenry can transform Boulder.
• Develop a clear message and strategies to reach people.
• Unite with other organizations to extend our reach and cross-pollinate our agenda.
The Bike Summit is a heady experience with so many gathered around a common interest. There are many ways BBC could become a more effective advocacy group. But first we must ask ourselves one question: What are we trying to achieve?