One Street News

March 2009

Vol. 2, Issue 3

1. University Class Plans Bike Campaigns
2. Resources Highlights-Campaign Planning
3. Hot Topics – Complete Streets

1. University Class Plans Bike Campaigns

One Street’s role for the university class “The Bicycle: Vehicle for a Small Planet” at Prescott College has been tapped these past two weeks for our campaign planning expertise. The twelve students engaged in this campaign planning process have identified significant problems that are currently endangering bicyclists in their hometowns. Some of these problems include dangerous streets that are well-traveled by bicyclists. Others identify glaring gaps in bikeway networks – one across a bridge, another leading to a popular Boys & Girls Club.

By the end of this week they will have completed these campaign plans and will be ready to launch them to solve these problems and significantly increasing bicycling in these communities. These communities are all over the U.S. (South Carolina, San Francisco Bay Area, Colorado, New Hampshire, and more.) and include Berlin, Germany.

The students have learned that campaign planning must come before acting on specific tactics otherwise the petition or protest march or even letter to an official will not have the substance that comes from this planning process. Unless leaders of a campaign fully understand the existing problem, how to solve it and exactly who is responsible for making this change, any tactic, no matter how clever, will be justifiably dismissed by officials.

On Wednesday the students will complete their message development for the campaign by taking their problem and solution statements and making them resonate for the officials responsible for the change. Only then will they begin work on their campaign tactic details, ensuring these tactics fit their problem and solution statements and will advance their campaign goals.

Resources Highlights – Campaign Planning

Since our One Street News this month focuses on the Prescott College class campaign planning process, we thought you’d like to see our overview which forms the outline of our campaign planning workshops: http://www.onestreet.org/camp_planning.html

We offer this workshop in as little as five hours (for organization leaders on a tight time schedule) as well as over two or more days (for groups from multiple organizations who need more in depth organization capacity building strategies).

Hot Topics – Complete Streets

Continuing our theme this month, complete streets policy campaigns have proven to be a popular choice in the U.S. when leaders of organization look at campaign potentials. The most common bicycle campaigns take on particular stretches of roadway or pathway. These are vital campaigns and must continue to be a mainstay in campaign choices. But many leaders of bicycle advocacy organizations as well as the general public are growing tired of having to fight for every foot of roadway to be made safe for bicycling and walking.

Complete streets policy campaigns are becoming a popular choice because, once passed, these policies require that ALL roadways will eventually provide for safe and inviting passage for bicyclists and pedestrians. Having a backdrop of such a policy does not override the need to fight for the retrofit of particular streets, but it allows advocates and supportive officials to start far ahead of where they must start now. These policies also cause bicycle and pedestrian provisions to be included in new and reconstruction projects without a fight. Here are some excellent examples:

• Chicago’s Complete Streets Policy: http://tinyurl.com/ChicagoCompleteStreets "The safety and convenience of all users of the transportation system including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit users, freight, and motor vehicle drivers shall be accommodated and balanced in all types of transportation and development projects and through all phases of a project so that even the most vulnerable – children, elderly, and persons with disabilities – can travel safely within the public right of way."

• South Carolina’s Complete Streets Resolution: “... requires South Carolina counties and municipalities to make bicycling and pedestrian improvements an integral part of their transportation planning and programming where State or Federal Highway funding is utilized.”

These are examples of excellent complete streets policies that are leading to the completion of streets in the areas they serve. But beware of “poser policies” that use some complete streets terminology, but are void of requirements and include excessive exceptions that do not require high-level approval. Some of the common verbiage found in poser policies includes:

• “...shall be considered.”

• “...where appropriate.”

Such wording provides loopholes for officials who are opposed to providing for bicyclists and pedestrians. Also, if you and your organization want to launch a complete streets policy campaign, make sure the policy language includes these requirements:

• Provisions for all users of the roadways;

• High-level approval of any exceptions to the policy;

• The rewriting of transportation design manuals to ensure quality provisions.

Find a more comprehensive list of elements of a good complete streets policy at the Complete Streets Coalition web site: http://completestreets.org/policies.html . You can also find many other resources on that web site, including excellent power point presentations that are easily adapted with your own local slides.

As you assess your campaign planning potential for a complete streets policy for your area, make sure to take some time to track and offer your support of a very exciting federal-level policy campaign taking place in the U.S.: http://t4america.org/blog/archives/730