The Thunderhead Alliance Weather Report



Volume 2, Issue 11                                                                                               November 22, 2006




In This Issue:





THUNDERHEAD HIRES COMPLETE STREETS CAMPAIGN COACH

We’ve elevated our National Complete the Streets Campaign with the hiring of Dominic Liberatore as our full time Complete Streets Campaign Coach. Dominic is focusing his time on the goals of Thunderhead’s national campaign: securing complete streets policies in all 50 states by 2008 to leverage a federal complete streets policy through the reauthorization of the federal transportation law. Tapping his extensive experience in campaign strategy and leading transportation reform non-profits, Dominic will work directly with the leaders of Thunderhead member organizations to assist them in the complete streets policy campaigns they craft for their states and communities.

Though Congressional committee assignments will not be finalized until January, Dominic has already begun developing Thunderhead’s federal strategy for the campaign through Thunderhead’s state and local organizations. If you need assistance with a state or local complete streets policy campaign, please contact Dominic at: dominic@thunderheadalliance.org. For more information on Thunderhead’s National Complete the Streets Campaign, please visit: http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/completestreets.htm.







THUNDERHEAD'S BENCHMARKING PROJECT IS COMING YOUR WAY!

Funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), combined with funding from the Bikes Belong Coalition, gave us what we needed to get right to work this fall. Through the hard work of our researchers at Rutgers University, our partners at the Institute of Transportation Engineers, and our partners at the CDC, we are finalizing our data sets and sources.

That means that many of you will be receiving a call and/or email from our data collectors asking for your assistance in connecting with the keepers of the data for your state or city, mainly bike/ped/transit mode share, crashes, fatalities and agency investment. We’ll also want to know some things about your organizational capacity so we can show your impact for bicycling and walking gains. Our partners are connecting us directly with data for underserved populations, health, and bike industry, so you won’t have to worry about those.

Those of you who represent state organizations and organizations that serve one of the 50 most populous U.S. cities (find a list on our Benchmarking page: http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/benchmarking.htm) will be highly important to this project. And any of you who lead local organizations for smaller cities can also help. So please email Sue Knaup, Thunderhead’s Executive Director, sue@thunderheadalliance.org if you’d like to help!

All Thunderhead organizations that assist with the project will be acknowledged in the report, scheduled for publication by fall of 2007, and will be the first to receive free copies of the report to show your government agency representatives exactly where your state or city lies in comparison to the rest of the nation in providing for bicycling and walking.

2007 THUNDERHEAD TRAININGS HOST CITIES CHOSEN

While we received several inquiries about our two open slots for hosting a Thunderhead Training in 2007, two Thunderhead member organizations went above and beyond with their bids for Louisville and Los Angeles. All three of these Trainings will follow our proven Winning Campaigns curriculum, starting on Friday evening and wrapping up at lunchtime on Sunday. Our DC Thunderhead Training includes additional lobbying training and Hill visits as part of our National Complete the Streets Campaign. So, mark your calendars!:

LOUISVILLE, KY – July 13-15, hosted by Bicycling for Louisville (B4L). According to B4L’s Executive Director, Barry Zalph, the venue for the Training is in the same building as B4L’s offices and “is within a half-mile of many restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues as well as the Waterfront Park with its bicycle and pedestrian facilities, Great Lawn (for Ultimate Frisbee!), and beautiful views… We can arrange for loaner bikes for at least 10 training participants, and provide fairly to very bicycle-friendly routes to home stay locations and other destinations, as well as planning bicycle routes of various lengths for fun rides.” They will also connect us with recommended rental bike shops.

LOS ANGELES, CA – August 24-26, hosted by the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition (LACBC). Kastle Lund, LACBC’s Executive Director, and her staff, are looking forward to showing us, through local bike and walk tours, some of the challenges and victories they have won through their efforts to make this notorious city bicycle and pedestrian friendly.

WASHINGTON, DC – October 5-7 plus lobby training October 8th and Hill visits October 9th, hosted by the Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA). This Training will play a critical role for our National Complete the Streets Campaign by bringing leaders of Thunderhead member organizations to the Capitol to deliver the complete streets message to Congress. Attendees can choose to attend only the Winning Campaigns portion Friday – Sunday, or stay through Tuesday to meet with their members of Congress. Note that we start late on Friday the 5th to allow for travel and Monday October 8th is Columbus Day so only a few work days will need to be missed.





MEMBER NEWS: RECENT COMPLETE STREETS VICTORIES

Thunderhead member organizations have been busy cranking up the effort to win complete streets policies in their area, and we're pleased to report four new policies have been put in to place very recently.

Leading the pack is a huge win for all roadway users in the Chicago area - championed by Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (CBF). The core policy is a single sentence that shifts the transportation priority to the most vulnerable users. This policy has become Thunderhead's new standard and you can find it front and center on our Complete the Streets web page: http://www.thunderheadalliance.org/completestreets.htm. The policy will be implemented in a variety of ways that have been advocated by CBF and its Healthy Streets Campaign. It is imbedded in the city’s new Safe Streets for Chicago program, which calls for stepped-up traffic enforcement, crosswalk awareness campaigns for motorists, new safety technologies, identifying and rectifying trouble spots, reducing speed limits, and reclaiming street space for bicycle lanes through the use of “road diets.” It also calls for pedestrian improvements like bulb-out curb extensions for crosswalks, countdown crossing signals, median refuges and re-timing signals to minimize pedestrian delay and conflicts.

The City of Kirkland passed Washington State's first complete streets ordinance in early October. The Cascade Bicycle Club brought the idea of an ordinance to the City Council at the beginning of the summer. Their efforts culminated in a unanimous vote to accept the new policy on October 3rd.  The Cascade Bicycle Club has posted details about their effort on the CBC website: http://www.cascade.org/Advocacy/completestreets_local.cfm. Check out the great video of David Hiller, CBC's Advocacy Director talking about the passing of this policy. (In the video note that the Deputy Mayor says that they were "ahead of Chicago" in passing the policy - Chicago passed their Complete Streets policy seven days later!)

In September, while helping to host the ProWalk/ProBike conference in Madison, Robbie Webber of the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin won a complete streets policy through the Madison MPO. Inspired by discussions at the Thunderhead Retreat, Robbie, who also serves as alderperson for Madison, recommended a complete streets policy during an MPO meeting. After a few minutes of discussion, it passed. This one holds the record for the quickest complete streets policy campaign!

Finally, Mark Wyatt, Executive Director of the Iowa Bicycle Coalition reports that the city of Cascade, Iowa (is there something in the name Cascade?) passed their own complete streets policy. Folks from Cascade, Iowa had attended the Iowa Bicycle Summit, and worked from the Thunderhead Alliance Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns given to them by Mark Wyatt.

The Thunderhead Alliance Guide to Complete Streets Campaigns is now available as a Second Edition from all major on-line book sellers; ISBN: 0-595-39318-7.

Thunderhead welcomes news items from our member organizations based on each month’s theme. Please send your suggested item (maximum 300 words) to: david@thunderheadalliance.org. We will publish the most inspiring story and list the web links of other contributors within that month’s theme. Next month's theme is: Thunderhead Trainings Campaign Victories.





ORG TIP: FREE DVD FROM TA - CONTESTED STREETS

 Retreat attendees were treated to a screening of this inspiring and influential new documentary created by Thunderhead member organization Transportation Alternatives (TA) in New York City. It features shocking footage and inspiring revelations for reclaiming streets in New York, London, Paris and Copenhagen.

Whether you’ve seen it or not, you need a copy! This documentary will change your government officials’ views about transportation and give you, your staff and your volunteers new, powerful material for making your case for your campaigns. TA is enjoying surprising results from their on-going screenings throughout their city and they want to share this success with other Thunderhead member organizations. Thunderhead member organizations can receive a FREE copy one of two ways:
  • Renew your Thunderhead member organization dues before December 31st (renewal notices will be mailed by early December).
  • Email TA and request a copy: membership@transalt.org. Make sure to note that you are requesting a copy for your Thunderhead member organization including the name of the organization.
For more information about this documentary, including some handy materials on hosting a screening, visit: http://www.transalt.org/campaigns/reclaiming/contestedstreets.


CUT AND PASTE FOR YOUR NEWSLETTER:

This month we've got a gem of a quote, courtesy of Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D - Oregon).
- - - - - - - - - -

Quote of the Month

"Let’s have a moment of silence for all those who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."

- Earl Blumenauer (D - Oregon)

Congressman Blumenauer is a staunch supporter of bicycling in Congress. More information on Congressman Blumerauer's transportation and bicycling policies can be found at:

 http://blumenauer.house.gov/issues/Issue.aspx?IssueID=15






This monthly Thunderhead Alliance Weather Report is for the leaders of our member organizations and our supporters. The Thunderhead Alliance, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, is the only coalition of state and local bicycle and pedestrian advocacy organizations working in unison to break down the barriers to safe bicycling and walking in North American communities. Find more info at: www.thunderheadalliance.org.