Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2016 - 2

VIEWPOINT I n June, we were all horrified by the news that five bicyclists were killed and four seriously injured when a driver plowed into them on a club ride in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Michigan bicyclists responded quickly. The Kalamazoo Bicycle Club and the League of Michigan Bicyclists worked together to express their grief, their anger and to call for action-both for the driver to be held accountable and for a much-needed vulnerable user law for Michigan. It was not a matter of luck that local bicycle advocates were ready to respond to this terrible crash. For decades, the Alliance for Biking and Walking has been training local bicycle advocates and building the capacity of the biking and walking movement. Local and state advocacy groups like the League of Michigan Bicyclists and the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia that I led for 13 years have grown at a remarkable rate. Local groups now raise $88 million per year to advocate for biking and walking! And the staff of local organizations nationwide have grown from 225 in 2009 to almost 800 today. We want to continue to feed that growth, which is why we partnered with the Alliance to found the Active Transportation Leadership Institute at the League. The Active Transportation Leadership Institute will: * Address the top organizational capacity challenges that organizations face through professional development of staff; * Recruit and develop new leaders by advancing equity, diversity and inclusion; and * Build a state-by-state strategy for both policy change and building advocacy capacity. With the founding of the Active Transportation Leadership Institute, the Alliance has decided to shut down. The Alliance shutting down reminds me how much I learned from Alliance calls and workshops and how important it has been to me to refuel my advocacy fire at Alliance gatherings. None of that is going away, it will just take on a different form as part of the League. The Institute, which serves our advocacy organization members, is a big step in fulfilling our strategic framework strategy to provide greater value to our members. We are also working to provide greater value to our bike club members and to you, our individual members. If you have any thoughts on how we can better serve you, please let me know at alex@bikeleague.org. It's been an exciting first ten months for me as executive director! I see so many opportunities for us to expand our work in creating a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone. We could not do it without your support. Thank you! Alex Doty, Executive Director alex@bikeleague.org 2 BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA http://www.kalamazoobicycleclub.org/ http://www.lmb.org/ http://www.lmb.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=986:kalamazoo-tragedy-updated&catid=96&Itemid=94 http://www.bikeleague.org/bfa

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2016