Nearly half the trips Americans take each day could be completed with a bike ride of 15 minutes or less, according to People for Bikes. Cycling isn’t always feasible as primary transportation — especially if you’re making a Costco run. But having the option can reduce one’s carbon footprint. Still, in an SUV-centric world, it usually falls to bike enthusiasts to raise awareness about bike safety and encourage elected officials to make their communities more accommodating for those on two- or three-wheelers.

That’s especially true in the Sunshine State, which ranks number one in the nation for cycling traffic fatalities — 222 in 2022, the most recent year available — according to a report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

With this in mind, cycling advocates gathered last month in Winter Garden for the Florida Bicycle Summit hosted by the Florida Bicycle Association at the Jessie Brock Community Center. There they discussed “creat[ing] spaces where bicycling is not only safe but embraced as a true form of transportation,” Kelly Morphy, the organization’s executive director, noted in the event’s press release.

Here are seven takeaways from the conference that you can use to start making your town more bike friendly today.

#1 Encourage others to ride

Bike advocates said the easiest way to start making communities more bike friendly is to rally more people to the cause. What better way than to show them how much fun biking can be?

“When you talk about these things with your kids, with your neighbors, with your friends, when you go into bike shops, when you go into other areas or communities that aren't typically or historically involved in bike advocacy, you share your story,” said Rachael Maney, national director for Bike Law USA. “Ask them, Will you go for a ride with me?”

More riders on the roads can also contribute to the overall safety of cyclists. According to a recent study by researchers from the University of Colorado and the University of Mexico, “small and mid-size cities with higher bicycling activity are significantly associated with better overall road safety outcomes.”

Encouraging others to bike also builds relationships and broadens the base for advocacy, Morphy told VoxPopuli in an interview after the conference.

“When it comes to advocacy and pulling people into the movement, our message is much broader than just Hey, you go out and you bicycle on the weekend,” she said. “This is a movement that serves local economies, that serves families, that serves commuters, employers, and everybody who is part of this ecosystem that we call our community, who has an interest in efficiency, economic vibrancy and well-being and health in Florida.”

So it's key to find common cause with other groups. After all, advocacy doesn’t just extend to the safety of cyclists, pedestrians and drivers on the road, said Maney. “It includes construction workers, police officers, crossing guards, people on horseback, people who are disabled, in a wheelchair, pedestrians. Guess what? It also includes motorcyclists. It really is about representation,” she said. “The more of us there are, the safer we will be.”

“It's really important that we don't just have our immediate circle of friends or whoever is in our local commission district,” said Brian Ruscher, deputy director of multimodal for the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency. “We want to have a broad coalition going with and engaging with public leadership.”

#2 Make it easy for people to help

Some people live and breathe advocacy work; others have time to sign a petition or donate some money. Since not everyone will commit to the same level of participation in a given cause, be prepared with various tasks so that folks in the community can quickly and easily show support.

“If you make a quick 60-second action thing that they can do — emailing this person to ask this or phone call to this council person to say this — it’s much more effective,” said Ed Barsotti, director of the Florida Bicycle Association’s bicycle infrastructure program.

Bicycle advocacy groups can also muster resources to help navigate ongoing community issues. 

When a group of cyclists in northeastern Florida discovered that bike lanes had disappeared after road projects were completed in their area, they contacted the Florida Bicycle Association for assistance to get them reinstated. The association determined that a poorly worded update in federal regulations regarding curved shoulders on roads had been misinterpreted by the Florida Department of Transportation and that had led to the bike lane markings not being replaced after the road projects were completed. Once the association brought attention to the federal regulations, cyclists got their bike lanes back.

“You don't want to be a lone wolf asking for something even if you have the best request to improve a particular road project,” Barsotti said. “If you’re the one person asking for it, it’s easy to ignore it.”

#3 Get educated

Familiarizing yourself with local bike laws and cycling initiatives will make you a more effective advocate. Next, learn about the road projects in your area so you can lobby for them to be more bike friendly.

“Most towns have something called a capital improvement program, where they have the next five years of budgeting [for city projects],” said Barsotti. “They're generally not lists that the town advertises widely to the community, but as an advocate, you can be very impactful by knowing … what is coming up in the community.”

#4 Build on existing projects

Adding to a city project already in the works — including bike lanes on a road widening project, for instance — generally finds less resistance from the community and has “a much better chance for success” than starting from scratch with a bike-focused project, Barsotti said.

Share information about road safety initiatives and design standards with planning boards and city commissions to make bike friendly projects or tweaks to existing projects an easier sell. A good place to start is Complete Streets, an approach to transportation policy that requires cyclists and pedestrians to be considered when developing road projects. To host a Complete Streets workshop in your community, contact the Complete Streets Coalition here.

"The only reason that … members of our local planning boards know so much about walking and biking is because we've done Complete Streets workshops where they have been educated,” said Ruscher.

#5 Join the planning committee

Ask to be nominated for your town or city’s planning committee, and you may be able to influence projects while they are still in the development stage.

“This is important because it plugs you into the system,” Ruscher said. “You will start to see the projects that everyone is talking about … so join a committee, get educated, and then figure out really what your [advocacy] priorities are.”

#6 Try “tactical urbanism”

Tony Garcia, co-founder of the Miami urban planning and design firm Street Plans, practices what he calls tactical urbanism, a planning method he helped develop that involves quick-starting road projects already on the books.

“The idea is that you can use very low cost materials in a short amount of time, to jump start some sort of a process or to get a project in the ground,” Garcia told VoxPopuli in an interview following the conference.

A traditional roadway project like adding bike lanes to streets or removing entire car lanes can be expensive, time-consuming and difficult to get passed when everyone drives a car. But short-term projects like adding delineators to existing biking lanes or using asphalt art to help drivers better see the bike lanes to help prevent collisions are cheap and fast to get done. Plus, these ideas aren’t permanent, so they can be easier for officials to support.

Projects like these are not long-term solutions, but they can be analyzed for data that shows the benefits of investing in more permanent, high commitment solutions.

Tactical urbanism allows cities to “deliver public benefits and infrastructure much faster than a typical public works timeline,” said Garcia, adding that it engages the community beyond just going to a public meeting.

Find ideas and advice in Street Plans’ guide to tactical urbanism projects.

#7 Stick with it

Even if a project seems to stall, stay with the original plan and don’t second guess it, advises Ruscher. That’s what he did when his office got a panicked email from the city engineer saying a roadway project was a disaster.

“People hate[d] it before the paint was even dry,” he recalled.  “And then the next day, he started to get emails very supportive of the project. Sometimes it doesn't happen this fast … but you can see at one point he's like, This has been a disaster. And then the next day he's like, We're going to make this permanent.”

Give any initiative at least six months to “get beyond the valley of political death,” Ruscher recommends. “Don't prematurely remove it and change it just because you get a lot of pushback. Let the process play out.”

Additional Resources

Books

Killed by a Traffic Engineer by Wes Marshall

Explains how efficient street design leads to roads that prioritize the safety of cars over pedestrians and cyclists.

Confessions of a Recovering Traffic Engineer by Charles L Marohn Jr.

Explains how existing road designs insufficiently meets the cities’ needs and what can be done to solve the problems.

YouTube

Not Just Bikes Provides a global perspective on the impact of urban planning and transportation on non-drivers.

CityNerd A transportation planning and engineering consultant analyzes the effects of cities’ current urban environments and transportation.

Strong Towns Explains the failures of current urban areas and transportation development practices while providing resources for advocates to promote change in their cities.

Podcasts

The War on Cars Discusses the impact of car-dependency on bikers and pedestrians and how to develop safer cities for those who walk and bike.

Talking Headways Examines the relationships between sustainable transportation, urban planning and economic development with commentary from guest transportation experts.

Strong Towns Delves further into the topics discussed on the Strong Towns YouTube channel, with commentary from transportation and planning experts.

The Florida Bicycle Association provides updates on pending state legislation and information about bike laws, clubs, info for motorists and a pocket guide on legal biking to stash in a fanny pack.