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Case Statement For Active Transportation Genesee – Finger Lakes Region, New York

I had a very productive discussion with Bob Torzynski head of bicycle and pedestrian affairs at Genesee Tranportation Council (GTC) and got some background on the proposal discussed by Rich Perrin head of GTC when he visited us last month. This $50 million proposal is just for the Rochester area and is part of a bigger proposal. (More details are in Jeff Mapes’s book Pedaling Revolution on page 59. )
After the 2006 elections Rails To Trails started shopping a plan around the country to give forty communities, $50 million dollars to increase bicycling and pedestrian use – that’s a total of $2 Billion, yes $2 Billion, nationally.
This is being made possible by the introduction of Oregon House Representative Earl Blumenhauer’s Active Transportation ACT of 2010 or ACTA or House Bill # 4722 which asks for $ 2 billion dollars over 6 years. This is the potential source of our funding for our $50 million dollar application. Today I sent a 10 page draft of the Rochester Case Statement to Rails to Trails to critically review and make suggestions to strengthen our proposal. The draft was originally created by the Rochster Area Community Foundaton inconjuction with the GTC. Rails To Trails is very supportive of our application and encouraged us to move forward when we visited their offices when when in Wash. DC.

If the Active Transportation bill passes, they will porbably fund 40 communities. Currently they have 53 case statements from different communities and we would have a very good chance of getting funded. All this is dependent on getting house Bill # 472 passed. We need to encourage all of our congressmen to support and more importantly cosponsor house bill # 4722. This is the most important national letter we can do probably this year so I’d encourage you to do write your congress man or woman. I will keep you posted on our progress.

Scott

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National Bike Summit & Alliance for Biking and Walking Top 10 Suggestions

Andrew Dollard, Jon Schull and I attend the National Bike Summit on Weds, March 10th and Jon went to advocate on March 11th with members of congress. It was a terrific conference and we all learned a great deal which will come in very handy.
I attended 3 break out sessions. The first one was held by The Alliance for Biking and Walking which was intended for advocacy communities that were just getting started and talked about the grants program ($15 K) they have to get communities started as well as the regional trainings they have for starting communities. I’ve attatched the “Top 10 Tips” the give for starting organizations. This includes the need to start a 501(c) (3) which I think we need to innitiate soon since it takes at least 3 months to get. I also caught the tail end of a Progressive Cities Session which featured Tom Miller who is Portland Mayor Sam Adam’s Chief of Staff and the person who convinced Sam Adams that a bike friendly policy is the way to go. He was impressive and is a potential speaker for our upcoming bike summit.
The second session covered the health benefits and I met with the President of the American Public Health Asscociation and Ken Rose of Tranporation Policy Director of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health both of were very informative and helpful. They were both willing to share their slides which may come in handy.
The third session was on Madison Wisc. and the mayor, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz gave a great talk. When I asked him about the snow problem, he was a bit perplexed, since he didn’t view it as too big a problem since they have a policy that the bike trails get plowed preferrably before 7am. and that seems to work out. He is also a potential speaker for the bike summit.
Included is the the “Top 10 ” list from the Alliance for Biking and Walking — Scott
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National Bike Summit & Alliance for Biking and Walking Top 10 Suggestions

Andrew Dollard, Jon Schull and I attend the National Bike Summit on Weds, March 10th and Jon went to advocate on March 11th with members of congress. It was a terrific conference and we all learned a great deal which will come in very handy.
I attended 3 break out sessions. The first one was held by The Alliance for Biking and Walking which was intended for advocacy communities that were just getting started and talked about the grants program ($15 K) they have to get communities started as well as the regional trainings they have for starting communities. I’ve attatched the “Top 10 Tips” the give for starting organizations. This includes the need to start a 501(c) (3) which I think we need to innitiate soon since it takes at least 3 months to get. I also caught the tail end of a Progressive Cities Session which featured Tom Miller who is Portland Mayor Sam Adam’s Chief of Staff and the person who convinced Sam Adams that a bike friendly policy is the way to go. He was impressive and is a potential speaker for our upcoming bike summit.
The second session covered the health benefits and I met with the President of the American Public Health Asscociation and Ken Rose of Tranporation Policy Director of CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health both of were very informative and helpful. They were both willing to share their slides which may come in handy.
The third session was on Madison Wisc. and the mayor, Mayor Dave Cieslewicz gave a great talk. When I asked him about the snow problem, he was a bit perplexed, since he didn’t view it as too big a problem since they have a policy that the bike trails get plowed preferrably before 7am. and that seems to work out. He is also a potential speaker for the bike summit.
Included is the the “Top 10 ” list from the Alliance for Biking and Walking — Scott
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National Bike Summit 2010 March 9-11 Wash DC

Jon and I are strongly considering going to the National Bike Summit, March 9-11 in Wash. DC. thanks to Jaesun’s earlier posting. Is anyone else planning to go? The more the merrier, since there are many sessions we will not be able to attend since they split them into 2 separate breakout sessions, each with 6 different meetings.

We look at this as an opportunity to learn and network. If anyone has gone to the meeting previously and has tips on how to maximize the meeting, we’d love to hear it. Better yet, come with us.

Scott

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National Bike Summit 2010 March 9-11 Wash DC

Jon and I are strongly considering going to the National Bike Summit, March 9-11 in Wash. DC. thanks to Jaesun’s earlier posting. Is anyone else planning to go? The more the merrier, since there are many sessions we will not be able to attend since they split them into 2 separate breakout sessions, each with 6 different meetings.

We look at this as an opportunity to learn and network. If anyone has gone to the meeting previously and has tips on how to maximize the meeting, we’d love to hear it. Better yet, come with us.

Scott

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Portland, Ore. 20 year Plan

The Portland, Ore. City Council recently approved a 20 year cycling plan which is very ambitious (site below) . The plan reaches far but has the strong backing of Mayor Sam Adams (he’s former Head of Portland Transportation) and the city council with unanamously approved it. The mayor in his recent State of the City address announced that they want to increase their bicycle commuting rate from 6.5% (the nations highest) to 25% over the next few years. The Daily Journal of Commerce, the local business newspaper reported on a projection to spend $600 million Yikes! over the next 20 years on the bike plan, and they will need to tap multiple sources including the city’s general transportaion revenue, Oregon Dept. of Transportation and the federal government are prime resources which they’ll need to work with.
I spent some time at the site and it has a wealth of information on their planning and implementation process. The plan is rich in detail and can be helpful giving us an idea of how they approached and plan to approach their growth. The “Executive Summary” in the Introduction section nicely summarizes things.
I also found it insightful to look at their application (included below) to the League of American Bicycles which povides a great deal of detail on how they have made their city bicycle friendly. There is a lot of concrete information on what they did to become the first city in the US to get the first Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community status. Check it out. PS Ave. temp. in Portland in Jan. – 41 degrees F. vs 25 degrees F. Rochester & we’ve got more of that “Pesky Snow”. More on that later.
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Portland, Ore. 20 year Plan

The Portland, Ore. City Council recently approved a 20 year cycling plan which is very ambitious (site below) . The plan reaches far but has the strong backing of Mayor Sam Adams (he’s former Head of Portland Transportation) and the city council with unanamously approved it. The mayor in his recent State of the City address announced that they want to increase their bicycle commuting rate from 6.5% (the nations highest) to 25% over the next few years. The Daily Journal of Commerce, the local business newspaper reported on a projection to spend $600 million Yikes! over the next 20 years on the bike plan, and they will need to tap multiple sources including the city’s general transportaion revenue, Oregon Dept. of Transportation and the federal government are prime resources which they’ll need to work with.
I spent some time at the site and it has a wealth of information on their planning and implementation process. The plan is rich in detail and can be helpful giving us an idea of how they approached and plan to approach their growth. The “Executive Summary” in the Introduction section nicely summarizes things.
I also found it insightful to look at their application (included below) to the League of American Bicycles which povides a great deal of detail on how they have made their city bicycle friendly. There is a lot of concrete information on what they did to become the first city in the US to get the first Platinum Bicycle Friendly Community status. Check it out. PS Ave. temp. in Portland in Jan. – 41 degrees F. vs 25 degrees F. Rochester & we’ve got more of that “Pesky Snow”. More on that later.
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Introducing Scott MacRae

Hi group. I finally made onto the blog. Jon and I met for 2 + hours brainstorming on bringing the U of R and RIT together as well as my Portland Ore. Experience. Jon posted the Portland Livability Video which is terrific. It has a great video explanation of Biking Boulevards and a variety of creative solutions to integrate cycling into their city. It is well worth your time.

Cheers,

Scott

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Introducing Scott MacRae

Hi group. I finally made onto the blog. Jon and I met for 2 + hours brainstorming on bringing the U of R and RIT together as well as my Portland Ore. Experience. Jon posted the Portland Livability Video which is terrific. It has a great video explanation of Biking Boulevards and a variety of creative solutions to integrate cycling into their city. It is well worth your time.

Cheers,

Scott