2013 National Bike Summit: Re-cap and Call to Action

Last week, 18 Georgians braved rain, snow, and frosty winds to attend the 2013 National Bike Summit in Washington DC.

Monday night, our delegation was thoroughly surprised and thrilled to learn that Georgia Bikes won the “Advocacy Campaign of the Year” award from the Alliance for Biking and Walking!

This national award recognizes our efforts in 2012 to help the state DOT develop and adopt an exciting, forward-thinkingĀ Complete Streets policy. Help us keep up this momentum andĀ join today!

As if that wasn’t enough excitement for the evening, our own Board VP and Executive Director of the Atlanta Bicycle CoalitionRebecca Serna, won the Alliance’s “Advocate of the Year” award!
We’re so proud of this award for Rebecca’s tireless efforts, both on the clock and off, to make Georgia better for bicycling.

Barely back on the ground after our Monday night awards high, Atlanta Bicycle Coalition was also recognized by the League on Tuesday as the “Outstanding Advocacy Organization of the Year” – what a year for bike advocacy in the Peach State!!

Wednesday, our carefully crafted schedule of Congressional meetings was washed away by a cold mix of rain and snow that shut down most federal offices. We scrambled, however, and managed to meet almost every office by the end of Thursday.

Our “Asks”:

Representatives

We called on Georgia’s members of the House to:* Sign on to a letter to Transportation Secreatary Ray LaHood requesting non-motorized transportation performance measures.
* Attend a bicycle event or visit a facility in the district (preferably one that was built with federal funds)
* Join the Congressional Bike Caucus

Senators Isakson & Chambliss

We asked Georgia’s Senators to:

  1. Support the President’s nomination of Sally Jewell for Sectreatry of the Interior
  2. Try Capital Bikeshare
  3. Attend a bicycle event or visit a facility in GA (preferably one that was built with federal funds)

Let Congress Know You Care About These Issues:

1) Find the contact information for your US Represenative and Senators, and callemail, or write them expressing your support for the items above.

2) The League also has an excellent primer on how to use Twitter to underscore the asks we made in person last week. Congressional staff absolutely pay attention to tweets, and the more there are, the more they pay attention!

Thanks to all of our delegates for making the trip to DC, and thanks to all of you for backing up our in-person meetings with a call, email, or letter.

Hope to see you all at the Ride to the Capitol on March 26th!