Bike and Ped Advocates Work for Change at Winning Campaigns LA Training

October 20, 2011 at 2:00 pm | Posted in Bike News, Get Involved, LACBC Events | 5 Comments
Tags: Alliance for Biking & Walking, Campaigns, regional groups

This past weekend, 28 bike and pedestrian advocates gathered at the LACBC headquarters for the Alliance for Biking & Walking Winning Campaigns training. Each year, the Alliance holds three to four trainings across the country, and this year the Los Angeles County Bicycle Coalition was lucky enough to host one of them!

Twenty-eight bike and ped advocates gathered at LACBC headquarters this weekend for a Winning Campaigns training with the Alliance for Biking and Walking. Photo: Alliance for Walking and Biking

Led by Brighid O’Keane of the Alliance and one of LACBC’s co-founders Ron Milam, now of Ron Milam Consulting, this 3-day training gave us the tools we need to propel our bike and pedestrian campaigns to victory! We covered everything from defining our problems to setting campaign goals to assessing and managing our resources. The training also including a biking tour of Los Angeles where we got to see the 7th Street Bike Lanes, the new sharrows on New Hampshire and 4th Street, the Bicycle Kitchen and the Bicycle District, and the Sunset Blvd. bike lanes. Our walking tour included visiting the Occupy LA folks at LA City Hall and stocking up on Dia de Los Muertos goodies at Olvera Street.

Training participants plan out their campaigns. Photo: Tess Lotta

While a few LACBC staffers had participated in other previous Winning Campaigns trainings before (Fun Fact: Our Sharrows and 7th Street Bike Lane campaigns both got started at different Winning Campaigns trainings!), what made this training particularly special was the presence and enthusiasm of our local regional groups. While the LACBC staffers mapped out two campaigns to build off of ThinkBike’s momentum of bringing protected bike lanes to Spring St. and Main St. in downtown LA and Jefferson Ave. near USC, our regional groups came up with other inspirational campaigns. Future campaigns include a regional bike plan from the West San Gabriel Valley Bicycle Coalition; the Michigan Ave. Greenway from Santa Monica Spoke; Olympic Blvd. bike lanes from the Montebello Bicycle Coalition; an anti-harassment ordinance for the city of Lancaster from the High Desert Cyclists/Antelope Valley Bicycle Coalition; bike lanes and a road configuration from the newly formed West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition; and road enhancements (including bike lanes) along Verudgo Rd. from a group of bike and ped advocates from Glendale.

Carol, Colin, Marissa, Alexis, and Andy of LACBC present their two campaigns to everyone. Photo: Tess Lotta

Other campaigns around the region include campaigning for a “safe routes to transit” program from Los Angeles Walks; a walk local, shop local from Walk Beverly Hills; and a bicycle education program for teenagers, especially girls, from Chicks on Bikes Radio. We additionally had participants come from Ontario Wheelhouse from Ontario, CA; Idaho Pedestrian and Bicycle Alliance from Boise, Idaho; Bicitekas, plus another advocate, from Mexico City; the California Bicycle Coalition from State of California via Sacramento.

Thank you to Brighid and Ron, for leading us to our future victories. Thank you to the Alliance for organizing this great training, as well as always providing resources for bike and ped groups across North America. Thanks to the Winning Campaigns training sponsors: Planet Bike, Bicycling and Walking Vacations, Bikes Belong, SRAM, Alta Planning & Design, Team Estrogen, Sun Revolutions for the Planet, Hawley, AARP, Specialized, Breezer, and CLIF Bar. Thanks also to Kaiser Permanente, for providing scholarships for many of our participants to attend for free.

Thanks to all the participants for making this possible!

With 88 cities and jurisdictions across this vast County, it’s so encouraging to see local leaders taking the initiative to make their communities more vibrant and safer. To carry out these campaigns, LACBC and these regional groups will need your involvement and support. When you sign up for LACBC membership, you can support your local regional group by signing up for membership with them as well. A percentage of your membership dues go back to your local chapter. Learn more about our regional groups here and how to start your own chapter here. Together, we’re truly working to build a better, more bike-able LA County!

See more photos on the LACBC Facebook Page!