Is YOUR State Advocacy Doing the Job?

. . Is your State Advocacy organization doing the job?  If you don't know, its time to find out.  Much of the impetus for bicycle and pedestrian friendly infrastructure was driven by federal mandate under previous transportation authorizations like SAFETEA-LU.  With the new Transportation Authorization now in Congress that is about to disappear.  As collateral damage Tennessee's network of Bike/Ped Coordinators is likely to disappear.
. . Is your club or bike/ped organization coupled effectively into your state advocacy org?  Is your state advocacy org coupled effectively into the transportation planning and maintenance organizations in your region, your MPO/TPO, or RPO, the four TDOT regions?  Don't know?  It's probably time to find out!
. . We have benefited from federal mandates for bike/ped policies for a couple of decades, but that is changing and we need to back-fill. It's a job your State Advocacy org should be making pro-active plans to do and a job that certainly requires everyone's support.

. . David "Bud" Laumer, Bike/Ped Coordinator in Arkansas says "The network will be the big loss. Since 1991 the players have been learning their parts and sharing information. So, when rumble strips popped up here I went to the network to find out what others were doing. Betsey Jacobsen in Colorado had advice and alternative designs that we used here. Tom Huber of Wisconsin had more information. That network is part of a contract between FHWA and UNC Chapple HIll that gives us the PBIC--another resource that would be lost...."