A GUIDE TO INFLUENCING DECISIONS TO IMPROVE BICYCLING THROUGHOUT THE STATE 

You’re ready to start or continue your bicycle advocacy journey. Great! We’d love to share with you some key considerations as well as a sequential process that might be helpful to follow.

1. Having a clear vision

2. What you should want in your neighborhood

3. How to engage stakeholders

4. How to build relationships with your local city officials

5. Working towards active transportation plans

6. Measuring success or potential

7. How to implement your ideas

8. Common barriers in advocacy

And remember, this web platform is not meant to be exhaustive but rather a resource that lists many of the tools available for advocates. Further research may be necessary for you to feel confident in taking advantage of these tools. If at any point you feel lost or want some feedback, reach out to us at chris@bikeutah.org!

Having a clear vision is fundamental to your success as an advocate. It will enable you to better articulate what you want your policy makers to do, and, equally important, create a message for other advocates to rally around.

Many policy makers and city staff do not have a nuanced perspective on the different forms of bicycle facilities, trails, safety features, and their appropriate use. It is therefore critical to educate them on what you and your fellow citizens want built in your community. If your goal is to get practical bicycle facilities built — such as protected bike lanes or neighborhood byways — then it is important that you explain this difference and its value over painted bike lanes. Policy makers and staff may not initially understand the differences, but through effective communication and collaboration, you can reach your goals.

Conversely, your community may want gravel paths for bikepacking. However, parks departments might only be familiar with traditional mountain bike trails. Help them to see what is possible and work towards achieving a shared vision.

Think about positive experiences you have had riding bicycles in your community. What did you like about your experiences? Consider how you felt while you rode — did you feel safe? Was the route easily navigated? Were you able to get to your destination safely and in a direct manner? Did you feel like you could ride there with any member of your family regardless of their skill level? As you reflect and begin to evaluate riding in your community, you might consider some of the following concepts:

• Connectivity: Do roads, lanes, and paths connect to the extent that you can get around without having to get off your bike or take a roundabout route to get to your destination?

• Safety: What kind of roads are you riding on? Do they have infrastructure in place to keep you safe from cars driving at high speeds? Are there objects or debris along the route that could cause potential hazards?

• Inclusion: Who rides in your community? Are some people excluded because the available infrastructure caters towards a certain skill level or demographic? Is existing infrastructure even relatively accessible to all community members?

• Comfort: Do you have the appropriate bicycle facilities in place for the type of roadway? Do riders of all abilities feel comfortable riding on the road?

• Land Use: How is your community geographically structured? Can you reasonably ride (safely, quickly, and directly) from your residence to schools, groceries, restaurants, or even your place of work?

These concepts represent values that should be articulated to policy makers. Some of the most important work you can do as an advocate is to communicate the values of your community and work with staff to have your values reflected in the active transportation infrastructure around you.

Planner Perspective & Considerations

Different bicycle facility types offer varying levels of protection and safety. Don’t be discouraged if your initial requests for a favorable facility (e.g. protected bike lane) are denied. Ideally, planners determine the type of protection needed for a particular road primarily based on the size of the roadway, the speed of the vehicles, and the volume of traffic on the roadway. It is more important for you to express a need for increased comfort and safety on a particular corridor. If you have done your job well, the appropriate type of facility for roads within your community will be planned for and eventually installed throughout your community.

Activity: Develop a Tactical Urbanism Project

Tactical urbanism includes low-cost, temporary changes to the built environment, usually in cities, intended to improve local neighborhoods and city gathering places. Tactical urbanism is also commonly referred to as guerrilla urbanism, pop-up urbanism, city repair, or D.I.Y. (do it yourself) urbanism. A project like this can help serve as a proof of concept for a vision or idea you have for your neighborhood. Bike Utah can help you make a project like this happen. Read more here.

A successful advocate engages with a variety of stakeholders, so it is important to identify and appropriately engage with them. The following subsections will provide you with a list of basic tools you can use to achieve this. 

Stakeholder Identification

Below is a stakeholder map which can be used as a framework in working to identify where you should focus your efforts. As stakeholder interest and influence increases, they should become a greater priority in your efforts. 

Failure to appropriately consider stakeholders can be devastating to bicycle advocacy efforts. Generally, the following stakeholders/stakeholder groups should be considered for engagement. This may vary depending on the nature of your project.

• Public Officials: Mayor, City Manager, Planning Commissioner, City Council Members

• Municipal Departments: Planning, Engineering Public Works, Parks, Public Safety 

• Regionwide: UDOT Regional Representative, Municipal Planning Organization (MPO), Rural Planning Organization (RPO), or Association of Governments representative (AOG).

• Citizens: Champions, Urbanists, Recreationalists, NIMBYs

Engagement Tools

The following are recommended tools you may use to augment your advocacy and planning efforts. These tools will give a voice to many of your stakeholders and improve your projects overall.

• Online Surveys

• Open Houses

• Pop-up meetings

• Pop-up projects

• Bicycle Audits

• Intercept Surveys

Highlight: Mapping Exercise

Print off or provide online access to a map of your area of concern.  Identify and discuss with stakeholders the areas where new facilities or routes should exist. This practice will enable you to develop a consistent vision.

If you want to make anything happen in your community, you need to make friends with your transportation planners and public works professionals. An “us” vs “them” mindset can often exist when it comes to bicycle advocates and planning or maintenance departments. A few things to keep in mind — this is their job, and they are here because they have to be. Consequently, their passion may not match up to yours on a proposal you’ve put forth — they might even be afraid that you are here to make their job harder.

Treat everyone you meet with respect and kindness. This goes a long way. Also, make sure you have the facts, and when you don’t, ask questions and listen to the answers.

Where do you Start Building a Relationship?

There are several ways to begin a relationship with public officials:

1. Write an email and introduce yourself.

2. If you don’t hear back, call the office and set up a meeting with a planner or engineer in your community involved in active transportation.

   • Bring a treat to share to your meeting or, if the meeting is virtual, bring them something later to make them feel good. Discuss what you are interested in developing, and then listen to their concerns.

   • If you don’t have answers to some of their concerns, do your best to not get defensive!

   • After the meeting, do more research and learn what other communities have done to overcome similar issues. Talk to experts in the field (we have a few here at Bike Utah who would be happy to help) and then return to the staff member to continue the discussion. At some point in the meeting, ask what your advocacy group could do to help them.

     • Do they need feedback on a particular project?

     • Do they need support spreading the word on construction re-routes?

     Be intentional and remember it’s sometimes better not to go in and ask for the moon. You are here to establish a relationship.

3. Invite them to attend your local advocacy group meeting, and if appropriate, invite them to present. Perhaps they might even be interested in joining your group!

How to Effectively Communicate an Issue to a Committee or Advisory Council

Most committees have a public comment period. Have your facts together on the issue you are interested in. Give a concise introduction. Respectfully, but boldly, state what you are concerned about and have potential solutions!

Organize a Ride with your City Officials or Staff

Another great way to educate and get government staff, planners, and officials on your side is to take them out to the problem area and ride with them. Bike Utah is trained on how to create and lead group rides, and we can help you make this happen.

The following overview of key components for a quality bike plan is made up of content produced through a collaborative effort between Bike Utah and transportation and planning organizations throughout the state. This content was created primarily for active transportation plans, but many, if not all, of the elements are fundamental to creating recreational or soft surface focused plans.

Partner Engagement

Involving internal and external partners in the planning process, as well as identifying and empowering community champions, creates an opportunity for comprehensive input and buy-in. Their unique perspectives will generate support for the plan as many of these partners will be critical to successful implementation.

• Include at least one of the following public officials: Mayor, City Manager, Planning Commissioner, City Council Member.

• Include all of the following municipal departments: Planning, Engineering, Public Works/Streets, Parks.

• Identify, engage, and empower “champions”, those community members or staff who can and are willing to expend time, energy, and political will in order to implement the pieces of the plan.

• Include a UDOT regional representative

• Include an MPO, RPO, or AOG representative

• Include the Department of Public Safety/Utah Highway Patrol; police department; public lands 

• It is recommended to include a transit agency, neighboring cities, health department, school district, and major employers and/or work sites

Public Engagement

Utilize at least two distinct methods of engagement and data collection from the list below during all phases of the process in order to gather input from diverse community members: 

• Open houses or charrettes

• Online surveys

• Opportunities to comment on plans or maps online or in-person

• Intercept surveys

• Pop-up meetings and attending existing events

• Walk and bicycle audit

• Stakeholder interviews or events at major work sites

Existing or Current Conditions

Creating a clear image of the present community enables a meaningful comparison with what the community wants to be in the future. The analysis should use words, photos, maps, and data to describe:

• Existing on- and off-street bicycling and walking network and facility types

• Network barriers and gaps

• Demographics

• Crash and safety data

• Integration with local and regional plans, including other active transportation plans

• Connections to transit and community destinations (e.g. parks, schools)

• Recommended: Existing bicycle counts (if available); geological, hydraulic, or other physical characteristics and constraints

Recommendations

This task involves recommending new infrastructure, supportive programs, and policies in order to promote better accommodations for people walking and bicycling.

• Projects

It is paramount that recommendations encourage active transportation use, regardless of age or ability, by design. Each recommended facility must include (at least):

• Route and facility type identification

• GIS schema consistent with state and regional standards

• Recommended projects connected to regionally-significant existing or planned routes

• Programs

The 5 Es (equity, engineering, education, encouragement, and evaluation) support the effectiveness of infrastructure (engineering) projects.

• Programming associated with existing recommended facilities with an emphasis on the 5 Es listed above.

• Local context-specific Safe Routes to School programming

• Maintenance plan (i.e. snow removal, restriping, weed removal)

• Recommended: Wayfinding plan compliant with national and local standards

• Policies

  Policies, departmental procedures, design standards, and guidelines that promote active transportation usage and safety should be recommended.

• Walking and bicycling friendly design standards and land use policies

• Recommended: Complete Streets Policy or Ordinance

Implementation Strategy

An implementation strategy is a critical step in the active transportation planning process so that momentum and public support do not stall when the plan is finished. A strategy should be detailed, yet easy to use. It should include:

• Prioritized and/or phased list of actions and recommendations

• Funding opportunities

• Capital and maintenance cost estimates and budget

• Recommended: Annual work plan calendar; agencies or persons responsible for realization of recommendations

Performance Measures

Performance measures are effective ways to evaluate progress and the effectiveness of the implementation of recommendations. Measures should at least include:

• Walking and bicycling mode share (% of trips done by walking and bicycling)

• Regular bicycling and walking counts and reporting at several high profile locations

• Health indicators; crash and safety figures

Whether you are applying for a grant or asking your city council to fund a project, your audience is more likely to support your efforts if you can show data that tells a compelling story. This section will provide you with an overview of tools to consider when collecting data. And if possible, try to combine the following data sources with personal stories of cyclists for an even more convincing argument.

Before and After

Before and after is one of the main tools used to measure success upon completing a project. Before and after studies, as they relate to evaluating the success or impact of a change to the street or a trail system, consider the impact of a specific “treatment”. Treatments can include narrowing or widening a road, adding protected bicycle infrastructure, or placing signs throughout a trail system. 

As the name implies, you measure your variable of interest prior to implementing your treatment and again after implementation. The difference between the two measurements is the theoretical impact of your project. What you measure depends on what you are interested in finding out (e.g. cyclist fatalities, number of cyclists using a facility). 

The weakness of before and after is the assumption it makes that all changes can be attributed to the specific treatment. Transportation systems are complex and have many contributing factors that cannot be accounted for with before and after. There are more robust research methods for measuring impact, but before and after is commonly used among transportation engineers and should be sufficient for your efforts.

Strava Data

Strava is an online fitness application that athletes use to track their exercise. Many cyclists use this app which can give insights into where cyclists are generally riding. This app is most impactful for gaining insights related to recreational riders but UDOT and other entities are working on models that help determine a more accurate picture of how many people are using the routes highlighted by Strava data. Additional active transportation data sources are available to provide a more complete picture of cycling in your community.

Please contact Bike Utah or UDOT if you are interested in learning more about Strava data or other data resources and how you can use them in your efforts. 

Bicycle Counts

Bicycle counts are a fundamental part of telling a story with data for bicycle advocates. To perform bicycle counts, you simply observe the bicycle facility you are interested in and count how many cyclists ride through. This will likely be a part of any before and after study you perform. 

It is recommended that you observe the facility at “peak times” or when most cyclists are on the road. For example, you can do counts during commuting hours, as this is standard practice for counting automobiles and will give a more accurate representation of the highest level of use of a facility. However, it may be beneficial to consider other times depending on the facility and the story you are looking to craft.

Implementation, or the funding and construction of the riding facility in question, is likely the phase you are most interested in. Each of the preceding sections are crucial and should be followed prior to implementation to increase the chances of being successful. 

The best-case scenario would be that funding sources have been identified for major projects in the planning process, but this is not always the case. There are numerous funding sources that may be appropriate for your project. These may include:

• Grants

• Fees

• Existing funds within an entities budget

• Donations

The 1,000 Miles program will be a great resource in identifying these funding sources and working with you to obtain them for your project. Please contact Chris Wiltsie at chris@bikeutah.org for more information. 

Upon obtaining funding for the project, it is important that you continue to stay engaged to make sure that the project is completed according to the planning process. If changes are necessary, validate that they are in line with the overall values and goals of the project and your community. 

Common Concerns Brought up by Planners or NIMBYs:

• When pushing for separated bicycle lanes, something you will hear a lot is, “What about the snow?!!!” Snow removal is a factor when you look at different options. For example, the separated bicycle lane on Cougar Blvd in Provo, UT is plowed by special equipment.

• “No one wants these facilities, they will affect property values and increase crime in the area!” Here is a memo we prepared that cites several studies addressing this common misconception: Impact of Active Transportation Facilities on Crime and Home Values