As an alternative to driving, biking and walking have the potential to help solve many of the social ills that plague the country. If more people made the shift from driving to bicycling and walking, we would see vast improvements in obesity rates and pollution levels, and save billions on energy and healthcare costs.
People getting out of their cars and into their neighborhoods means they sit in traffic less and talk to their neighbors more. This improves overall quality of life and increases sense of community. But we need better public infrastructure to make biking and walking safer and more enjoyable so that people will chose to leave their cars behind.
That’s where America Bikes comes in.
America Bikes is a coalition of ten national biking and walking organizations working together to ensure that federal transportation legislation includes funding for biking and walking projects. “Together the coalition crafts a unified legislative strategy and speaks in one voice on Capitol Hill, especially on federal transportation legislation,” said Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator for America Bikes. They represent bikers, walkers, and advocates of all kinds - from leisure walkers, to people who bike to work, to those who want to ensure their kids have safe ways to get to school.
Earlier this year, Congress passed a new federal transportation law, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21). Sadly, funding for many important biking and walking programs was cut from the new bill. However, America Bikes’ worked with the coalition to mobilize people to support an amendment to the bill that was a big victory for biking and walking policy. The Cardin-Cochran amendment is a bipartisan amendment that would give local governments access to federal funds for small-scale projects, like building sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes.
“The structure of the Cardin-Cochran amendment was maintained in the final bill — a major success, as local control over biking and walking funding was very much threatened in the legislative process," said Hall. "Compared to past laws, this transportation bill offers local entities more opportunities to access federal funds for local street improvement projects. These funds are really needed at the local level."
America Bikes uses NationBuilder to keep their community of 300,000 members up to date on changes to federal transportation policy and to get people to take action in support of funding for biking and walking when it’s needed. “When there were really important turning points in drafting the legislation, we were able to get lots of folks to contact their members of congress to demand that biking and walking be a part of the bill,” said Hall.
When deciding on a web platform to use for their nonprofit, America bikes chose NationBuilder because it was more affordable than the other options they were considering. “There weren’t many systems out there that were both a CMS and a CRM in one. The price for NationBuilder was great and it’s a very good deal for the features the platform provides. Overall, our experience has been really great.”