What has MoBikefed done for you lately?

What has the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation been doing for you in 2010? Here is a partial list:

• Stopped a proposal to ban bicycles on most major roads in the rural part of St Charles
  

  Grand Opening of the new Missouri River bike/ped path in Kansas City
  County. The proposal received national attention and was moving forward at full speed--until a coalition of local, statewide, and national bicycle groups, including the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation, organized to oppose the ban and work for reasonable alternatives.
   
• Advocated for the two bicycle/pedestrian
• crossings of the Missouri River in Kansas City--both the Heart of America and Chouteau bike/ped crossings opened this fall.
   
• Advocated for the bike/ped crossing over the Missouri River connecting Jefferson City to the Katy Trail--currently under construction.
   
• Ushered a $1 million appropriation for the Tour of Missouri, the state's biggest ever bicycling event that brought top international bicycle racers to Missouri and brought the state worldwide media coverage, through both houses of the Missouri General Assembly.  (Unfortunately, the appropriation was refused and the race cancelled by Governor Nixon.)
   
• 

  Complete Streets logo
  Supported Complete Streets policies at the local, state, and national levels: This year, St. Louis, Crystal City, Festus, and Lee's Summit, Missouri, have adopted Complete Streets policies, making a total of eight cities and agencies in Missouri with official Complete Streets policies.
   
• Started the process of bringing a "Share the Road with Bicycles" license plate to Missouri--if all goes well, you will be able to apply for your plates by late 2011.
   
• Advocated for anti-harassment ordinances: Recently Columbia, Greenwood, and Independence, Missouri have passed ordinances banning harassment of bicyclists, pedestrians, and people in wheelchairs.
   
• Created an on-bicycle, on-street bicycle education program for traffic engineers and planners, and successfully taught it to a group of engineers and planners from MoDOT.
   
• Created and found start-up funding for an intensive in-class, on-bicycle course that will be taught to more than 1000 Missouri middle school students over the next two years.
  

  At the National Bike Summit in Washington DC
  
   
• Created and supported the Missouri Safe Routes to School Network to work to create better bicycling and walking conditions throughout our communities and encourage more kids to safely bicycle and walk to school.  The Network brings together over 100 organizations, agencies, staff, elected officials, and individuals in the fields of health, education, transportation, planning, and advocacy to carry out an ambitious 12-point Action Plan to change policy in support of Safe Routes to School across Missouri.  The Missouri Network is supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Missouri Foundation for Health, the Incarnate Word Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Region VII Office of Minority Health.
   
• Worked for better facilities: Groups across Missouri, organized by the Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation, worked together to create a list of the top priority bicycle, pedestrian, and ADA-related projects. MoDOT leadership has committed to choosing about 50 top priority projects and getting them built over the next several years.
   
• 

  Katy Trail Connection - Governor's Press Conference
  Advocated to extend and complete the Katy Trail. Work to extend the Katy Trail by 11 miles at its eastern end is near completion; work on the 46-mile extension to connect the Katy Trail to the Kansas City area will start soon.
   
• Organized the Missouri delegations to the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC, in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010.  The connections the Missouri delegation have made with our Missouri members of Congress have been invaluable in moving local, state, and national issues forward.
   
• Organized the fourth annual of Bicycle and Pedestrian Day at the Capitol brought dozens of MoBikeFed supporters to Jefferson City to make personal contact with state lawmakers and policy leaders. These personal visits, backed up by hundreds of messages, made a big impression on Missouri lawmakers, and the result is we have been able to move small, but key, pieces of pro-bicycling, pro-walking, and pro-trails legislation through each year.
   
• Created a powerful Vision of Active Transportation in Missouri that lays out ambitious goals and details exactly what communities across the state need to do to become more bicycle and pedestrian friendly.  See MoBikeFed.org/vision.
   
• Continued to work with our representative in Jefferson City, Jim Farrell, to develop relationships with legislators and state officials in Jefferson City.
   
• Organized and held a series of meetings with representatives of the Missouri Transportation Alliance--which is working to set future transportation policy and find transportation funding for MoDOT and for cities and counties across the state. We are working on your behalf to make sure that, as we build Missouri's 21st Century transportation system, you can safely bicycle and walk throughout your community.
  
  
  

  Biking near the Missouri Capitol
• Worked with our legislative committee to prepare a powerful line-up of legislative proposals for the 2011 legislative session, including proposals for:
  • A "Complete Streets" resolution, showing support for Complete Streets at the local, state, and national levels by the General Asssembly and the Governor.
     
  • A Safe Streets Bill: Appropriate penalties for motorists whose careless driving injures or kills.
     
  • Strengthening of Safe Passing Bill: Removing loopholes and strengthening Missouri's Safe Passing of Bicyclists law.
     
  • "Share the Road with Bicyclists" specialty license plate (for your motor vehicle) - must now be approved by the Joint Transportation Committee

What's next?

• See the full list of Annual Reports on Bicycling, Walking, and Trails in Missouri from our Federation and Foundation.
   
• Read a series of articles on What MoBikeFed has Done for You over the years.