Action 2020 Workshops a big hit in Missouri - download the presentations & materials

Last week the Missouri Association of Councils of Government, the Pioneer Trails Regional Planning Commission, and MoBikeFed teamed up to host two Action 2020 workshops in Missouri.

Action 2020 Workshop
Action 2020 Workshop

The workshops, presented by Advocacy Advance, brought elected officials, city and agency staff, and advocates together to learn about federal transportation funding, the recently passed MAP-21 federal transportation bill, and how to build bicycling and walking into Missouri cities and towns.

Today the Matt Wempe of the League of American Bicyclists (who along with the Alliance for Biking and Walking make up the Advocacy Advance partnership) wrote a blog post about the Action 2020 Workshops in Missouri:

  • First MAP-21 Action 2020 workshops: The new information about MAP-21 stirred some excellent discussions at both workshops. Advocates spoke highly of the progress the Missouri Department of Transportation has made towards accommodating bicycles and pedestrians. Luckily, Missouri is already a model for sub-allocating its STP and CMAQ funds — which will make it easier to direct dollars to bicycling and walking projects through the new Transportation Alternatives state grant process. We look forward to great things coming out of MAP-21 in Missouri.
  • Rural communities walk and bike, too: The workshops were also unique because the Advocacy Advance team spent a week in the state. This allowed us the time to host two workshops, as well as visit some of the smaller rural communities in central Missouri. We visited Warsaw (population 2,100) to ride the mountain, road and water trails. Mac Vorce and Randy Pogue, both with the city of Warsaw, were gracious hosts and very proud of their community’s efforts to increase walking and bicycling. Check out the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federationblog for a picture tour of the day. The League is looking forward to a Bicycle Friendly Community application any day now!

Riding in Warsaw (Photo by Brent Hugh)

  • Train the trainers: We also used the extra time to “train the trainers” during the workshops. Approximately half of Missouri’s population lives outside the major cities (Kansas City and St. Louis, both bronze-level BFCs) in small communities and rural areas. It’s often challenging for these communities to apply for federal funds, due to a lack of resources or knowledge about the opportunities. Our host organizations had the great idea to train agency staff and advocates on the MAP-21 Action 2020 curriculum so they can share it with rural and small communities. Regional planning commission staff and advocates learned how to run a successful workshop and had time to practice speaking about funding in front of the group. If you’re interested in a future workshop in Missouri, contact Brent Hugh with the Missouri Bicycle and Pedestrian Federation.

The Advocacy Advance team was really impressed with the progress Missouri is making already. After a whirlwind week of traveling throughout the state, we left energized and positive that we’ll be shortly sharing best practices from Missouri.

Read the rest of Matt's post for more details.

See photos from the workshops and our visit to Warsaw--now one of the best rural communities in the nation for biking and walking.

Workshop materials available for download

If you missed the workshop and are interested in learning more about MAP-21 and the other topics the workshops covered, all the presentations and materials are available for download:

Many thanks to the Advocacy Advance presenters for putting together a great workshop, to our keynote speakers, former Mayor Darwin Hindman of Columbia and Senator David Pearce of Warrensburg, to our MoDOT speakers Hope Visconti and Ron Effland, and to everyone from all across Missouri who took the time to attend the workshops.

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