Advocacy Resources
MBF's Advocacy Resources
This page has general information and resources for Missouri bicycle and pedestrian advocacy.
For information on current issues, visit MoBikeFed Advocacy Alerts.
Reporting unsafe motorists
- Motorist Contact Letter--MBF will send a letter to motorists who threaten or endanger bicyclists. Repeat offenders will be tracked. Just get the license plate and report it to us. Follow the link for details.
- Missouri Department of Revenue unsafe driver report form--this form can be used if you have direct knowledge of a Missouri driver's unfitness to drive. The Department of Revenue will investigate and in some situations require re-testing of vision and driving. More info about the program.
Reporting unsafe road conditions or ask MoDOT to improve a road or construction project for better/safer walking or cycling
- MoDOT Feedback Form--using this form is the best way to report a dangerous condition on MoDOT road or to ask for Bike/Ped accommodations on a project planned or under construction. Be polite and persuasive as you explain where the problem is, why this is an important or commonly used bicycle/pedestrian link, and what solutions you suggest for the problem. It is federal and MoDOT policy to provide for bicycle and pedestrian facilities where appropriate, and to provide for bike/ped safety, so thank them for doing so in general and request them to do so in this particular case.
It isn't always easy to tell which roads are administered by MoDOT. Generally any numbered or lettered route (40 Hwy, Route V, Route CC) is MoDOT-administered.
When you send feedback using this form it goes through regular MoDOT channels and eventually ends up on the desk of the engineer assigned to the project you are addressing. Results are not guaranteed, but MoDOT does take citizen feedback seriously. For the sake of future as well as current projects, MoDOT engineers need to hear from many citizens making a compelling case for bike/ped accommodations.
This article has detailed instructions and information about how best to approach an agency like MoDOT in these situations.
- Request street cleaning on a MoDOT road--just fill out the feedback form, specifying "street cleaning or call 1-888-ASK-MODOT (toll free) to request that a particular shoulder be swept. Please explain that you would like it cleaned because you bicycle there (that helps build awareness of the needs of bicyclists within MoDOT).
Explain which section of road you would like cleaned; it is helpful if you know which MoDOT district it lies in (D1-St. Joe, D2-north central, D3-Hannibal, D4-KC, D5-central, D6-St.L, D7-Joplin, D8-Springfield, D9-south central, D10-Cape Girardeau).
Keep in mind that MoDOT roads include all federal freeways and highways in Missouri (with numbers like I-70, US Hwy 40) and all state highways and roads (with numbers like 350 Hwy, Route V, Route JJ). Basically, any road with a highway number or letter is a MoDOT road.
- Dangerous Conditions Letter--a form letter you can send to government officials to alert them to dangerous conditions on roads.
Advocacy 101: How to advocate for bicycle and pedestrian accommodation
- Power Mapping: The Key to Effective Advocacy by MoBikeFed
- How to contact MoDOT about a bike/ped issue on a road or construction project
- How to work with MoDOT, their projects and their system and Part 2 by MoBikeFed
- Missouri Livable Streets Advocacy Manual, created in cooperation with MoBikeFed, Trailnet, and PedNet.
- How to get involved in your city: How one advocate made a difference
- How to advocate for better bicycle infrastructure by TALC
- Bicycle Advocacy Tips from the League of American Bicyclists
- Guide to Bicycle Advocacy (PDF file) by the Bikes Belong
- How to advocate with the state DOT (or any other road or transportation department)
- How and why to start a bicycle, pedestrian, and/or trails advocacy group (part 1) and (part 2), by MoBikeFed
- How to start a local bicycle community, club, or ride, by MoBikeFed
- More Advocacy 101 articles
Safe Routes to Schools resources
- MoBikeFed's Safe Routes to School Coalition page has resources about advocating for and implementing Safe Routes to School in your community.
- How to plan and execute a Walk/Bike to School Day in your own school. Walk/Bike to School Day is a great way to get kids out and active and build community spirit. It doesn't really take any money, just some time and planning. National Walk/Bike to School Day/Week/Month are in October every year, but you can plan your own local Walk/Bike to School Day whenever you like. Many schools do it once each Fall and again each Spring. Everything you need to know to get started is outlined in these Walk/Bike to School Day materials generously provided by PedNet.
- All individuals and organizations in Missouri interested in Safe Routes to School are invited to join the Missouri Safe Routes to School Coalition email list. The Missouri Safe Routes Coalition, sponsored by the Missouri Bicycle Federation, is dedicated to moving Safe Routes to Schools forward in Missouri.
The mailing list provides a way for groups & individuals interested in Safe Routes to Schools to communicate, share ideas, get information, and work together.
- We urge all interested organizations and schools to join the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. The Partnership also has an excellent page explaining what Safe Routes to School is.
- The Safe Routes to School Toolkit (5 meg PDF). This toolkit, published by the U.S. Department of Transportation and NHTSA, summarizes the ideas and experience of successful pilot Safe Routes to Schools programs in the U.S. It is full of good ideas about how to get started with Safe Routes and how to make it work. The best single resource telling how to start and run a Safe Routes to School program in a community.
- The National Safe Routes to School Clearinghouse is charged with developing a centralized source of information on successful Safe Routes to School (SRTS) programs and strategies. One the site you will find information on how to start and sustain a Safe Routes to School program, case studies of successful programs as well as many other resources for training and technical assistance. Particularly helpful is a page with resources for getting your local SRTS program up and running, walkability and bikeability checklists, curriculums, and so on, and a page with information on available SRTS training programs.
- I Walk to School.org--international Walk to School web site.
- Walk to School USA
- Getting started with Safe Routes to School from the National Center for Bicycling and Walking.
- Safe Routes to Schools really works--the Marin County Bicycle Coalition, which sponsored one of the first Safe Routes to School programs in the U.S., found these changes in just two years of their Safe Routes to Schools program:
* Children walking to school went from 14% to 23% * Children biking to school doubled from 7% to 15% * Children carpooling increased from 11% to 21% * Children arriving alone in a car shrank from 62% to 38%
- MoBikeFed's vision of Missouri's Safe Routes to School program. Safe Routes to School has the potential to dramatically increase the number of children who walk and bicycle to school, and to improve our communities for bicycling and walking. Our goal is for the federal funding to seed pilot Safe Routes to School program in numerous schools throughout Missouri, leading eventually to the Safe Routes program being established in every elementary and middle school in the state.
- The Federal Highway Administration's page about the new federally funded Safe Routes program.
Laws relating to bicycling
- Bicycle-related laws of Missouri and other states - including summaries of bicycle and pedestrian laws created by MoDOT, statements from the Missouri Driver Guide, the full text of Missouri statutes related to bicycles and bicycling, and links to info about bicycle laws in other states. The Missouri Driver Guide has a number of statements that make clear the cyclist's right to use the road as well as the cyclist's duty to follow the same laws as other vehicles. MoBikeFed has compiled a list of useful quotes from the Driver Guide.
- Missouri bicycle lawyers--lawyers who may be able to help if you have had an injury, collision, or incident related to bicycling.
- An analysis of all the bicycle/pedestrian-related sections of federal transportation law (TEA-21)--this lists and explains all of the main sections of federal law relating to bicycle and pedestrian accommodation. Federal law requires planners and engineers to do much more for pedestrian and bicycle accommodation than most planners realize. There is much material here to help in any advocacy effort. These regulations apply whenever federal highway money is involved in road or trail construction and reconstruction or transportation planning.
In addition, the complete Federal Transportation Law (searchable) (Section 23, U.S. Code), contains most relevant transportation provisions affecting bicycle and pedestrian facilities, including TEA-21 provisions. Search for "bicycle" or "pedestrian" to find the most relevant sections. Title 23 is also available as a downloadable PDF file (612 KB). - Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) bicycle and pedestrian regulations (Part 652 of the Federal-Aid Policy Guide). These are the federal regulations written by FHWA to implement the provisions of federal transportation law (TEA-21). They must be followed whenever federal highway aid funds are used in any transportation project. These regulations have some pretty strong language to support bicycle and pedestrian accommodation on construction projects that involve federal money.
- The new revision will be even stronger in support of bike/ped facilities than the old version. The FHWA also suggests going to FHWA Bicycle and Pedestrian Program legislation and guidance and the important FHWA publication "Design Guidance: Accommodating Bicycle and Pedestrian Travel: A Recommended Approach".
- The Kansas City American Public Works Association Guidelines for Bicycle Facilities--these guidelines have been officially adopted by the KCAPWA. They are influential with all public works departments in the area, even if they have not been officially adopted by a particular city (and often they have been adopted by cities in the area). This is a draft version but the final version has only minor differences, if any.
- The Law Officer's Guide to Bicycle Safety from MassBike. This program is intended to be taught by law enforcement officers to law enforcement officers as a stand-alone resource. The major objective of the program is to give law enforcement officers of all backgrounds the tools they need to properly enforce the laws that affect bicyclists. The program focuses on all police officers, including those who may not be interested in bicycling or who are not able to attend in-depth trainings. Most materials for the program are available online.
Rail-trails and railroad abandonment
- The Surface Transportation Board has information about decisions in cases where railroads have filed for abandonment of track sections. STB also lists all filings made by railroads, such as requests for abandonment or notice that the abandonment is complete ("notice of consummation"). Also, see the Code of Federal Regulations for railbanking, interim trail use, and railroad abandonment. This court case examines many of the issues involving railbanking, rails-trails, and abandonment of rail lines.
- The Rails to Trails Conservancy has an email "early warning system" for issues about trails.
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- Missouri Blueways Report [MSWord format or PDF Format] by MoBikeFed Trails Chair Jeff Huff. This report outlines how to identify potential rail corridors for conversion to trails and then how to go about turning that corridor into a trail. It covers practical and legal issues. The report also includes a map of all known Missouri rail corridors--both those currently in use and corridors that are abandoned. A very high resolution version of the Missouri Blueways Map is also available.
Bicycle and pedestrian statistics
Over two million Missourians are regular bicyclists. (About 1.2 million Missouri adults and another 700,000-800,000 Missouri children are regular bicyclists, bicycling one or several times each year. Well-controlled study shows 36% of midwesterners age 3 and older ride at least once per year.)
400,000 Missourians are avid bicyclists, bicycling at least once a week during good-weather months.
The amount of Americans who bicycle (34%) is roughly comparable with the amount who run or jog (40%) or use public transportation (40%).
In the Midwest, bicycling is more popular than both running and public transportation (36% participate in bicycling vs 34% running and 34% public transportation).
- Missourians walk and bicycle at less than half the national rate.
- As a percentage of motor vehicle crashes, Missouri has a far lower rate of pedestrian and bicycle injuries and fatalities than the national average. However, this does not indicate greater safety on Missouri roads but rather a much lower usage rate than the national average.
- Lack of proper bicycling, walking, and transit facilities mean the Kansas City and St. Louis metro areas have household transportation costs far higher than the national average--totalling approximately $700 million annually for each of the two metro areas.
- The amount of bicycling and walking is growing rapidly in Missouri, according to U.S. Census figures from 2010. The amount of bicycle commuting has nearly tripled from 2000-2010--a rate over four times the national average--and walk-to-work trip is up 71% from 2007-2010.
- No driver's licence: 16.4% of Missouri adults, 29.2% of total population.
- No motor vehicle: 8.3% of Missouri households, 25% of St. Louis city households, 13% of Kansas City households.
- 32% of Americans do not have a drivers license.
- 7.9% of U.S. households are "zero-vehicle" households.
- One reason: "The average male will outlive his ability to drive by six years, and that the average female will outlive her ability to drive by ten years," according to AARP President Jennie Chin Hansen.
- As mentioned above, St. Louis is right at the bottom when its rate of bicycling is compared with peer cities and Kansas City is 1/3 of St. Louis's dismally low bicycle mode share.
- 21% of Kansas Citians reported riding a bicycle at least once in a summer (KC Household Travel Survey [PDF], see p. 22), which compares unfavorably with the national average: 27% report bicycling at least once per month in the summer.
- Nationally 8.7% of trips are made by walking and 0.8% by bicycle for a total of 9.5% combined (2001 figures, National Walking and Bicycling Study). In Kansas City 3.9% of trips are made by walking and 0.4% by bicycling for a total of 4.3%--less than half the national average on all counts (Household Travel Survey [PDF], see p. 39).
- The silver lining in all this is that it demonstrates that there is tremendous pent-up demand for bicycling and walking in Missouri. People who live in Missouri are not physically different from those who live elsewhere in the U.S. If we do in Missouri what other cities and states have done around the country to better accommodate safe walking and bicycling then our bicycling and walking rates will rather easily increase towards the national average. Raising our rates of bicycling and walking above the national average would be a daunting task. But simply raising to the national average is not so hard. We know what to do, because cities and states across the country have done it already. Missourians simply need to find the political will to actually do what others have already done.
- 48% of respondents bicycle for work, shopping, or school
- 47% of respondents walk for work, shopping, or school
- Heavy/fast traffic, lack of bicycle facilities, and lack of support facilities (bicycle parking, changing facilities) are most often listed conditions that discourage bicycling
- 90% consider bicycling improvements and 86% consider walking improvements important or very important to their way of life
- 92% would support a designated bicycle route on their street
- 76% are willing to ride their bicycle 5 miles or more to a destination; 41% are willing to walk 2-3 miles to a destination
- 96% strongly or somewhat agree more money should be spent to make it easier and safer for people to bicycle and walk (80% strongly agree).
- A summary of bicycle and pedestrian traffic crash fatalities and injuries in Missouri, 2000-2008
- An analysis of Missouri Highway Patrol statistics for bicycle and pedestrian injuries and fatalities for 2000, 2001, 2002.
- A further analysis of these statistics breaks down 2002 Missouri bicycle injuries by county.
- The Highway Patrol statistics summary from 2002 forward is online.
- At the Missouri Highway Patrol's Statistical Analysis Center you can map crashes by type, location, date, and cause.
- How to find and use Highway Patrol and InjuryMICA pages to find data on Missouri bicycle and pedestrian crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
- Build it and they will come: The amount, quality, and connectivity of bicycle and pedestrian facilities directly correlates with the amount of bicycling and walking
- Bicycling, Walking, Health, and Obesity in Rural Communities in Missouri - research draws a clear line behind lack of funding for bicycling and walking facilities in rural communities and community health.
- Research and engineering guidance on bicycle "sidepaths"--multi-use paths along roads - research and nationally respected engineering guidance shows that a bicycle "trail" or "sidepath" that goes alongside a roadway is simply a facility that does not work. It is not safe. The only way it can be made safe is by completely eliminating all the intersections of the trail and the roadway, including cross-streets and driveways or by taking rather dramatic measures at each and every driveway and intersection crossing--measures we have never seen implemented in Missouri.
- Transportation Enhancements (federal funding)
- Safe Routes to School (federal funding)
- Recreational Trails Program (federal funding)
- Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ, federal funding)
A 2007 bicycle statistics benchmarking report of various cities and states around the U.S. reports that the estimated bicycle mode share for St. Louis is 1.2%. This is low--a tie (with Columbus, OH for the lowest of any city studied, far lower than cities like Portland, Seattle, Denver, and New Orleands (which range from 4% to 7%) and lower even than cities like Houston, Pittsburgh, Chicago, New York, and Miami (all of which are over 1.5% mode share). Kansas City is worse yet, with only 0.4% of trips made by bicycle (Household Travel Survey [PDF], p. 39).
The national Benchmarking Report from the Alliance for Biking and Walking summarizes bicycle and pedestrian statistics in all 50 U.S. states and the 50 largest U.S. cities. The report shows and compares the amount of bicycling and walking, the amount of funding spend on bicycle and pedestrian facilities, bicycle and pedestrian safety, the effect of facilities, advocacy, funding, and other factors on bicycling and walking, and te effect of bicycling and walking on community health and fitness.
Bicyclist-related injuries represent more than 10% of roadway injuries in Missouri--a serious safety problem that gets far too little attention: Analysis of the DHSS injury statistics for the years 1996-2008 reveals that bicycle injuries, which comprise approximately 1.3% to 1.5% of injuries involving motor vehicles in Missouri according to Highway Patrol data, are actually 11% of Missouri roadway injuries, according to DHSS data. The reason? The Highway Patrol only counts injuries and fatalities if a motor vehicle is involved. But 94% of bicycle injuries don't involve a motor vehicle at all.
Pedestrians represent 3.5% of all roadway injuries, according to the same DHSS data, and almost all pedestrian injuries involve a motor vehicle.
Bicycle Retailer compiled a set of national bicycle sales statistics (1990-1998).
Nationally, bicycling generates more $133 billion annually for the economy, $17.7 billion in state and federal taxes, and supports nearly 1.1 million jobs.
Bicycle and pedestrian research
Sources of funding for bicycle, pedestrian, and trails projects
Bicycle Level of Service (BLOS & BCI) resources
Miscellaneous
Missouri media - bicycle business - bicycle, walking, & running club contact info
Contact info for Missouri elected officials
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