If you look at some of the most scathing headlines of 2022, vehicle protests fill a significant period of news rotation. From blockades at the US-Mexico Border to the trucker protests of Ottawa, CAN, protesters are using their vehicles as an extension of themselves in ways not done before. The issue with this? A further prioritization of the driver in societies across the western hemisphere. Drivers can use their vehicles for purposes that aren't transportation, and the world must stand by and watch as they abuse the utilization of a motor and some wheels. This power does not extend to pedestrians and bicyclists, who by virtue of being smaller than cars, see their desires equally waning into the shadows of the car, as it can be reasonably assumed that car users would use their vehicles in the same way against legislation against the very things they protest with. It is a dangerous precedent for transit, one that may need to be reversed soon and fast or risk not being resolved at all. 

Bike Rodeos can be a very daunting prospect, but this PowerPoint presentation can help out. It breaks down different parts of the process and crucially provides sources to present to cities for why they should hold these 

This article is much like other introductions to Bike Rodeos but with one key addition; marketing. Having a sponsor can enhance community engagement and enable giveaways to better engage the kids participating. Really having local companies get involved is good all around, but it takes either having an established event and/or club presence behind it. 

National Walk and Bike to School Day is May 4th and it's a great time to get people to commute without cars. The scale of the event can even make people who would never forsake their car walk. Specifically, this article gives lots of resources for event planners including, planning ideas, registration resources, and goals of the event. 

The American new car market is based around exciting cars. Why buy a boring Camry when you can have a 700 hp Hellcat? That mentality has been deeply buried into the American conscious. Dodge specifically encourages this. As a promotion, they tweeted, "Fill in the blank. More horsepower means more _____.” It didn't have the response they expected though. Instead of the expected speed, fun, and bald eagles; they got more dead kids, pedestrians, and cyclists. The post was later deleted but a message was conveyed.

Why do we like these kinds of cars? I think it's because it's what we enjoy and want to pursue. For me that is bikes, do I need a carbon race bike? No, is it wicked fast? Oh, yea.

Now, are these cars daily drivers? Of course not, but that's not what they're designed to be. The issue with these cars comes when people try to do everything with these cars and treat everywhere like a track for their car.

During the recent pandemic, cycling exploded and e-bikes especially did. Ebikes were especially unexpected because they were still yet to be accepted. "Purist Cyclists" called it cheating and the beginner cyclist call it too expensive. A $2000 starting price is a very hard pill to swallow, fortunately, many ebike companies have created popup ebike libraries. The "libraries" loan ebikes to citizens for a few days to let them try it in their daily lives. This free trial allowed people to justify the steep purchase price later. Thanks to the 52 Local Motion popups, 17% of participants bought an ebike by 12 months after the initial events. 

Many more programs like this are in the works, but the cost is still a very big obstacle. Oakland California recently passed a 1 million dollar grant for only 500 bikes. In order for these to be more widely adopted the technology must trickle down to lower price tiers.

FDOT installed 3 PHBs (pedestrian hybrid beacons - traffic control devices) and crosswalk illumination in Tampa, Florida in 2015 in order to decrease car-pedestrian collisions. They created a marketing campaign with the Center for Urban Transport Research to promote and raise awareness for the changes using a budget of $18,000. The community impacted by these changes responded positively, happy to see the implementations. Though some drivers exhibited confusion regarding how the PHBs worked, that was easily fixed with a road sign detailing it (signs read, “Stop on flashing red then proceed if clear.”) and crash rates fell 65% from an average of 20 down to 7 per year.