[*BCM*] Opinions on move by MassBike

[Tom Revay]

For purposes of full disclosure, I will tell you that I have been a MassBike Director for the past five years, am currently the Vice President of the organization, and I have been a member of MassBike and Boston Area Bicycle Coalition (its predecessor) since the 1980s.  

I'm responding to Anne Wolfe's complaint, in which she wrote, 

"I hear a lot about Mass Bike campaigns, and in terms of what they *say* I support them, but nothing ever really seems to get achieved, which is why I stopped contributing and instead funneled the money into stamps to write my local politicos and hound them directly."

I strongly encourage Anne, and everyone, to learn who your local, state and national representatives are, and to contact them directly.  MassBike's website links to http://www.wheredoivotema.com/bal/myelectioninfo.php , which is a page where you can look-up this information by your street address.  (If yours comes up empty, give your street without a number; this worked for me.)

Here is a run-down of what we've accomplished in the past year, with references to previous years --

In the Legislature, MassBike has sponsored four bills in the past two sessions.  One is the Bicyclists Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which we will continue to promote until it's passed.  

In the interim, MassBike successfully promoted legislation that requires the Registry of Motor Vehicles to include information about bicycling in the Massachusetts Driver's Manual, and to incorporate one or more questions about bicycling on the driver's license examination.  When this item was vetoed by the governor, MassBike staged a campaign to overturn the veto by a 2/3 vote of both houses of the Legislature.  It worked.  MassBike is now consulting with the RMV about the manual, and the questions that will be asked.

We are a sponsor of the Safe Routes to School bill, which has passed, but is awaiting funding.  

We have also promoted a state-wide bicycle touring routes bill that would create marked, numbered routes that have been identified as useful through routes for long-distance bicyclists.  

In 2003, Governor Romney instructed the Massachusetts Highway Department to rewrite its design manual.  This is the book that specifies the standards and practices for building and maintaining roads throughout the Commonwealth.  MassBike's then Executive Director, Tim Baldwin, was selected by MassHighways to chair the panel that would specify pedestrian and bicyclist accommodations, as required under the statewide law that mandates these accommodations (a law that MassBike helped to pass in 1995).  MassBike Board member David Loutzenheiser now sits on that panel, and he is advised by Paul Schimek (former MassBike President, US DOT researcher, and PhD planner), and John Allen (author of the Bicycle Driver's Manual in four states).  The new manual is expected to be released late in 2005, or early in 2006.

In the 1990s, MassBike successfully lobbied the MBTA to bring bicycles on public transit.  In 1999, the T stopped requiring bicycle passes to ride, at MassBike's encouragement.  In 2004, the hours during which a bike may be brought on-board were substantially increased, and when the T threatened to ban all bicycles from public transit during the Democratic National Convention, MassBike worked hard to have these restrictions removed.  After three Boston Globe articles covering our activities were published, the T relented on the most onerous ones.  MassBike continues to sit on the MBTA's Bicycle Committee -- which we're working very hard to make more effective!

Locally, MassBike produced a guidebook to starting town bicycle committees.  For anyone who lives in a town or city that does not have a bike committee, this guide will help you get started, and the MassBike office will assist you in creating such a committee.  This guidebook is available on line at 
http://www.massbike.org/resources/bacguide0.htm, or by calling 617 542-BIKE (542-2453).

Having received a grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, MassBike developed a curriculum for police officer training in bicyclist safety.  This education program was rolled-out last year to state and local police forces in four states, and it's going into wider distribution this year with US government backing.

For our members, MassBike has long offered a 10% price discount at most bike shops.  In 2004, we added discounts at 23 bed and breakfast inns from Provincetown to Pittsfield.  We also offer discounted automobile insurance through CLF Ventures (an affiliate of the Conservation Law Foundation), and we encourage cyclists who drive cars to join the Better World Club, a AAA alternative that provides roadside assistance services for bicyclists as well as motorists.  MassBike members also get a $25 discount at Zipcar (a car hire service for city dwellers), which is a pretty good deal considering a basic membership in MassBike is only $30 per year, or $15 for students, elderly or fixed-income.

We have three major social events per year.  In May, we participate in the Redbone's Barbecue Bicycle Party during Bike Week, in conjunction with the New England Mountain Bike Association.  In August, we hold our annual Bike Rally (this year at Verrill Farm in Sudbury).  Bike Night, in the autumn, is also our Annual Meeting, which last year featured Massachusetts' Secretary of Transportation Dan Grabauskas  and comedian Jimmy Tingle as our keynote speakers.  (I think we also had something to do with the Red Sox 14-inning victory over the Yankees in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series which also occurred that night, but I'm not sure -- let me look into that!)

We publish four MassCyclist newsletters per year that are mailed to our members, and we send out email updates at least twice a month where these kinds of initiatives, events and accomplishment.  We operate a website that's known nationally for its comprehensive summary of bicycle laws and legislation in North America (see
http://www.massbike.org/bikelaw/bikelaw.htm#STATE ), as well as a wealth of other information collected from over a decade.  MassBike was an early-adopter of the World Wide Web.

All of these efforts take enormous amounts of volunteer time, effort and coordination.  We have only three paid staff members (up from two a year ago), and we run on a very tight budget with few luxuries.  We are dependent on our membership for our funding, and for their labor.  We're not AAA, with twenty offices statewide and a built-in travel agency (though that might be a good idea someday!), and if you believe that you can contribute to us, with ideas, with action, and yes, with money, then please join MassBike and help us.  

It's because we are our membership that we want to start a chapter in the Metro Boston area that will energize city cyclists to continue and expand on these successes.  I hope you will participate with us and join MassBike if you're not already a member.  You do this us at
http://www.active.com/donations/campaign_public.cfm?key=massbike .

I hope that this brings everyone up to date on what we've been doing for the past year, and before.  You can read our quarterly MassCyclist newsletters on-line at
http://www.massbike.org/cyclist/, and our frequent Updates at
http://www.massbike.org/update/ .  You can sign-up to receive Updates via email by writing to "info at massbike.org" and using "MassBike Update" as the subject of the email.  Or call the MassBike office at 617 542-BIKE (542-2453) and tell them that you want to receive our email Updates.

And if you have any further questions or comments, please feel free to send them to me at trevay at massbike.org.  I look forward to hearing from you!

Tom Revay
trevay at massbike.org
Vice President, 2004 - 2005
The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition