In the 2024 general election, PeopleForBikes’ VoteForBikes campaign tracked 30 bike-related measures on state and local ballots across the country. Out of a possible $33 billion available on November ballots, voters approved an impressive $26 billion in funding to support paved and off-road bicycle infrastructure projects. Combined with $1.4 billion approved in earlier elections, VoteForBikes supported a total of $27.4 billion for better biking nationwide in 2024!

Nearly 60% of the approved funding, totaling $16 billion, will go towards projects largely focused on the construction and improvement of safe places to ride including protected bike lanes, bike network expansions, street safety upgrades, and traffic calming improvements. The remaining $11.4 billion will fund the construction and maintenance of off-road trails and the acquisition and management of open space that supports and increases recreation opportunities. 

We collected seven of the most important pro-bike measures from the November election below. Visit our VoteForBikes page for a state-by-state breakdown of other pro-bikes measures in your area and around the country. 


Voters in the Evergreen State successfully voted against this harmful measure to protect critical funding for transformative multi-modal transportation infrastructure. Funding from the 2021 Climate Commitment Act (CCA), Washington’s cap-and-invest program designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, will continue to be available. This program funds the Move Ahead Washington package, which provides $1.3 billion for bike and pedestrian projects and programs that support safe and connected places to ride a bike across the state, including Connecting Communities Grants, Complete Streets, Safe Routes to School, and the School Based Bike Program. 

With a two-thirds majority, Seattle voters approved Proposition 1 and replaced the expiring Levy to Move Seattle. This 8-year, $1.55 billion investment represents a significant proportion of the Seattle Department of Transportation's budget and will increase mobility options across the city. Funding will be used to construct new protected bike lanes and greenways, improve the safety of existing bike lanes, and complete network gaps with an emphasis on southern Seattle. 


Nearly 60% of voters in the Golden State voted YES on Proposition 4, a $10 billion general obligation bond focused on safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparedness, clean air, and open space preservation projects. Of the $10 billion, nearly $2 billion will support the construction, maintenance, and improvement of recreation and active transportation infrastructure (like bike paths and trails!) to help combat the effects of climate change. 

City and County of San Francisco, California

San Francisco residents approved Proposition K to establish a park at Ocean Beach. This measure will amend the park code to permanently dedicate car-free space at the Parkway at Upper Great Highway after a temporary shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic was extremely popular. This initiative will allow people of all ages and abilities to safely gather and enjoy the outdoors for generations to come while also preserving delicate natural resources along San Francisco’s coastline. The park will increase opportunities to safely walk, bike, roll, and use transit, whether for recreation or transportation, without having to interact with vehicular traffic. 


Environment and Natural Resources Fund Amendment 

In a resounding win for the environment, Minnesotans overwhelmingly voted YES to reauthorize state lottery revenue to the Environment and Natural Resources Fund by constitutional amendment. This big win will provide a projected $1 billion in funding for projects that protect, conserve, and enhance air, water, land, and wildlife across the state. These projects include the creation and expansion of biking trails and biking tours that will increase recreation opportunities and continue Minnesota’s efforts to stay at the forefront as one of the best places to ride a bike in the U.S. This amendment also authorizes a 1.5% increase in funding for community grants that invest in underserved communities so everyone can enjoy access to nature. 

Voters in Maine approved Question 4 to authorize a historic appropriation of $30 million to the Maine Trails Program and fund the design, development, and maintenance of recreation and active transportation trails. With a focus on accessibility for all and a significant proportion of funding going towards non-motorized or multi-use trails, this funding will significantly expand opportunities to ride a bike across the state. 


Central Ohio Transit Authority (Franklin County, Ohio)

Voters in the greater Columbus area approved the Central Ohio Transit Authority Sales and Use Tax in a significant win for multi-modal transportation. This tax will generate an estimated $6 billion in revenue over the next 25 years to strengthen the rapidly developing region’s transportation system. While the primary focus is on public transit, nearly one-third of revenue will support transit-supportive projects like safe and connected places to walk and bike that facilitate safe access and first- and last-mile connections. Plans include building 500 miles of new bike paths, multi-use trails, and sidewalks, with 150 miles planned for completion in the next five years. 


Thanks to voters like you making your voice heard, we showed that Americans across the country value access to more safe and connected places to ride a bike. Thank you for joining us in voting to support vibrant communities where people and the environment are happier and healthier and everyone can access affordable and safe modes of transportation and recreation.


Looking for even more ways to get involved and make a difference? Explore PeopleForBikes’ Great Bike Infrastructure Project to support more great places to ride in your backyard and become a PeopleForBikes Foundation member to support better biking in your community and hundreds of others across the U.S.

Voters Approved $27.4 Billion to Support Better Biking in 2024

Officials and advocates enjoy the new Pershing Bikeway on its opening day. PHOTO CREDIT: San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

More than 200 high-priority bike projects were constructed across the U.S. in the last year according to PeopleForBikes’ National Bike Project Tracker, a first-of-its-kind database as part of our Great Bike Infrastructure Project. 

With the goal of creating more safe, fun, and connected places to ride in communities nationwide, the Great Bike Infrastructure Project is fast-tracking thousands of bike projects in all 50 states. From protected bike lanes to multi-use paths to singletrack mountain bike trails, each project in our database features a basic description and project status — proposed or planned, approved but not funded, funded and ready for construction, or completed — alongside useful links for people to support local advocacy organizations and get projects across the finish line in their backyard.


As we enter the second year of the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, we’re celebrating a few of our favorite projects that were completed in the last 12 months along with the many benefits that bike projects can offer communities of all shapes and sizes. 

300 West is a critical north-south arterial road in Salt Lake City that previously wasn’t safe for biking. Local leaders took advantage of the need to repave the street to make much needed improvements, implementing Complete Streets strategies championed by the Great Bike Infrastructure Project. Using funding from the city’s “Funding Our Future” program, a local sales tax that can be a great funding source for creating better places to bike, the city constructed new crosswalks, planted trees for shade, and built a new 10-foot-wide bike path adjacent to the sidewalk so bike riders and pedestrians can both travel freely without conflict.  

San Diego’s new Pershing Bikeway connects the diverse North Park neighborhood to bike lanes near downtown through Balboa Park. The final 2.3-mile project includes a combined two-way protected bike lane connecting to a separate bike path which then connects to one-way protected bike lanes. The bikeway creates a more comfortable and convenient way for people of all ages and abilities to travel while providing an important link in San Diego’s growing connected bike network. 

Madison is expanding access to close-to-home recreation for thousands of local residents thanks to the recently completed singletrack trails through Sycamore Park. The 1.5-mile “adventure trail” features natural surfaces optimized for biking. Portions of the trail are covered in a natural stone chip seal surface while others are made up of native soil, wood, and stone. While communities on the west and south sides of Madison have access to many miles of singletrack, this new section of trail expands riding opportunities on the east side of the city, where trail access was previously scarce.


Is there a local bike project in your community that needs support? Explore our interactive map to identify projects in your area and let us know if we need to add a new project to our list. You can also explore our tools and resources to help advance more bike projects in your backyard. PeopleForBikes is committed to making sure every one of the more than 1,800 projects in our database is constructed to share the countless benefits of safe, fun, and connected places to ride with millions of people across the U.S.

Bike Projects Are Benefiting Communities Nationwide

This November, $33 billion in funding for better biking is on ballots in cities, counties, and states from coast to coast. Through our VoteForBikes campaign, PeopleForBikes tracks and advocates for ballot measures that make it safer and easier to ride a bike in communities across the country.

LEARN ABOUT PRO-BIKE MEASURES ON YOUR BALLOT

With election season in full swing, we collected seven of the most important measures on state and local ballots in the 2024 general election that could significantly move the needle for better bike riding across the U.S. 

This harmful measure could eliminate critical funding for multi-modal transportation opportunities in the state of Washington. If approved, Initiative 2117 will repeal the 2021 Climate Commitment Act (CCA), Washington’s cap-and-invest program designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In doing so, the transformational $1.3 billion in funding for bike and pedestrian projects that are included in the Move Ahead Washington package funded by the CCA will no longer be available. This measure will drastically reduce, and even eliminate, safe and connected places to ride a bike throughout Washington while setting a dangerous precedent for climate and transportation policy in other states across the U.S. 

Proposition 1 will replace the expiring Levy to Move Seattle that was approved by voters in 2015 to invest in and expand the city’s transportation system. The current levy represents one third of the Seattle Department of Transportation budget, positioning this measure as an important opportunity to continue funding safe and connected ways to move around Seattle over the next eight years. The measure outlines a $1.55 billion investment, including significant funding to build new protected bike lanes and greenways, adding safety features to existing bike lanes, improving bike accessibility on roads, and completing network gaps, particularly in southern Seattle.

A $10 billion general obligation bond is on the ballot for residents of the Golden State, which will invest in a variety of climate-focused projects including safe drinking water, wildfire prevention, drought preparedness, clean air, open space preservation, and expanded recreation opportunities. Of the $10 billion, nearly $2 billion will directly impact places to ride a bike through the construction of new trails, maintenance and improvement of existing trails, and support of active transportation infrastructure. This measure illustrates how bikes can be positioned as an effective vehicle for climate action by reducing the number of car trips and facilitating greater connection with the outdoors.


Residents of San Francisco have an opportunity to permanently dedicate car-free space on the Parkway at Upper Great Highway alongside Ocean Beach. If approved, this measure will provide space for people to enjoy the outdoors; increase transportation access for those who walk, bike, roll, and use transit; and preserve delicate natural resources along the city’s picturesque coastline. Children, families, commuters, and outdoor enthusiasts will all be able to enjoy a safe place to bike in the park without the fear of riding in traffic while enjoying the views and a sense of community if this measure is approved. 


Environment and Natural Resources Fund Amendment

Minnesotans have the opportunity to continue the state’s long history of protecting and enjoying the outdoors by reauthorizing lottery revenue to the Environment and Natural Resources Fund through 2050. This amendment will provide a stable source of funding for projects that protect, conserve, and enhance air, water, land, and wildlife while expanding opportunities to recreate across the state, including the creation and expansion of biking trails as well as historic biking tours. The proposed measure also increases the amount of funding that can be dispersed from the fund for community grants that invest in underserved communities so everyone can access the many benefits of nature. If approved, nearly $3 billion in revenue will be generated over the next 25 years to support the fund.

The Maine Trails Bond represents a first-ever opportunity to fund a network of trails across the state if approved by voters. This measure will issue up to $30 million to establish the Maine Trails Program and oversee the design, development, and maintenance of recreation and active transportation trails. One-quarter of the funds will support non-motorized trails, another quarter of funds will support motorized trails, and the remaining funds will support multi-use trails. Funds will prioritize sustainability and accessibility to promote outdoor access for all and significantly expand opportunities to ride a bike across Maine. 

Central Ohio Transit Authority (Columbus, Ohio)

To keep pace with development in Columbus and surrounding areas, the proposed sales and use tax for the Central Ohio Transit Authority represents a historic opportunity to generate revenue and strengthen the region’s multimodal transportation system. Nearly one-third of funding generated from the sales tax will go towards transit-supportive projects including bike and pedestrian infrastructure. The proposed measure outlines plans to build 500 miles of new bike paths, multi-use trails, and sidewalks by 2050 to complement transit infrastructure that will significantly increase mobility options for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds in the region. 

Ensure your voice is heard this November by making a plan to vote, including checking voter registration deadlines. You can make a difference in your community by visiting our VoteForBikes tracker to identify a pro-bike measure on your ballot. Spread the word about exciting opportunities to improve biking in your backyard by sharing these ballot measures with your family, friends, neighbors, and community members. We can all pave the way for more safe, fun, and connected places to ride a bike in our communities by voting for bikes this election day.

$33 Billion is on the Ballot for Bikes This November

In late July, PeopleForBikes unveiled our newest groundbreaking initiative: The Great Bike Infrastructure Project. This ambitious program will transform communities by advancing pro-bike policies and thousands of bike infrastructure projects in all 50 states, making biking safer and more accessible for everyone.

In the coming months, we’ll take a deeper dive into the specific projects and policies included in the Great Bike Infrastructure Project. For now, read on for a high-level overview of the program. 

At the heart of this new program is a national database featuring an interactive map and list of more than 1,000 bicycle infrastructure projects across the United States. The tool tracks crucial information including each project’s status, state and local advocacy organizations supporting the project, and links to learn more. This first-of-its-kind, easily accessible resource will help people learn about projects in their communities — like bike trails, shared-use paths, protected bike lanes, bike parks, and more — and help ensure they get funded and built. 

Local advocacy efforts are often required to advance these projects, and we encourage you to check out the projects in your area and contact the linked state and local advocacy organizations to learn how you can support getting those projects across the finish line. If you’d like to add a project to our database or correct the details of an existing project, please visit our FAQ page. 

Legislative Strategies for Bike Infrastructure

As part of the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, PeopleForBikes also created a Legislative Guide to assist policymakers and advocates in expanding bike infrastructure for transportation and recreation. As we work to make the U.S. the best place in the world to ride a bike, this comprehensive guide outlines the four most effective legislative approaches to accelerate the construction of safe and connected places to ride. 

The guide includes legislative examples from a variety of communities and states, with tips on adjusting policies to suit your own community’s needs. To help advance these policies in your community, we also included links to existing legislative language to use when crafting your own bills. 

While there is now an unprecedented amount of federal funding available for bike infrastructure, state and local funding are vital to propel more projects forward and provide the 20-50% local match required for most federal grants. Our guide offers examples of more than a dozen different state and local funding mechanisms for bike infrastructure ranging from Tax Increment Financing districts to sales tax revenue and everything in between.

One of the key strategies for advancing bike infrastructure is the implementation of Complete Streets mandates. Complete Streets ensure that all road users, including people walking, rolling, biking, and using transit, have safe and accessible ways to get where they want to go. Our guide provides examples of legislation that include strong and specific requirements for creating Complete Streets, limited exceptions, and clear roles and responsibilities to make Complete Streets mandates effective.

Advance Bike Infrastructure Through Climate Legislation

Our guide emphasizes how state and local climate legislation can facilitate the construction of bike projects. Including bike infrastructure in climate legislation can help reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately contributing to serious environmental and fiscal benefits for communities. Our guide highlights examples of climate legislation in Minnesota, Washington, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, with specific examples of the most effective pieces.

Making streets safer for people riding bikes is paramount to encouraging biking as a mode of transportation and recreation. The guide highlights several strategies for local communities and states to achieve safer streets by reducing traffic speeds, banning right turns on red, and adopting modern design standards. 

PeopleForBikes invites bike industry members, advocates, policymakers, and everyday riders to join us in creating more liveable communities by helping advance pro-bike legislation and bike infrastructure right in your backyard. Together, we can build a vibrant, healthier, and more sustainable future for all.

For more information about PeopleForBikes’ Great Bike Infrastructure Project, visit infrastructure.peopleforbikes.org.

Introducing the Great Bike Infrastructure Project

Each year, PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings program evaluates thousands of communities worldwide on the quality of their low-stress bike networks through our Bicycle Network Analysis (BNA). Over time, we’ve seen many cities across the U.S. improve their City Ratings scores. While all score improvements are worthy of recognition, several cities achieved incredible increases in just a few years, showcasing the impact of investments in bike networks and supportive policies that create great places to ride.

Which cities have seen the highest score increases over time? City Ratings data reveals that 39 U.S. cities boosted their scores by at least 20 points since 2020 through the implementation of specific projects that align with our SPRINT principles: safe speeds, protected bike lanes, reallocated space, intersection treatments, network connections, and trusted data. 

Note: Although City Ratings began in 2018, PeopleForBikes refined the program in 2020 to reflect actual speed limits for cities, resulting in some changes to scores between 2018 and 2020.


Learn how you can support bike projects in your area that can increase your community’s City Rating Score. Through the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, we’re tracking progress on thousands of projects nationwide.

Policy changes also play a key role in improving scores. Our Legislative Strategies Guide for Safe and Connected Bike Infrastructure outlines policies that create great bike networks, including increased state and local funding for bike infrastructure, Complete Streets mandates, and lower speeds. These policies are critical, as most U.S. cities have a lot of work to do to truly become great places for biking. 

Read on to learn which cities achieved the most dramatic score increases between 2020 and 2024.

Minneapolis' score surged from 17 to 71, leading large U.S. cities for the second year in a row. Key factors include speed limit reductions, OpenStreetMap data improvements, and the construction of protected bike lanes like those on Bryant Avenue South, which was featured as one of our Best New Bike Lanes of 2023. 

Not to be outdone by its neighbor, Minneapolis, Saint Paul jumped from a score of just 9 in 2020 to 61 in 2024 thanks to lowered speed limits and projects like the Jackson Street Reconstruction Project, which added safe bicycle facilities as part of the city’s Capital City Bikeway System. With the city planning to add more than 100 new miles of protected bike lanes, Saint Paul’s score is sure to increase in the coming years. 


Learn more about Jackson’s improvements, including those led by the local advocacy group Friends of Pathways, here. 

In 2023, Bloomington reduced speed limits for all neighborhood streets to 25 miles per hour, contributing to a 17-point increase in its City Ratings score. In recent years, Bloomington also expanded its network of neighborhood greenways and constructed numerous road-adjacent shared-use paths and protected bike lanes like the 7-Line, which made our list of the Best New Bike Lanes in 2022. 

Aurora was ahead of most American cities back in 2016, when the city installed a protected bike lane on River Street to close a critical gap in the regional Fox River Trail system. Since then, Aurora increased its score to 50, partially thanks to updated speed limit data in OpenStreetMap.

While it's perhaps not surprising for Minneapolis, the highest-rated large city for biking in the U.S., to have suburbs with good bike networks, it’s always encouraging to see suburban communities climbing the ranks of bike-friendly places. Saint Louis Park, a community of 50,000 people to the west of Minneapolis, increased its score from 15 to 55 over the past four years by lowering its default speed limit to 20 miles per hour and filling in bike network gaps through their Connect the Park program.

In 2022, Corvallis’ city staff updated its OpenStreetMap data to accurately reflect existing bicycle infrastructure, including its Active Travel Corridors, which reduce cut-through traffic, creating a citywide network of safe places to bike. 


Key West enhanced its bike network with several projects, including improvements to the Crosstown Greenway and Staples Avenue bicycle and pedestrian bridge. In 2020, speed limits in the city’s Old Town neighborhood were also lowered to 20 miles per hour, creating a safer environment for all road users.

Although Coeur D’Alene hasn’t yet a score of 50 yet, the city already has 50 miles of multi-use paths, including the popular Centennial, Prairie, and Atlas, trails, as well as more than 64 miles of bike lanes. Thanks to its Complete Streets policy, the city intends to complete another 25 miles of bike paths and 32 miles of bike lanes to further improve its network in the coming years.


After reducing the citywide speed limit to 25 miles per hour in 2016, Somerville further reduced speed limits on most residential streets to 20 miles per hour in 2020 and 2021. The city also made forward progress on its envisioned bike network through projects like the Somerville Community Path Extension and Somerville Avenue.


Following Cambridge’s 2020 Cycling Safety Ordinance, the city greatly expanded its bike network. As one of our 2024 Cities on the Rise, you can read more about Cambridge’s work to improve bicycling here.

2025 Cities on the Rise Candidates — Honorable Mentions


While that rounds out the most dramatic score increases over the past four years, numerous communities also increased their BNA scores by at least 20 points during the same period, including:


From Minneapolis' impressive 54-point surge to improvements in smaller towns, these advancements highlight the critical role that strategic investments in bike infrastructure and supportive policies like lower speed limits and Complete Streets mandates play in creating low-stress bike networks and making cities great places to ride a bike. 


Join us in supporting these efforts and stay informed about PeopleForBikes' initiatives to support better biking by signing up for PeopleForBikes’ newsletter and Action Alert program.

Whether you're an advocate, policymaker, or simply someone who enjoys biking in your community, there are numerous state and local strategies you can push for to improve your city’s bike infrastructure and increase its City Ratings score. City Ratings is PeopleForBikes’ annual program that ranks thousands of communities worldwide on the quality of their low-stress bike networks.


In an effort to help create more great places to ride across the U.S., we collected the most successful policies that boost City Ratings scores along with examples of recent wins from communities nationwide. For more information on how and why to implement these strategies, follow the links in each section to access additional resources from PeopleForBikes. 


1. Increase State and Local Funding for Bike Infrastructure

More funding at the state and local levels to build bike infrastructure is critical to building low-stress bike networks that improve City Ratings scores. 

In 2023, $2.2 billion was approved via state and local ballot initiatives to help improve bike infrastructure. That funding includes: 

$60 million over 15 years in Boulder County, Colorado, via County Issue 1A’s sales and use tax

$75 million for improvements that include bike infrastructure thanks to Measure 2J in Wheat Ridge, Colorado

$9.3 million in DeKalb County, Georgia, via the SPLOST II referendum

$62 million via the Streets and Transportation and Parks and Recreation bonds in Albuquerque, New Mexico

$509 million over 20 years in Travis County, Texas, via Propositions A and B

$86 million in Bellingham, Washington, via the Greenways 5 Levy that will replace an existing levy that expired at the end of 2023

So far in 2024, voters in multiple communities have passed funding measures that support bike infrastructure: 

Measure 26-245 in Portland provides an extension of a ten-cent-per-gallon tax on motor vehicle fuels from 2024 to 2028 to fund street repair, maintenance, and traffic safety projects, including bike infrastructure.

A Bicycle Path Millage Proposition in Holland Charter Township, Michigan, increases property taxes for four years for the planning, construction, and maintenance of bike paths. 

Propositions A and B in Dallas provide $866 million over 20 years for roadway and recreation improvements, including bike infrastructure

City Question 1, a 30-year voter-approved property tax, provides an estimated $15 million in Las Vegas to fund infrastructure for safer streets and better parks.

PeopleForBikes’ VoteForBikes program tracks initiatives on ballots nationwide. You can learn more about other successful mechanisms to secure state and local funding for bike infrastructure here and here, and check out our data-backed talking points to help you talk to your neighbors and elected officials about funding bike projects. 


Complete Streets policies help ensure that streets are safe and comfortable for all users, including people riding bikes. 

Somerville, Massachusetts, approved a Safe Streets Ordinance to establish 30 miles of protected bike lanes by 2030. The ordinance requires both the city and private developers to incorporate elements of the city's bike network plan whenever street improvements are made. 

Los Angeles voters passed Measure HLA, requiring the city to build bike, pedestrian, and transit infrastructure in accordance with the city’s transportation plan. 

Minnesota passed a bill strengthening the state’s Complete Streets policy. The bill amendments, passed through a larger omnibus bill, add language to clarify that Complete Streets must be integrated into plans and offer additional implementation guidance.

The Maryland Department of Transportation enacted MDOT 750, a Complete Streets policy. The policy mandates the incorporation of bike and pedestrian infrastructure into transportation projects, ensuring that new and reconstructed streets accommodate people who bike and walk safely and efficiently. 

Learn more about Complete Streets mandates here and here, and check out our data-backed talking points to help you talk to your neighbors and elected officials about enacting them in your community. 


3. Create Safer Streets Through Reduced Speeds and Modern Design Standards

Lowering vehicular speeds is a proven strategy to improve safety for all road users. Safer speeds make more streets comfortable for people of all ages and abilities, helping create a cohesive network of low-stress streets to complement protected bike lanes on busier arterial corridors and off-road paths or trails. 


While lowering speed limits is an excellent first step, the most successful communities follow up with design changes that reduce actual speeds on their streets. Using updated design standards, such as those created by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), helps ensure streets are designed for appropriate speeds and that bike infrastructure is safe and accessible for people of all ages and abilities, which in turn increases City Ratings scores. NACTO also offers guidance on intersection improvements, which are a key part of creating connected bike networks. 

In 2023, Columbus, Ohio, lowered the speed limit of its downtown streets to 25 miles per hour, which resulted in fewer crashes and injuries. 

Lowell, Massachusetts, also passed a new speed limit law in 2023, lowering the speed limit in thickly settled or business districts citywide to 25 miles per hour.

In 2024, Michigan passed Public Act 33 and Virginia passed HB 1071, making it easier for communities in both states to lower speed limits. 

Mount Rainier, Maryland, lowered its citywide speed limit to 20 miles per hour in 2024.

New York passed Sammy’s Law in 2024, allowing New York City to implement a citywide speed limit of 20 miles per hour, with additional 10 and 15 mph zones. 

Learn more about examples of speed limit legislation and design standards here, and check out our data-backed talking points to help you talk to your neighbors and elected officials about lowering speeds. 


4. Support Climate Legislation That Advances Bike Infrastructure

As more communities explore legislation to address air quality, climate change, and rising sea levels, it is critical that legislators clearly include bike infrastructure as a mitigation strategy to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This nationwide movement toward a greener future is an unprecedented opportunity to build complete bike networks that allow more people to get where they need to go by bike.


In 2023, Minnesota adopted the Transportation GHG Emissions Impact Assessment, which mandates that any transportation expansion project must meet the state’s GHG emissions reduction and VMT reduction targets. If an expansion project does not satisfy these criteria, state agencies must incorporate mitigation measures, including bike infrastructure, into their emission reduction strategies. This legislation was founded upon Colorado’s GHG Transportation Planning Standard but went one step further to mandate VMT reduction targets, a necessary component for reducing transportation-related GHG emissions. 

In 2024, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed an executive order requiring the Maryland Department of Transportation to implement a process for evaluating and reducing GHG emissions attributable to transportation projects, invest in projects that reduce VMT and enhance transportation choices in Maryland, and establish annual GHG and VMT reduction targets for the transportation sector. 

In 2024, Illinois introduced the Clean and Equitable Transportation Act (SB3936/HB5829), and Maryland introduced the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act of 2024 (SB681/HB836). Although these bills did not pass in 2024, climate legislation may require multi-year engagement to get across the finish line, and there is significant momentum behind these bills for the upcoming 2025 legislative session. 

Learn more about climate legislation here and here, and check out our data-backed talking points to help you talk to your neighbors and elected officials about how bike infrastructure can play a crucial role in fighting climate change. 

To help your community improve its City Rating score, talk to your policymakers and elected officials about the importance of securing funding for bike infrastructure, passing Complete Streets mandates, reducing speeds, adopting high-quality design standards, and supporting climate legislation that includes bike infrastructure. By learning from recent examples across the country and using our data-backed talking points, you can help your community put the most effective policies in place to create a low-stress bike network that gets more people riding bikes more often.

Boost Your City Ratings Score With These Four Policies

There are places that are good for bicycling and then there’s Amsterdam, where the entire city feels as if it’s built around cyclists. To drive a car in the city’s center is to be constantly surrounded by swarms of bikes who ride in packs and without fear for their lives. In Amsterdam, the movement of cyclists is prioritized over that of drivers, but that hasn’t always been the case.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Dutch cities weren’t too far off from the American cities of today, where precedence is given to moving single-occupancy motor vehicles above transit, bicycle, or pedestrian traffic. At the time, the growing number of cars saw bike trips plummet across the Netherlands — entire neighborhoods were destroyed to make way for car traffic — and accordingly, the number of traffic deaths began to rise. In 1971, they hit a peak of 3,300 deaths, 400 of which were children.

For the Dutch, this would not stand. In the early 70s, “Stop de Kindermoord,” or “Stop the Child Murder,” became the rallying cry of a group of concerned citizens, many of them mothers, calling on the government to fund the construction of protected bike lanes. Thousands took to the streets and the protests, which coincided with a global oil crisis, worked: The Dutch government began building a network of connected, separate bike paths. The number of people on bikes grew exponentially, and pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities declined significantly. 

By the end of the decade, bicycle paths were built into every new neighborhood and along all major roads. Public outrage at the loss of life translated into tangible change and today, Amsterdam continues to have one of the lowest traffic fatality rates in the world. That change, while monumental, isn’t out of reach for the United States. It does, however, require a shift away from the idea that safety is the responsibility of the user — be they a walker, driver, or bicyclist — and towards an understanding that altering our built environment is how we save lives. 

When it comes to cyclist and pedestrian deaths, the U.S. today is much worse off than Amsterdam was 60 years ago and deaths are trending upwards. In the last 12 years, fatalities for people walking and biking have increased by 60%. The National Safety Council estimates more than 46,000 people in total across modes were killed in motor vehicle crashes in 2022. That’s the equivalent of a plane crashing every single day for a year, a level of catastrophe we would never stand for. 

Yet, most of us do nothing, our lack of protest being a quiet acceptance of the status quo. The exception, of course, are those who have directly experienced the epidemic of traffic violence. People like Laura Keenan, a San Diego woman who lost her 42-year-old husband, Matt Keenan, in September 2021. 

Matt, an avid cyclist, had been hit by a car before, an experience that shook him to his core. On the night he died, Matt had just put his 15-month-old son to bed and was biking to the movies. He was in a painted bike lane, with a helmet and bike light on, when Melissa Gonzalez exited the opposite lane and hit him straight on. He died at the scene.

“I had to do something after,” says Keenan. “I knew his death was preventable and I started advocating for safer streets a week or two after he was killed.”

Laura Keenan stands at the spot where her husband Matt Keenan was killed, holding their son.

Keenan was frustrated with a legal system that doesn’t hold drivers accountable (Gonzalez got four days in jail for misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter, which is a relatively harsh sentence) but she was also frustrated with the safe infrastructure, or lack thereof, that directly contributed to her husband’s death. Keenan soon realized that she could break through and get people’s attention in a way others couldn’t. Just months later, she co-founded a local Families for Safe Streets chapter.

Families for Safe Streets (FSS) was founded in 2014 by the families of loved ones who were killed or injured in crashes in New York City. According to the group’s national director, Thomas DeVito, “It’s an organization that shouldn’t have to exist but because of the epidemic of traffic violence, has to exist to make laws safer.” FSS transforms grief into action by broadcasting personal stories of trauma and loss to bring about policy and legislative change. 

In 20 chapters across the country, people like Keenan work with their cities, counties, and local advocacy groups to refocus the conversation to try and save lives. In San Diego, for example, FSS has hung signs at fatal crash sites that read “Your neighbor was killed here” and hosts a World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in November, helping to honor loved ones lost while raising awareness. Crucially, the group’s biggest focus has been around budget and funding and in 2022, after a multi-month campaign, the city agreed to fund improvements at its more dangerous intersections.

In New York City, FSS has had a series of successive policy wins, starting with the lowering of default speed limits throughout the city from 30 to 25 mph in just one legislative session. Following that win, the group went on to secure the largest speed safety camera system in North America, leading to more than 2,000 cameras deployed across 750 school zones. Last year, the group pushed to expand operation hours of those speed safety hours, driven by data that a large number of crashes were happening overnight. That change has led to a 30% decrease in speeding.

Queen’s Boulevard was known as the “Boulevard of Death” before it underwent a road diet. 

The group has also succeeded in multiple local-level street design campaigns, which have seen hundreds of millions of dollars dedicated to overhauling dangerous thoroughfares. One prime example is the redesign of Queens Boulevard, once nicknamed the “Boulevard of Death” due to the 189 people killed on the road between 1994 and 2014. After the city spent just $4 million on a road diet, the road went from having as many as 16 deaths a year to zero. 

As a whole, FSS prioritizes policy and infrastructure changes and is skeptical of education-first campaigns, which puts the onus for change on individuals rather than the things we know make a difference, such as lowering speed limits, redesigning our streets and intersections, and regulating the design of automobiles, which continue to get bigger and more dangerous every year. 

“What that translates to at a basic policy level is our cities and states should be building Complete Streets whenever possible,” says DeVito, referring to an approach to planning, designing, and building streets that enables safe access for all users. “We know that Complete Streets can reduce crashes by over 30% on average.”

From experience, DeVito says that state-level departments of transportation often inhibit local policy implementation when it comes to Complete Streets principles. He believes state-level reform is needed in order to implement Complete Streets and solutions that save lives. As highlighted in our recent Legislative Guide, PeopleForBikes is prioritizing Complete Street mandates that require cities and states to build bike infrastructure as part of regular road construction and repaving projects. Other priorities include more state and local funding for bike infrastructure, reduced speed limits, and better design manuals for engineers. 

There are currently billions of dollars available for bike projects, specifically, a $1 billion Safe Streets and Roads for All grant program to fund projects that help prevent death and serious injury on roads and streets. This is an undeniable win. However, it’s crucial that this money be spent on protected bike infrastructure and connected bike networks, as opposed to projects that prioritize the movement of cars above all other users. That includes painted bike lanes, which as Matt Keenan’s death in San Diego proves, do nothing to protect cyclists from vehicles.

“Paint is not protection — we have people dying in paint-only bike lanes every single year,” says Alexa Sledge, associate director of communications at Transportation Alternatives, a nonprofit advocacy group in New York City that works in partnership with FSS. According to Sledge, it’s been a bad year for bicyclists in the city: More cyclists have been killed through the first nine months of 2023 than all but one other year on record, and 94% of the victims were killed on streets without protected bike lanes. “We’re working on passing a local bill that would streamline the process of getting bike lanes in the ground. We need to act with urgency and as such, our processes need to be a lot faster.”

In New York City and other communities across the country, we’re not building infrastructure at the pace traffic safety crisis — or the climate crisis — demands, often due to policy hurdles, decades of status quo roadway designing, and a lack of political will. The pandemic and America’s historic bike boom presented the country with a unique opportunity, one that will slip away if we don’t invest in more and better on-street infrastructure. Communities everywhere should be building infrastructure like our lives depend on it because they do. 

In 2021, the St. Louis, Missouri-based nonprofit Trailnet created its first Crash Report. A response to a spike in local traffic fatalities, the report identified every single pedestrian and bicycle crash, including fatalities, injuries, and/or instances of property damage. Sam McCrory, a community planner at Trailnet and the report’s primary author, used the raw data to identify high crash corridors. He also looked at the conditions around each crash, speed limits, the type of roads, and the neighborhood demographics.

“Our first two Crash Reports also included a section where we highlighted high-level solutions that could be used to lower crashes,” says McCrory, naming things like lowering speed limits, using road diets, and building protected infrastructure. With two reports under its belt, Trailnet secured a 2022 Community Grant from PeopleForBikes to create a third Crash Report, which highlighted more specific, local solutions. Trailnet was then able to use the report as an advocacy tool to accelerate the installation of safe mobility networks throughout St. Louis.

A specific infrastructure recommendation from Trailnet’s 2022 Crash Report.

“We’ve used the Crash Report to amplify the need to make our streets safer for everyone, and to include city government in that conversation,” says Charles Bryson, who leads Trailnet’s policy and advocacy agenda through coalition-building, community outreach, and government relations.

Bryson, who’s spent his career working to support historically underserved communities, sees the epidemic of bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities as an equity issue. In St. Louis, as in most other U.S. cities, high-crash corridors are predominantly in low-income communities of color. 

Bryson has successfully used the Crash Report to speak directly to these impacted communities, explain what infrastructure improvements are needed, and then demand those changes from the people who represent them.

Similar to Families for Safe Streets, Trailnet prioritizes infrastructure-heavy solutions and developed a model for targeting those solutions that it believes can easily be replicated elsewhere. American cities have the ability to similarly identify high-crash data and prioritize investments accordingly, they just need to find the necessity to do it. With pedestrian and cyclist deaths as high as they are, more and more advocacy organizations and everyday citizens are holding cities accountable and demanding change.

For those who want to get involved in saving lives locally but don’t know where to start, PeopleForBikes identified more than 1,000 infrastructure projects nationwide that need support. A key component of our Great Bike Infrastructure Project, these projects are protected bike lanes, intersection treatments, and other Complete Streets components that are in various stages of development and will make a tangible difference when it comes to creating safer and more accessible mobility opportunities for everyone. Accompanying each project are local advocacy organizations — contacting them can serve as a great jumping-off point for getting involved in your own backyard.

PeopleForBikes has identified more than 1,000 infrastructure projects nationwide that need support.

“Everyday folk have to become advocates and have to become vocally involved in some way,” says DeVito, from Families for Safe Streets. “That doesn't mean necessarily throwing yourself completely into the work but ultimately, elected officials are the gatekeepers of what policies are prioritized at any given moment, and they are responsive to the input that they’re receiving at the ground level.”

The transformation that Amsterdam underwent in the 1970s proves that drastic change is possible if we demand it, and the work of Families for Safe Streets, Trailnet, and countless other advocacy organizations showcase a way forward here in the U.S. It’s on all of us to communicate that one more life lost is a life too many — and to ultimately demand the infrastructure that we know saves lives.

In order to make our vision of transforming America into the best place in the world to ride a bike a reality, PeopleForBikes is committed to supporting local bike advocacy efforts in communities across the country. To maximize your impact and success, advocates must have a message that resonates with local residents, authentically engages new advocates and the larger community, and builds broad coalitions of support. 

From successfully communicating your message to adopting inclusive approaches to road safety, our Guide to Effective Local Bike Advocacy covers the most essential tactics to help grow bicycling in your backyard. Informed by years of advocacy investments in communities of all sizes, we designed this guide to set your local advocates and advocacy organizations up for success. 

To support your organization's development, assess your strengths, and identify areas for improvement, we also created a self-evaluation scorecard. By honestly evaluating your organization's performance in critical areas, you can create targeted strategies to enhance your impact.

Access PeopleForBikes’ Local Advocacy Self-Evaluation Scorecard

Lead with issues everyone can relate to, even those who don’t bike. Successfully implementing bike infrastructure and policy changes hinges on your ability to garner support from people who might not bike often or at all. The great news is that most people are on board with building quality bike projects, especially when they are part of broader investments like improved roads, sidewalks, parks, and public transit. Why? Because it means more options for getting where you need or want to go, more opportunities for outdoor recreation, and safer streets for everyone, no matter how they choose to travel. 

Start with the problems that bicycling can help solve: road safety for all road users, transportation affordability, public health, economic development, tourism, sustainability, and access to jobs, education, and recreational opportunities. Create talking points that highlight your community's challenges and show how bicycling can be a part of the solution to addressing them. When you focus on value-driven messaging, you’ll gain more support. 

Check out our Bike Advocacy Playbook and supplemental guides for creating bike infrastructure through legislation for talking points and data to help you get started. 

Advocate for a complete transportation network, not just a bike project. When advocates establish and promote a vision for fully connected, comfortable transportation networks, more community members support their work. Complete networks allow everyone, whether they’re walking, rolling, or biking, to move around their community with safety and ease by including safe and comfortable sidewalks, crosswalks, bike lanes, shared-use paths, slow-speed streets, and convenient access to recreational opportunities and transit options. Getting community members to understand the importance of a single bike project can be challenging. By presenting the project within the context of a larger, citywide vision, you’ll help folks connect the dots. 

Learn about the importance of low-stress bike networks and how they impact PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings scores.

List your highest priority projects and policies on your website and highlight them through email, social media, and in-person or virtual meetings. If your organization can only accomplish five things this year, what should they be? What projects and policies are critical to making your community better for bicycling? Publicly sharing your priorities helps unify your supporters around clear goals and lets everyone know how they can best assist you in reaching them.

Community engagement is vital to building bike projects and passing pro-bike policies. While genuine and fair community involvement varies from place to place, some methods work everywhere and are key to increasing trust and equity.

Engage early, often, and in creative ways to establish a continuous dialogue within the community. A proactive approach to engagement is key. The first time community members hear about a bike project should not be when it is about to be implemented. Embrace engagement methods like Open Streets events, inclusive community rides, canvassing teams, and field ambassadors that attend community events to meet people where they are instead of expecting them to come to you. This approach demonstrates a commitment to inclusivity and enhances the effectiveness of your engagement strategies by reaching a broader audience.

Check out 5 Ways to Boost Community Engagement in Bike Advocacy.

Make sure your meetings are accessible. Are your meetings held in locations and at times that accommodate all individuals, making them feel welcome and capable of attending? Have you thought about child care, food, translation services, and wheelchair access? Ensuring inclusivity in the logistical aspects of your engagement efforts is a fundamental step toward fostering more diverse and representative participation.


Develop a diverse, inclusive coalition. In building a coalition, it's crucial to consider the composition of your group. Take a moment to reflect on whether your coalition primarily consists of confident "avid cyclists" or if it includes a diverse representation of casual riders, women, people of all ages, and individuals reflecting the broader demographic spectrum of your city. If the latter is not the case, your local advocacy group may need to work towards being more inclusive to address your community's varied needs and garner broader support. 

Effective advocacy coalitions also collaborate with voices outside of bike advocacy. Pedestrian advocacy groups, public transportation advocacy groups, youth groups, climate justice advocates, and even allies from places like the skateboarding community can all be valuable partners. For local advocacy organizations to grow and thrive, embracing diverse perspectives, even from those who may not currently engage in biking, is essential. By finding common ground and fostering a coalition that spans a range of interests, you can create a more robust movement advocating for improved recreational and transportation opportunities accessible to all.

Adopt an inclusive approach to road safety. While making our streets safe is a top priority, relying solely on enforcement doesn’t address people’s varied experiences with law enforcement. Advocates have the opportunity to push for an environment where biking is safe and accessible for everyone — including people of all ages, abilities, incomes, and backgrounds. An inclusive approach to road safety considers the various factors that contribute to a person's experience, fostering a biking culture that is welcoming and accommodating to everyone in the community.

Work with community members to ensure infrastructure investments are done in an equitable way across all neighborhoods. To achieve this, it's essential to identify the locations where your community has already constructed bike projects as well as areas that have suffered negative impacts from highways and unsafe pedestrian infrastructure. If neighborhoods have experienced exclusion or bike projects have mainly been built in affluent areas, it's imperative to actively work toward creating an equitable distribution of investments. This may involve reevaluating project locations in collaboration with local community members from impacted areas and advocating for more resources in historically underserved areas to understand and rectify those decisions' negative impacts on the community. 

USDOT’s Reconnecting Communities Program funds projects in disadvantaged communities that enhance access to employment, education, healthcare, food, and recreation; promote equitable development; and reconnect neighborhoods by removing or mitigating the impacts of highways or other transportation facilities that previously created social and physical barriers. 

You can utilize USDOT guidance to understand what neighborhoods are considered disadvantaged in your area. 

Mayors and other local elected officials greenlight projects and shape community vision. City, state, and county staff develop projects and policies and execute plans. You’ll need good relationships with all of these stakeholders to get things done. Looking for an effective way to garner their support? Invite them to go for a walk or hop on a bike. Spending time together on a ride (or two feet) offers firsthand insights into your community's challenges and opportunities and is a great way to build trust and lasting relationships. 


Cultivating positive relationships with local media is crucial to gaining fair and positive coverage of your projects and policies. Actively engage with reporters covering transportation or community issues. Provide them with well-researched information on the positive impacts of bike projects and policies and help facilitate access to community members who can speak to these issues. Be ready with clear and concise messages highlighting the community benefits for all road users, utilizing statistics, case studies, and local anecdotes. Organize media events or press conferences to showcase progress and encourage community members to share their first-hand experiences. By maintaining open communication with media representatives, you can become their go-to person and influence public perception to support your priorities.

Having a Level 5 leader is crucial for your organization’s success. Coined by Jim Collins, Level 5 leaders blend personal humility and an often quiet nature with unwavering determination and find success in getting people to follow a cause. Collins' research reveals a consistent pattern: The most successful companies have Level 5 leadership during transformative periods, challenging the sometimes-held belief that larger-than-life personalities are necessary for significant change. This leadership style is particularly relevant in an advocacy setting where the focus should be on the collective cause and community well-being. Moreover, the relentless determination inherent in Level 5 leadership is crucial in navigating the challenges of bike advocacy. 

Read Jim Collins’ Good to Great to learn more about Level 5 leaders.


LEGISLATION THAT GETS MORE BIKE INFRASTRUCTURE BUILT + MORE PEOPLE RIDING

Support transformative policy changes. One of the best ways to create a stronger advocacy base in your community is to get more people riding bikes by building safer and convenient places for them to ride.

PeopleForBikes’ Legislative Strategies for Safe and Connected Bike Infrastructure identifies the most effective state and local legislative changes that lead to great bike infrastructure. It includes diverse examples from communities and states across the country, including links to existing language and tips for adjusting language to suit your community’s needs. The four priorities identified in the guide are as follows:  

Passing state and local funding mechanisms for bike infrastructure

Advancing bike infrastructure through climate legislation

Improving road safety through reduced vehicular speeds, new design guidelines, and intersection safety improvements

Our supplemental guides include data-backed talking points to help you advocate for these changes in your community.  

UNLOCK YOUR COMMUNITY’S POTENTIAL WITH PEOPLEFORBIKES’ TOOLS + RESOURCES

Join Our Email List — Stay up to date with our newsletters and advocacy alerts to support biking in your community. 

City Ratings — Measure your community’s progress in becoming a great place for bikes and benchmark against other cities worldwide.

National Bike Project Tracker — Make sure your priority projects are in our public database of planned and proposed bike projects so we can connect local supporters to your work.

Legislative Guide to Advancing Bike Infrastructure — Dive into state and local strategies to create safe and connected bike infrastructure. Our supplemental guides include more details, including talking points to help advocate. 

SPRINT — Increase your City Ratings score and turn high-stress streets into low-stress streets using our SPRINT framework.

Your Bike Advocacy Playbook — Explore our 15-point, research-based fact sheet to help you push for change in your community.

VoteForBikes — PeopleForBikes can promote pro-bike measures on your local or state ballots.

Advocacy Alerts — Rally PeopleForBikes’ supporters around projects and policies in your community.

E-Bike Smart — Use our rider education program to help people of all ages and experience levels learn best practices for safe, responsible riding. For more information, check out our other e-bike tools and resources, including our E-Bike Incentive Toolkit and Model E-Bike Legislation framework. 

Community Grants — Apply for PeopleForBikes funding to support a local bike project near you.

PeopleForBikes’ Guide to Effective Local Bike Advocacy

PeopleForBikes works to empower businesses, suppliers, manufacturers, and retailers across the bike industry to help grow opportunities for more people to ride bikes more often and shape a better future for the next generation of riders. By working with PeopleForBikes, you can help build a more connected and bikeable world right in your own backyard.

Know your community’s City Ratings score. PeopleForBikes’ City Ratings program measures communities' progress in creating safe and connected bike networks. The score’s recreational component measures access to parks, trails, and pump tracks. 

Champion infrastructure projects in your community. Our National Bike Project Tracker, part of the Great Bike Infrastructure Project, highlights planned bike projects across the country. Identify nearby projects you’re passionate about and help get them across the finish line. If you know about a project that isn't in our tracker, let us know.

Connect with state and local advocacy groups in your area and ask how you can help projects get funded and built. Find your nearest advocacy group here. 

Consider giving your employees a volunteer day to support local advocacy groups or encourage them to attend important public meetings to advocate for better bike infrastructure.

Sponsor an event like a community bike ride or an open streets event to support the efforts of your local advocacy group.

Join a local business association to emphasize the economic benefits of bikeable communities and encourage their support of bike projects near you. 

Ask your employees and customers to join PeopleForBikes’ newsletter to receive advocacy alerts to support bicycling projects and pro-bike policies in their communities.  


Cultivate local donors to support PeopleForBikes’ work improving bicycling nationwide.

Host a fundraiser and encourage your network and customers to donate and help PeopleForBikes advance bicycling in your community.

Send a fundraising email to your customers on behalf of PeopleForBikes. 


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