Bike DE members inquire: Is national advocacy worth the effort?

Editorial, By Frank Warnock

In the current political environment, where partisanship takes precedence over right or wrong, we will forge ahead and continue to ask Bike Delaware members to support national advocacy action alerts and letter writing campaigns. Most items we push on (ACT or Complete Streets for example) are 'marker bills' - that is, they are really not written or intended to pass. The authors hope to spend a few weeks or months or longer ginning up support for the bill and the principles in it, so when a more comprehensive piece of legislation is being drafted (like the full transportation re-authorization bill), the 'marker' will be one of the bills or laws that gets folded into the broader piece of legislation. Complete Streets, for example, is not really created to serve as a standalone bill; it's an overall principle that needs to inform the broader transportation bill and how we spend all federal money.

We must look beyond the fact that most marker bills won't pass, and look instead at the level of support for those bills and how it becomes very important for developing the same principles in other bills. Number of sponsors, number of calls to congressfolk, outpouring of support for a bill, etc. The marker bills can be a sort of trial run. For example, a legislator writes a bill to demonstrate how much support there would be for the principles therein. If there's enough, the committee chair or party leader down the road will have confidence that they'll get a certain amount of support for putting those ideas in a bigger bill that is due to move.

There's more to it than just the issue of marker bills, however. We want to engage and educate advocates over the course of a long time, giving them some easy or low-threshold ways to get involved so that when the time comes for something super urgent (like a vote on the final bill, etc.) we've cultivated people who are used to taking action. This includes letter writing, phone calls, or even setting up a meeting - whatever they feel comfortable doing. Usually, Bike Delaware's Action Alerts contain easy steps for contacting our legislators, including pre-written letters that can be customized and mailed or emailed.

Our best hope at this time is ramping up efforts to reach out to republicans and fiscal conservatives in language that they understand and resonates with their stated values. This was our only choice when approaching Rep. Mike Castle on the Active Community Transportation Act (ACT). Through meetings and other avenues, it's important to speak their language and telegraph to more conservative lawmakers how complete streets in particular is a conservative idea. It means saving money in the long run by ensuring that when a road gets redesigned or built, we make it safe for all users now, far cheaper than having to add an active lane to a bridge years after the fact.

This is the most realistic chance advocates have at getting bills and issues to be de-partisanized. Just like how LaTourette from Ohio was bashing bike lanes in DC and hewing to that party line stance on it - until he heard from his constituents in droves that they loved the bike lanes being built with stimulus funds and thought it was a great idea. The more that conservatives opposing these things hear from constituents all over the map (not just "bike advocates") that they want more of these things, the harder it will be for them to treat it like a party-line issue.