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Bicycles/Pedestrians

Safety Toolbox: Partnerships


Good policy creates a strong foundation for jurisdictions to create safe environments for bicyclists and pedestrians. While policy can empower staff to make good decisions, it may also create an implementation challenge, especially for smaller municipalities. Implementing policy recommendations, especially as they relate to the built environment, can present potential fiscal and institutional barriers. One way agencies meet these challenges is by forming partnerships. Partnerships can provide insurance that policy gets implemented by permeating public agencies at several levels. Partnerships, especially public-private partnerships, can also assist with funding special initiatives. The following is a description of the various partnerships necessary to implement policy initiatives.

In this section:

 

Intra-agency partnerships

Often, city departments are segregated into Public Works, Planning, Maintenance, and Public Health departments while the Police and Fire Departments operate almost autonomously even though they are part of the City as well. While smaller jurisdictions often have frequent, informal communication, larger agencies face challenges when it comes to ensuring that policy trickles down to every level. Especially as positions become more specialized, intra-agency coordination takes on greater importance.

There is also a group of agencies just outside the city's direct purview that are stakeholders in implementing bicycle and pedestrian improvements. For example, utilities companies are usually involved any time there are street or sidewalk improvements. Regional planning agencies and the State Departments of Transportation are other examples. One of the most critical of this type of organization is the local school district. In larger areas with multiple school districts, coordination can prove difficult. However, schools can be some of the most powerful allies for an agency when implementing bicycle and pedestrian safety improvements. Schools are also an excellent means to disseminate information about safe walking and cycling, as children often pass along lessons to their parents and siblings.

Ways to foster intra-agency coordination:

  • Utilize a full or part-time staff position to implement bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
  • Form a task force composed of critical staff members to address bicycle and pedestrian issues.
  • Create a routing list of critical staff that should review and approve bicycle and pedestrian improvements or initiatives, including those outside the City.
  • Create and distribute a newsletter to key staff in each department which details recent bicycle and pedestrian improvements.
  • Incorporate information about bicycle and pedestrian policies into new hire orientation for all departments.

 

Public-private partnerships

Intra-agency partnerships can effect policy recommendations as they relate to areas directly within the agency's control, such as plan checks and best practices for new and re-development. Partnerships between public agencies, such as city or county government, and non-profits, developers, or volunteer organizations, can realize safety initiatives in the community-at-large. Public/Private partnerships can be as simple as city staff working with a local merchant's organization to publicize a community meeting or as elaborate as some of the model partnerships described below.


Partnership for a Walkable America

One of the broadest examples of a public/private partnership is the Partnership for a Walkable America. The partnership was founded in part to accomplish the federal government's policy goals of reducing the number of bicycle and pedestrian injuries and fatalities by ten percent. The partnership has several key goals:

  • Improved pedestrian safety
  • Increased pedestrian access
  • To promote the health benefits of walking

Agencies that choose to participate in the program receive promotional materials, posters, ad slicks, and a toolbox of ways to get the message out to the public about pedestrian safety. The partnership participates in the annual Walk to School Day event as well as the Shape Up America! campaign.

For more information: www.tfhrc.gov/safety/pedbike/issues/pedwlk.htm


City of Chicago and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation

For several years, the City of Chicago Bicycle Program and the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation (CBF), a local advocacy group, have worked closely together. The City utilizes CBF for a variety of critical tasks, including locating and installing bicycle parking and serving as bicycle ambassadors at community events to teach safe cycling techniques. This partnership is mutually beneficial for a number of reasons. CBF has a unique opportunity to make money and remain a sustainable advocacy organization, while the City is able to take advantage of lower fees than they would pay a consulting firm to perform similar tasks.

This type of partnership, between an advocacy organization and a public agency, takes time to develop. The advocates must trust the City, and the public must trust the advocates. CBF noted the benefits of a cooperative, rather than adversarial relationship with city staff in one of its most recent victories: increased enforcement of double-parking in on-street bicycle lanes. Apparently, officers used a 'cheat sheet' which misinterpreted the law pertaining to blocking bikeways as applying only to bicycle paths. "The cut-down bike lane enforcement would have persisted if the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation hadn't built strong relationships with many departments of city government," reads a recent CBF press release. The City's bicycle coordinator worked with the CBF's Director of Education to get the message out to the enforcement officers. In fact, CBF staff actually trained several of the parking enforcement officers in their bike school, which offers training to both city staff and the public about the rules of the road and safe riding techniques.

For more information: www.biketraffic.org | www.cityofchicago.org


Lakeshore Avenue Merchant's Association

The City of Oakland's Lakeshore Avenue Merchant's Association has worked with city staff for several years to fund and implement pedestrian improvements. Through the creation of a self-assessment district, the merchants raised money to fund the construction of bulb-outs and textured crosswalks along Lakeshore Avenue. Recently, they have also installed newspaper racks to consolidate sidewalk obstructions. The City's Redevelopment Agency provided the mechanism to make the assessment district possible.

 

Community involvement

Community involvement strategies range from public education campaigns to neighborhood meetings. Involving the public early when it comes to implementing bicycle and pedestrian safety initiatives enables the City to take a proactive, rather than reactive role. Often, the most critical allies for improvements are local residents and merchants, and the best way for city staff to engage the public is to take part in standing neighborhood or merchant association meetings or to target small areas encompassing one to two neighborhoods. For instance, there were fifteen neighborhood meetings to invite input in the update of the City of San Francisco Bicycle Master Plan. The City of Sacramento is currently creating a Pedestrian Master Plan, and will conduct four meetings in various parts of the city to collect input. This strategy creates dual benefits: local meetings mean that content can cater to local interests while neighborhood meeting locations encourage higher attendance.