Ken McLeod

Cover of the League of American Bicyclists' Bike Advocacy Toolkit: Grassroots Organizing and Mobilizing for Local Communities. The design is bright green and covered in hand-drawn illustrations of bike advocates in action: speaking out with a megaphone in hand, taking notes, attending meetings, riding bikes, and holding signs that say "20 is plenty," "Safe streets now," "Crash not accident," "Vision Zero," and "Safe Streets 4 All."

Table of contents of the Bike Advocacy Toolkit, including sections on people-centered advocacy, language, community organizing, strategic campaign planning, working with local government, budgeting, tools and resources, and a glossary. Download the guide at bikeleague.org/introducing-the-bike-advocacy-toolkit for access to the full text in the Table of Contents.

The Bike Advocacy Toolkit is here! A free resource for volunteer advocates (just $20 for nonprofits) to help you organize, build people-power, and win safer streets for everyone who bikes, walks, and rolls.

Learn more + register for the Oct. 14th launch webinar: bikeleague.org/introducing-...

So excited to have this new Bike Advocacy Toolkit available and congratulations to @tangythai.bsky.social @nondriver.bsky.social @mckelleykc.bsky.social Max Hepp-Buchanan and others who made it possible!

You can learn more on a Tuesday, October 14, from 3:00–3:30 PM ET webinar or order it today

Weird data quirk of the day

Somehow NHTSA reports that 3 out of 4 drivers who had a travel speed of 40 mph in a 25 mph speed limit zone were not speeding when they crashed into a bicyclist and killed them

Credit, I guess, that all drivers going over 47 mph in a 25 zone were reported as speeding

No war zone here. A beautiful bike bus with some great kiddos headed to school this morning in NE Portland.

Also, despite the anecdotes that “It feels like almost every other trauma that’s coming in is related to an e-bike” & "I was one step into the street when a kid about 13 on a bike nearly sent me to my obituary"

Cars kill 30,000 to 40,000 people in America every single year, and are a bigger problem

Marketing

Power levels

Performance, including braking

Labeling

Anti-tampering so you can't "just go on YouTube and learn how to defeat the speed limiter."

And many more issues that are brought up in articles like this could be subjects of regulation by NHTSA

“would you buy your kid a Yamaha 250 and let him out on the city streets? Because just a twist of the throttle makes it exactly like a motorcycle.”

Motorcycles are regulated by NHTSA
NHTSA has so far chosen not to regulate e-motos

As long as there's not national regulation, it's a wild west

"parents, your kid should be on a bicycle" - ok

But, the rest of this column ignores the 3-class system for e-bikes and the existence of class 1 e-bikes that require pedaling and max out at 20 mph

E-motos are an issue, the solution needs to include regulation from the CPSC and NHTSA on their sale

When we say months of political games, we’re talking even yesterday, where after we already had a bunch of volunteers lined up for Friday morning the Chair of the Transportation committee ripped the rug out from under us once again.

If you can join at City Hall at 1pm on Friday, please do!

42 percent of pedestrians killed on roads in Texas since 2009 were on roads without lighting

TxDOT will spend $104 Billion over the next 10 years - how much of that will go toward lighting to save pedestrian lives?

Give people safer infrastructure not just safety messages

"To help prevent more tragedies, TxDOT will be putting vital safety messages in front of drivers and pedestrians alike this month"

TxDOT should provide more lighting to prevent more tragedies

Since 2015, 572 pedestrians have been killed on unlit roads owned by TxDOT www.txdot.gov/about/newsro...

A photo of a woman on a lime bicycle with the week without driving logo brought to you by America walks and Lime, use the code AMERICAWALKS for 50% off trips this week

We cannot thank Lime enough for helping us with #WeekWithoutDriving

Save 50% on Lime rides this #WeekWithoutDriving (Sept 29–Oct 5) with code AMERICAWALKS! #LimeInstead

Post your ride, tag us, and join the movement!

In most states, the majority of urban pedestrian deaths occur on the National Highway System and a disproportionate percent of urban bicyclist deaths occur on the National Highway System

There is a federal responsibility for a safety on the National Highway System www.datawrapper.de/_/XB4cn/

Local interests can be federal interests if they are part of a complete approach to an issue

Bicycling and walking can substitute for car trips that otherwise impact congestion and safety in interstate commerce

The federal interest in funding bike lanes is that bike lanes improve transportation

The idea that bike lanes are a "local interest" undeserving of federal funding runs counter to Congressional intent to allow bike lanes to be funded through most federal transportation funding programs

Most travel is local intrastate travel regardless of mode

DOT to cancel ‘small number’ of Biden-era awards as grant probe nears end, official says Deputy Transportation Secretary Steven Bradbury said at a POLITICO event that DOT has “worked through” around 3,000 awards announced but never finalized by the Biden administration.

"[Deputy Transportation Secretary Steven] Bradbury said DOT is not opposed to bike lanes, but called them 'more of a local interest' except in cases where there is a 'strong safety need.'" www.politico.com/news/2025/09...

Congress create grant programs
Communities chose to pursue bike lanes

Self-Driving CDOT crash truck protects highway workers Work zone crashes kill people each year but a new autonomous highway maintenance truck shields workers from deadly rear-end collisions

“These vehicles are designed to get hit so people don’t have to” - Kay Kelly, CDOT’s chief of innovative mobility

“The [lead vehicle] does the work, while the driverless vehicle mirrors its path" to protect the worker(s) in the lead vehicle www.coloradopolitics.com/2025/09/30/s...

Cool tech

DATA: Not Paying Fines? Keep Speeding, Says New York City - Streetsblog New York City It's yet another case of "anything goes" for drivers in Adams's New York.

Hopefully, DC is not just sending letters to people who satisfy conditions for their licenses being revoked or their vehicles being towed

Interesting report out of NYC showing that drivers there are not being punished as they rack up many camera tickets nyc.streetsblog.org/2025/09/30/d...

Culturally, I think that many people are wary of revoking licenses because many places are so car-dependent that it is hard to conceive of not driving

DC is a place where you don't need a car, & they have a limited license process for work use (not sure how common it is) dmv.dc.gov/service/limi...

Legally, I think they are not revoking licenses because these drivers have at least two camera tickets, but not the more than 10 points within six months that can result in license suspension or otherwise meet conditions for license suspension or revocation dmv.dc.gov/service/susp...

This graph about bikeshare systems make it seem like Covid had a big impact on the number of systems - or some other event in 2020 causes a major drop in systems www.bts.gov/newsroom/doc...

So much of government-led traffic safety efforts are spent on trying to influence the hardest to influence high-risk drivers

It'd be great if governments spent more effort on galvanizing the demand for safer streets and a positive traffic safety culture

Idea: Send letters to neighbors of high-risk drivers detailing the types of citations given in the neighborhood and/or to people in the neighborhood and use those letters to promote street design changes that address those behaviors

Positively make the case to lower-risk people for safer streets

"pedestrian safety best practices"

The video make it seem like the students will get a version of the recent @npr.org story that got a bunch of pushback for victim blaming

It'd be amazing if they did school-led safety projects to show that streets can be made safer, eg www.mass.gov/doc/pop-up-p...

Visual graphic showing various groups of nondrivers.

Week Without Driving is here.
Transportation should be a right, not a privilege! Many people don't have a license and struggle with daily travel challenges as nondrivers.

This week we are joining @americawalks.bsky.social to raise awareness about the barriers and gaps in our transportation system.

Motorcycles were even more likely to be seen as aggressive, with explanations pointing toward "smallness" or weaving behavior

Not sure if that would transfer to bicyclists, except maybe in urban situations where bicyclists are faster than cars and can weave through traffic

"Size was an important factor in perceptions of aggression - the 'bigness' of trucks contributed to perceptions of aggression"

Focus group quote:
"At that point, I was in a truck... I just felt like the big boss, I guess, and they were in a tiny little car."

newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/u...

Study Finds Almost All Drivers Experience Road Rage, But It Can Be Stopped WASHINGTON (September 23, 2025) -- If it feels like everyone has road rage these days, that’s because they probably do. A staggering 96% of drivers admit

"A staggering 96% of drivers admit to engaging in aggressive driving behaviors over the past year"

A "self-fulfilling cycle of aggressive driving and road rage is fueling a culture where impatience and hostility are becoming the norm behind the wheel"

newsroom.aaa.com/2025/09/stud...

Massive Hazards: New Road to Zero Report on Light Trucks - National Safety Council The Road to Zero Coalition's new report, Massive Hazards: How Bigger, Heavier Light Trucks Endanger Lives on American Roads, provides a comprehensive picture of the safety risks of oversized passenger...

Credit to the National Safety Council for this report though: www.nsc.org/road/resourc...

"For decades, automakers have been incentivized to produce [SUVs & trucks]. Consumers have become part of an “arms race” where they buy them for their own safety [and] increase the danger to other road users"

Still worthwhile to reach out to Congress to defund the discretionary grant programs that it created bsky.app/profile/kenm...