Gravel and Changing Leaves west of Boulder

Ambassador C.C.'s "It’s An Uptown Thang!" Ride

DC Brewery Tour- Four Breweries, 15 miles of fun!

Encourage employees to get out of their seats

Looking to combat climate change and create healthier, more robust communities in the process, more cities are interested in funding safer streets for people walking and bicycling. Luckily, federal funds allocated under the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) are available for projects that expand travel choices, strengthen local economies, improve quality of life and protect the environment. Many TAP projects enhance smaller-scale, non-motorized projects, including bicycle facilities, recreational trails and road user safety assessments.

TAP funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which PeopleForBikes lobbied for alongside the Safe Routes Partnership, the League of American Bicyclists and others. These efforts led to a 70% increase in funding for TAP, taking it from $800m a year to $1.4b a year on average — that means more money for important bicycle investments across the country.

In order to assist communities looking to apply for TAP funding, the League of American Bicyclists and Safe Routes Partnership collaborated on state-specific fact sheets. Each state's fact sheet lists out how much money the state gets for TAP, how much can be used for technical assistance, how much is set aside for recreational trails, the Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) that get money and, when possible, the dates that TAP competition opens/closes.

“We created these fact sheets because, in contrast to many transportation funding streams where states get to decide what to invest in, the Transportation Alternatives Program is specifically designed to fund locally identified projects. We want communities and advocates to know that this funding is for them,” said Marisa Jones, policy and partnerships director at Safe Routes Partnership. “Also, new this year, states can't transfer TAP funds to other uses as long as there are suitable projects that apply for the funds, so by raising awareness about who is eligible to apply, the types of projects that are eligible and when application dates are, our hope is that we will encourage enough applications that every penny of this program gets spent on its intended purposes.”

A variety of entities are eligible to apply for TAP funding: 

— Local governments, such as city, town or county agencies

— Natural resource or public land agencies

— School districts, local education agencies or schools

— Nonprofit organizations (although they must apply through a local government agency or quasi-governmental agency for contracting purposes)

— Metropolitan Planning Organizations representing an area with a population of 200,000 or less

— Any other local or regional governmental entity with responsibility for oversight of transportation or recreational trails 

All 50 states receive TAP money, and there is funding set aside for communities of all sizes, from rural communities with less than 5,000 people to major metro areas. The fact sheets lay out each state’s TAP website, a baseline for how much money is available per state (this number will only increase annually through fiscal year 2026) and how much funding gets set aside based on community size, as well as any known deadlines and local contacts.

Jones notes that application dates are in flux and points to a Google spreadsheet that’s being updated in real time. If the listed TAP competition date has already passed, take note of the date — states will likely re-open competition around the same time next year. 

New this year, states can get money specifically to help communities apply for the program and then deliver on projects. While some states are proactive about this, with the information listed on their respective websites, it’s a new thing and not all states are there yet. Jones encourages people to ask for the help they need and to reach out (marisa@saferoutespartnership.org) with any questions.

Again, as long as there are enough acceptable applications for TAP projects, this money can not be used to fund things like highways and roadway expansion. Please share these fact sheets widely with all state and local partners — we all have a role to play in building safe, bikeable communities.

                                               State TAP Competition Fact Sheets

Tap Into More Bike Infrastructure Funding

More and more states are realizing the benefits of electric bicycles as they seek to lower vehicle miles traveled and make progress towards climate goals. This was clearly illustrated within state legislative sessions during 2022, with an unprecedented number of new laws passed that improve the rights of electric bicycle riders, expand access to places to ride and create programs that make an electric bicycle easier to purchase.

Five new state electric bicycle purchase incentive programs

This year, five states either passed or renewed funding for electric bicycle purchase incentive programs. These states include Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts and Vermont. This amount of statewide electric bicycle incentive programs has never been seen before and the rate of adoption is not expected to decline in 2023. An overview of each program can be found below: 

— Massachusetts: Up to $500 for general customers and $750 for low-income customers.

— Hawaii: Up to $500 or 20% of retail price, available to students, those without cars and low-income residents on other government support programs. 

— Connecticut: Up to $300 for general customers and $700 for low-income customers. 

— Colorado: Invests $10 million in local rebate programs across the state and $2 million in electric bicycle share programs. The specific rebate amount is yet to be determined.

— Vermont: Doubled investment in the already-allocated electric bicycle incentive program with an additional $50,000 budgeted this year. The program launched to the public in July 2022. Rebate amounts are dependent on Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) requirements.

To see a detailed list of all electric bicycle incentive programs throughout the country, check out this handy tracker from the Transportation Research and Education Center (TREC) at Portland State University.

39 states now with three-class model electric bicycle legislation

Three new states (Kansas, Massachusetts (for Class 1 and 2, not 3), and Delaware (anticipated to be signed by the governor any week now) signed PeopleForBikes’ three-class model legislation into law this year. Each state has subtle differences in its laws, but fundamentally, these bills define electric bicycles using the three-class system; Regulate electric bicycles like bicycles (meaning the same rules of the road apply to both electric bicycles and human-powered bicycles) and exempt electric bicycles from the registration, licensing or insurance requirements that apply to motor vehicles.

— 39 states define electric bicycles using the three-class system: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

— Eight states do not use the three-class system but define electric bicycles similar to traditional bicycles: Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and South Carolina.

— Three states still define electric bicycles as motorized vehicles (and may therefore require license, insurance and registration to ride: Alaska, New Mexico and Rhode Island.

2022 State Legislative Wins for Electric Bicycles

In the United States alone, 41.9% of adults aged 20 and older are classified as obese, while another 31.7% are considered overweight. Yet those numbers aren’t reflected in the advertising and manufactured goods of virtually every outdoor brand — the bike industry is no exception. 

“The majority of the U.S. lives in a larger body,” said Marley Blonsky, co-founder of the group All Bodies on Bikes. “As an industry, we are leaving billions of dollars on the table by not having clothes or not having strong enough bikes or just not being aware of the conversation.”

For years, Blonsky worked independently and alongside co-founder Kaylee Kornhauser to promote size inclusion in cycling, hosting workshops, offering consulting services and sitting on panels. It wasn’t until 2021, however, when Shimano released the short film “All Bodies on Bikes” that the organization formalized, gaining more widespread notoriety in the process. 

In the months since, Blonsky relocated from Seattle to Bentonville, Arkansas, where she’s made advocating for bicyclists in bigger bodies her full-time gig. As a movement, All Bodies on Bikes hosts no-drop social bike rides where everyone is welcome. Virtual offerings include classes like “Biking for Big People” and “Bike Camping for Beginners.” In July, PeopleForBikes was proud to award the group a $10,000 grant to help grow and, ultimately, get more people riding. 

Blonsky is a featured speaker at PeopleForBikes’ upcoming SHIFT‘22 Conference — taking place October 18-20, 2022, in Bentonville — the theme of which is “Creating the Bike Industry We Want to See.” Learn more about Blonsky and her work in the interview below.

How would you sum up the All Bodies on Bikes mission?

We're a movement to create and foster a size-inclusive bike community. We want to educate and change the industry, and we want to ensure access to safe and comfortable bikes. So all that's to say, we really want to empower folks in larger bodies or non-traditional bodies to ride joyfully.

How did the organization first come about?

Kaylee, my co-founder, and I were both doing size inclusion work long before Shimano made the “All Bodies on Bikes” film but the film was really the genesis of the name “All Bodies on Bikes” and the catalyst to make our consulting and speaking work a bigger thing. The film really legitimized us with the bike industry and so suddenly people were coming to us to ask for expertise or to lead rides — all the things that we’re doing now.

I didn’t realize that’s where the name came from.

I got talked into it and now I'm happy with it, although I still struggle with the name a little bit. I don't think we're doing a very good job serving all bodies. For example, we're not doing a good job serving people with disabilities or folks who use adaptive bikes. Maybe we’ll get there or maybe we won’t — our focus is really people in larger bodies right now.

All Bodies on Bikes has become my full-time job. Previously it would just be a podcast here or an interview there, but now it's what I do pretty much all day, every day. 

Now, there’s a lot of recognition within the bike industry and we're being taken seriously. At first when I would have these conversations, people would be like, oh, “Okay, you're a cyclist. Do you commute?” I’d say, “Yeah, but I also go on pretty epic adventures and gravel race and all these other things.” I think there's a whole lot more recognition and less pushback that people of all sizes are doing these cool things.

To formalize All Bodies on Bikes as a group. Over the past year and a half, it's mainly just been Kaylee and I running the show and figuring everything out. Now, we’re officially formalizing. We’re creating a board, incorporating as a nonprofit and really starting to be a lot more strategic about how we do things.

You recently received a grant from PeopleForBikes — what will that funding be used for?

We're pretty protective of All Bodies on Bikes, both the name and the experience. There’s a danger when somebody promotes an inclusive, no-drop ride as All Bodies on Bikes and then someone has an awful experience or gets left behind or it just doesn't live up to the expectations that we have built. So we’re bringing in chapter leaders and we’re going to train them in what it looks like to lead a safe ride and the nuts and bolts of how to advertise All Bodies on Bikes.

The grant will be used to fund that training so we can grow our reach and our impact.

There are 10 chapters and — I’m going to try and go geographically — they’re located in Western Massachusetts; New York; Washington, D.C.; Charlotte; Detroit; Michigan; Kansas City; Austin; Denver and the San Francisco Bay Area. They’re pretty widespread.

Everyone has asked, ‘Why not Seattle or Portland?’ Well, from what we could tell from the applications, those communities already have a pretty welcoming and inclusive bike riding scene. In a place like Portland in particular, while I think it’d be cool to have an All Bodies on Bikes chapter there, I don’t see a pressing need. Compare that to a place like Austin or Denver, where there are so many cycling groups but there’s not necessarily an inclusive or one or a no drop one. At least that's what we are hearing in the applications.

SHIFT is really about creating the bike industry we want to see — what is something about the industry that you’d change?

There are so many things I would love to change and I think some of them are starting to happen. I’d like to see less of a focus on going fast, being epic or being the best and more of a focus on transportation, utility and joy.

I really think that bikes are the future of our planet in terms of transportation and carbon emissions, and so I’d like to see more shops focusing on families or commuting — just taking the elitism out of cycling. I also really want to see more cooperation with schools and governments for local bike infrastructure. Because you can sell all the bikes you want for trails but until you've got safe infrastructure to ride, the connection isn't gonna be there. I would love to see us all working towards that.

Who do you think is missing at the bike industry’s proverbial table?

Moms, family bikers, kids, people in larger bodies, people of color and — I kind of hate this phrase — invisible cyclists. These are the folks who aren't riding a bike because they want to but because that's what they can afford to do. These are our service industry workers. I think that's who’s missing from the table to tell us how they use their bikes and what they actually need.

What are you most excited about for the conference from an attendee’s perspective?

Talking to other movers and shakers and influencers — I don't mean Instagram influencers but folks who are influencing the industry. I'm excited for casual happy hours. I'm excited to show off Bentonville, which is my home. I'm just looking forward to being in the same room with all these people who, for the past couple years, I have just been talking to on the internet. 

Tell us more about your SHIFT‘22 events.

I'll be leading a workshop all about the power of plus-size folks. We'll be talking size inclusion — why it matters, what the market share opportunity is and how we can make cycling more inclusive. Folks should come because the majority of the U.S. lives in a larger body. 

As an industry, we are leaving billions of dollars on the table by not having clothes or not having strong enough bikes or just not being aware of the conversation. I'm going to talk about it all in a nonjudgmental way and people are going to get to explore their own relationship with our bodies. I think they'll come away more informed, more empathetic and better able to meet the needs of folks in their community. 

Plus, it'll be fun. I'll probably say some inappropriate things.

What gives you hope for the bike industry’s future?

I live across the street from an elementary school and the number of kids I see riding their bikes gives me hope. Programs like Denver’s e-bike rebate program give me hope. Every time I see a family on a bike together, it gives me hope because that's like one less minivan, one less truck. I’m also hopeful because of the reception that All Bodies on Bikes has had — we're being taken seriously and people are excited about it.

We're looking for progress, not perfection. Sometimes we get asked, ‘Why are you working with XYZ brand who doesn't have your size?’ My response is that we’re getting there. It's not going to be an overnight thing. I just ask that people have grace with us and understand that we're all learning together. 

Marley Blonsky Takes On Size Inclusion in Bicycling

“We are a huge mountain bike community but we didn't have anything that was good for kids to learn how to mountain bike in a safe, controlled environment,” said Brian Canales, board member at Desert Downs Bike Park and Mountain Action Sports El Paso (MAS El Paso), a nonprofit that promotes mountain sports and trail stewardship in the greater El Paso region.

Founded in 1978, Desert Downs is Texas’ oldest BMX park. In 2021, the park partnered with MAS El Paso to expand its mountain bike trails and features in accord with rising local interest in the sport. Later that year, PeopleForBikes awarded Desert Downs a community grant to help fund the expansion. In building out the park, Desert Downs and MAS El Paso hope to reduce barriers to bicycling for people of all ages, skill levels and incomes. 

When it’s open, an average of 25 kids and seven adults visit Desert Downs every day, and participation is growing. By offering bike clinics, camps and competitions in both English and Spanish, the park is much more than just off-road bike infrastructure. Although greater El Paso has more than 120 miles of singletrack mountain bike trails, maintained with the help of partners like the Borderlands Mountain Bike Association, many are remote and designed for more advanced riders. There’s a need for bike facilities closer to home that are designed to accommodate all ages and abilities. 

“You get a lot of rogue trail builders who really don't have the experience to build jumps and features properly,” said Canales. After building beginner and intermediate routes for people to practice mountain bike jumps, Desert Downs is making plans to develop natural features like tabletop jumps and drops that simulate riding on trails around the city, continuing to ensure that people can continue to level up their bike skills.

Desert Downs also puts an emphasis on building accessible, inclusive spaces for youth, which has a positive impact on the community at large. Likewise, parents and teachers have noted that the enthusiasm and joy that kids have for riding provides a strong incentive for them to work hard in school. 

“I’ve had parents come up to me and say, ‘You know, we appreciate what you're doing. It's because of my son coming here that I can see a difference in his behavior at home and at school,’” said Canales, noting that many kids sign agreements that make riding at the park conditional on academic performance. “It gives them that incentive to do well in school because they want to come out to the track and ride. We also do other things like give ‘track bucks’ if they get all As or all Bs to buy snow cones or ice cream.” 

Canales’ observations are backed up by research. While there are extensive studies showing the health benefits of bicycling more broadly, Outride — a nonprofit that focuses on getting more youth bicycling — maintains a research library specific to adolescents. In “Riding for Fun, Friends, and Freedom,” Outride summarizes data from its middle-school-based bicycling education program: Bicycling has the power to better engage students, helping them build new skills while supporting their physical and mental health. As an added bonus, the more kids Desert Downs gets on bikes, the more adults follow suit. Appropriately, in 2022, Outride also awarded the park a grant to continue its expansion efforts.

“I get parents at the track all the time who tell me they haven't been on the bike in 20 years,” said Canales. “And then I'm saying, ‘Well, you know what? We have a bike here for you!’ And that's when they fall in love with the sport.’” Canales has seen young bike riders inspire their mothers, fathers and siblings to ride for the first time — Desert Downs even maintains a fleet of rental bikes for this purpose. “If you're an adult and you don't know how to ride, we'll show you how and give you lessons or give your kids lessons,” he said. “There are a lot of single mothers, a lot of single fathers out there who either don't have the time or the knowledge of teaching their own kids how to ride a bike.”

Desert Downs charges $5 for bike rental at the park and $7 for park use. If youth would like to race with the local USA BMX chapter, it’s an additional $3 to compete. Renting bikes to adults and youth at such a low cost is one small piece to getting more people riding at the park, but sometimes it’s not enough. For those who can’t afford rental or competition costs, Desert Downs and local bike shops provide sponsorship funds.

Reducing barriers to the cost of entry is critical to make biking better for everyone. “Mountain bikes are expensive,” said Eddie Sanchez, outreach coordinator at MAS El Paso, adding that community buy-in will take time and support. Desert Downs is also completely bilingual, an important feature in a community where 81% of the population identifies as Hispanic or Latino and 65% of people speak Spanish at home. “We’re trying to get kids to be lifelong riders,” said Sanchez. “An elitist kind of mindset has shifted completely since the pandemic.” 

Desert Downs is seeing strong support from local bike shops including The Shock Lab, Crazy Cat Cyclery and Border Bicycle. “A lot of technicians will come out and help put the bikes together and maintain the bikes,” said Canales. “They all donate whatever they can, whether it's monetary or equipment like tubes, tires, pedals and more.” 

Local restaurants and businesses have also stepped up to support the park, noting how cycling and bicycle infrastructure bring tangible economic benefits. “We've had several different restaurants in Northeast El Paso say ‘I want to participate. Here are some gift cards to be part of the trophies,’ or donate coupons for free kids meals,” said Canales.

Desert Downs and MAS El Paso hope that city and district representatives, as well as the El Paso community at large, will up their support for bicycling and the economic and public health benefits bikes offer. Representative Alexsandra Annello has been a huge advocate for Desert Downs and more political support is necessary to push for more bicycle parks and infrastructure in the city. In time, Desert Downs hopes to partner with the city of El Paso to develop additional bike parks throughout the city. 

"People have come from all over the city and they're like, ‘Oh! We want this on our side of town,” said Sanchez. “Minds are slowly shifting.” 

PeopleForBikes is proud to have awarded a Fall 2021 Community Grant to support the Desert Downs Bike Park. Outride also granted the park a Spring 2022 Outride Fund grant, bringing Outride’s investment in youth cycling projects around the country to more than $1.5 million.

In 2008, Tony Jordan’s car broke down and he decided not to replace it. Despite being parents to a two-year-old, Jordan and his wife adjusted to a car-free lifestyle in their Portland, Oregon, home, using Zipcar when they needed it but mostly relying on bikes, transit and their own two feet. A few years later, when he came across “The High Cost of Free Parking,” an 800-page book by Donald C. Shoup, Jordan was already primed to buy it and read the whole thing.

“The book really breaks down why we have parking requirements, how they're based on bogus science, how much it costs and what the impact on housing is,” said Jordan, who was working at the time as a software engineer. “As someone who had a car until not too far before and then read this book — it was something I had never thought about deeply.”

Few U.S. residents think that deeply about parking, other than to complain when we can’t find a spot. For those who own a car, parking can seem like an American right — an ever-present storage space, built free of charge, in the streets in front of our homes or when we drive anywhere in town. When it comes to other personal items, however, we don’t feel like our municipalities are obligated to help us store them. So what makes cars any different?

For one, our cities have long been designed around cars, making their use all but an inevitability except for in the few cities that boast robust transit systems, good sidewalks and complete bike networks. Most places in the U.S. also have had parking requirements — ratios of how many parking spaces each building needs to have — since the 1950s, and few people have the time to read a textbook on the topic. When Jordan finished “The High Cost of Free Parking,” he was able to finally make the connection between parking mandates and other objectively negative facets of modern American society.

“Free parking has had a big impact on a lot of the things — from climate change to housing costs — that aren’t going well,” said Jordan. “I found myself asking, ‘Why doesn’t anyone know this?’”

Jordan, who has a degree in politics and a background in organizing, began looking into Portland’s parking policy and was pleasantly surprised to find the city had begun eliminating parking requirements on certain corridors. However, when a handful of residents spoke up against the move, the mandates were eventually reinstated in 2013. That loss only drove Jordan to do more organizing and coalition-building around the issue.

In time, as things in Portland started to improve, Jordan set his sights on a national effort to help disseminate learnings and scale parking reform efforts across the country. The Parking Reform Network (PRN) quietly launched in March 2020 and has grown organically since. This year, PRN debuted a Mandates Map, which tracks parking reform initiatives throughout the U.S. and Canada. The group also operates a weekly newsletter, which culls parking-related headlines from across the internet, highlighting case studies, pertinent webinars and timely bills.

As this Parking Reform Network illustration shows, parking directly affects how much housing we can build.

Reading that newsletter, it becomes clear that parking reform is something that cities big and small are increasingly taking action on, from Sand Point, ID (pop. 8,692) to Ann Arbor, MI (pop. 121,093) to San Jose, CA (pop. 1.029 million). For Catie Gould, a climate and transportation researcher at the Sightline Institute, the growing groundswell of support to reform parking mandates isn’t surprising. “There’s a pretty broad consensus that parking minimums have been a disaster — one of the worst decisions made in North America,” said Gould. “And we’re just now starting to undo the damage.”

As Gould frequently touches on in her writing, required parking takes away from the buildable area of any given site, often resulting in fewer homes and less space for the playgrounds, gardens and walking paths that make communities more livable. Parking is also expensive for new developers to build — it can cost between $40,000 and $60,000 per parking space — which can increase residential housing costs for everyone and take valuable space away from the developable envelope of entitlement space. 

What’s more, fewer homes have led to a slew of other intersecting issues: a nationwide housing shortage, an increase in home prices and growing inequity. Lower-income families who drive less and use transit more inevitably end up paying for infrastructure they don’t need while drivers are subsidized for their car use. 

When parking is required, buildings are forced to spread further and further apart, decreasing an area’s walkability and leading to urban sprawl, which swallows more and more land to sustain the same population. This in turn pushes people to drive more, upping greenhouse gas emissions, while the ensuing traffic makes it harder for everyone to get where they need to go. Bigger impenetrable areas, like parking lots made of asphalt or concrete, likewise amplify the effects of urban heat islands, making a bad situation worse.

“Today, in most cities, it’s illegal to build downtowns in the way that we associate with them, with lots of buildings being close together,” said Gould, noting that these are often the places you bring visitors and that add to the charm of any destination. “Those places are now in non-compliance with the current code and that code is why our suburbs look the way they do.”

We also don’t need any more parking: By some estimates, there are as many as 2 billion parking spots in the U.S., meaning that there are eight parking spaces for every car. To continue mandating parking just doesn’t make sense. 

“All of the best data out there shows that parking is a terrible investment for a city,” said John Bauters, the mayor of Emeryville, California, a small Bay Area city that made the decision to institute widespread reforms. “For us, it made a lot of sense to not have some conscripted amount of parking be required, but instead to give developers, and housing developers in particular, the freedom to design and build something at a more affordable cost that provides a net social benefit to the community and does not further exacerbate our cost of living housing costs and climate issues.”

A better investment, in the eyes of Bauters and many transportation advocates, is a network of protected bike lanes and multi-use paths. His strategy in Emeryville has been to eliminate street parking, immediately turn it into active space and then show how much people use it. Less parking means more proximity — since most people only want to bike one or two miles, the more destinations you have in that radius, the better a place becomes for bicycling. That’s only possible, however, if you’re not required to build big parking lots.

“The problem is we have deprived people for a very long time of any meaningful alternative or choice,” said Bauters. “The reason people expect to move in their cars is that everything has been built for a car. If you want to get people out of a car — whether that be mass transit, walking, biking, scooting, skating, blading, whatever that is — you have to give people a healthy alternative.”

Bauters has seen firsthand how fast people are to adapt their transportation movements, mostly because they have no choice but to figure out how to get from point A to point B. Changing behaviors, however, starts with cities first changing on-the-ground infrastructure. One of the projects Bauters is most proud of is Doyle Street, which runs parallel to two streets designed for car traffic. With a redesign, southbound traffic and parking were eliminated on Doyle Street, essentially transforming it into a pedestrian and bike-friendly zone.

A shot of Doyle Street in Emeryville, California, where a pandemic quick-build was made permanent.

“You don’t have to close the whole street to get cars off of it, you just have to make it undesirable,” said Bauters, adding that in time, the street has become a place for safe movement with virtually no traffic. “We’re changing behaviors.”

Emeryville also launched its own demand-based paid parking program to curb driving. When it comes to prospective development, builders are always shown the city’s robust active transportation plan and, as part of their mitigation efforts, are required to pay into it or pay to build something that supports it. Other times, say if a developer needs more parking in order to obtain financing for a project, Bauters might allow them to add a second story to their parking structure but in exchange, require them to get rid of all the parking on city streets around the project, paying to turn it all into separated bike lanes. In a small city (Emeryville is home to less than 12,000 people), those sorts of negotiations are made easier but that’s not to say they couldn’t be done on a larger scale. 

“People buy into the vision because they actually find that their businesses and employees like it,” said Bauters.

In 2020, Seattle was the fastest-growing city in the U.S., with more than 740,000 people. In 2017, Seattle waived or halved off-street parking mandates for new housing near transit, which in turn led to more housing being built and more people moving in. More people in a smaller area leads to more businesses and money being spent, a reinforcing cycle. The revision also contributed to big changes in travel to downtown Seattle: Between 2000 and 2016, transit, walking, biking and rideshare jumped from 50% to 70% of all trips taken in the city. During that same time, drive-alone trips decreased from 50% to 30%. 

There are many great examples of what less parking might mean for a city and bicycling — just look to Paris or Amsterdam, places where leadership understands that the only way to increase space for bikes is to decrease space for cars. Recently, the Filipino capital of Manila introduced a bill requiring car owners to show proof they have off-street parking before registering their vehicle, a move that hopes to mimic the success of nearby Japan’s proof-of-parking law, which all but bans on-street parking. 

In the U.S., more and more cities continue to eliminate their parking requirements each week, and the issue has been making national headlines, thanks to a recent bill in California (AB-2097) that would reform parking mandates near public transit statewide. Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon also recently introduced Parking Cash Out Legislation, which would require employers to offer a parking cash out option to employees who are otherwise offered a parking benefit.

Getting people passionate about parking, however, is difficult, especially when driving is the easiest way of getting around and parking remains free and abundant. It’s a politically ripe topic and people tend to have a lot of very strong feelings, especially when it comes to parking on their neighborhood block. As a politician, Bauters is on the receiving end of a lot of folks’ opinions on parking — his strategy is to relate to people in the way they’re relating to him: with emotion. 

“I don't ask them to get out of the car, I don't tell them they're burning the planet, I don't tell them that they're a risk to everybody who's in a crosswalk — I don't blame them for anything,” said Bauters. “But what I don't do is I don't apologize for prioritizing everybody's well-being, not just theirs.”

It’s in the best interest of the collective good to start doing things differently, and that requires bold action when it comes to eliminating parking mandates and building the sorts of connected bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly networks that offer people safe, convenient alternatives to driving. 

“If you can only move in a car, people don't imagine or believe that they can do anything else,” said Bauters. “You have to take space back to give people the chance to do that safely — and the first thing that should go is always parking.”

Parking Reform is Key to Building Bike-Friendly Cities

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2022 State Legislative Wins for Electric Bicycles

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