Randy Neufeld, Power Moves

He’s the Director of the $10Million SRAM Cycling Fund which underwrites advocacy projects. He’s seen many advocacy applications and he shares his opinions on what’s effective and what’s not. If you’re a bicycle advocate it would pay to listen to Randy Neufeld.

Randy was the closing speaker of the CA Bike Summit and based on the caliber of all the preceding presenters, I was ready for a big finish. What I didn’t expect, because I’d never heard it before, was a speaker who began with a song. Just what was he doing and is this how he starts all his talks? I ask and I’m stunned by his reply.

Carrots & Sticks – Make driving harder (sticks) and biking easier (carrots). It’s the combination of these two that affects rapid change in the numbers of people biking. Bike coalitions typically focus only on the carrots, but we have to work on both sides to affect real change. The London congestion charge is a good example of a stick that dramatically grew cycling. Sticks are hard in the US. Think about using safety, economic and health problems as a basis for enacting sticks. For instance slower speed zones to cut down on pedestrian crashes. Some strategies are both carrots and sticks. For instance removing a travel lane to build a protected bike lane.Randy Neufeld

Randy’s “Power Moves for Bike Coalitions” was the theme for his talk; download a copy and follow along.

Episode #32.

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