Hello bike friends,
On Monday night, we lost our vote 5-4. If you spoke or wrote, you might be feeling discouraged, that it was all for nothing, that it made no difference. After 5.5 hours of public testimony, 252 speakers against delays vs just 10 in support of delay, after 1,000 emails to the Council for safer streets vs 600 for delay, you’d want to see some strong impact, some commitment to safer streets, some acknowledgement of how popular the notion of keeping people safe is.
Personally, I’m not discouraged, and it’s specifically because of all of you: all of you who wrote (I skimmed the vast majority of supporter emails) and all of you who spoke. Thank you so much! And while I do mean “because of all of you” in an emotional, affirming way, I also mean it in a very strategic, politically-focused way.
In this email I’m going to explain how all your work made a political impact, and how we’re going to win this fight for safer streets over the long term. It’s a very long email, so if you just want to know what you can do next, jump to the end!
The audience for public comment
To get a sense of the impact of Monday’s public comment on listeners, here’s the description from an opponent of bike lanes, someone who was part of the failed lawsuit to remove the Garden St and Brattle St bike lanes:
I was extremely surprised by [the results of the vote] … literally hundreds of short, eloquent statements attesting to how dire the circumstances might be for cyclists' safety if there was even a year or two of delay in the proposed reconfiguration of these major corridors. In these presentations there were innumerable mentions of accidents … there was a cancer patient commuting to MGH for treatment on his bike; even a former dancer disabled by a bike accident who had returned to school himself (aspiring to become an orthopedic surgeon). Many speakers also attested to the joys of cycling: making the rounds of favorite shops & haunts; transporting many children to school cycling through city streets (i.e., one dad cycled his kids to school or day care at ages 8, 4, & 2-year-old twins!).
It didn’t change this opponent’s mind, but she wasn’t the intended audience. Who was? First, the City Council. Opponents felt the need to disguise their opinions, with Councilor Toner insisting this was an extension, not a delay, and claiming to care about safety for cyclists even as he voted to put us at risk. And our strong supporters on the Council are energized, knowing how popular this issue is and how serious you all are.
But there are less obvious audiences as well:
The most powerful person in Cambridge (not the Mayor!): The person who actually runs the city is City Manager Yi-An Huang. Most of the really critical decisions about schedules and bike lane installations are up to the City, not the Council. While the City Manager and staff will listen to the Council, knowing that the Council’s position is very unpopular will make them far less likely to back off on safer infrastructure.
Candidates in the next municipal election: The next election season will quietly kick off in one year. Candidates who don’t have strong opinions on this topic will look for the support of the more popular and active group.
This last category is important, because in the end our progress all comes down to elections.
If bike lanes are so popular, why did we lose this vote?
It’s easy to focus on one Councilor’s vote, but the fact is the policy order passed 5 to 4, even as polls and other data suggest two-thirds or more of Cambridge residents support building more bike lanes. So where did the majority vote for delays come from?
Partially it’s just an artifact of the particular candidates this past election and the way votes were distributed. A majority of voters did actually vote #1 for candidates who supported (or claimed to support) bike lanes, but people vote based on multiple issues and votes get distributed in ways that reflect that.
But based on actual popularity among residents, we could have done much better.
Problem #1: Far fewer people vote in elections for the City Council
Some numbers make the issue clear:
There are around 70,000 registered voters in Cambridge.
In the last presidential election 55,000 voted.
In the last state and Federal election 37,000 people voted.
In the last City Council election only 23,000 people voted.
The outcomes are therefore decided by a much smaller, and less representative, group of residents.
Why don’t people vote? Because they don’t realize how much their vote impacts the City they live in. Many people assume bike lanes are being built because they’re good policy (and they are!). Sadly, good policy reasons are nowhere near enough to get legislation passed. Legislation gets passed because organized groups push for it; the bike lanes we’ve built over the past few years are the result of 4 years of organizing before and after the 2020 Cycling Safety Ordinance.
Problem #2: Voters who aren’t informed on this issue
If a candidate campaigned on allowing more crashes and injuries, Cambridge voters simply wouldn’t elect them. So candidates mislead, obfuscate, or simply don’t talk about the issue.
That means the people who do vote have a very hard time figuring out who is committed to improving our safety and who is merely paying lip service (“of course bike safety is important, we just need to do these projects better” and similar statements.)
So we have two problems: people aren’t voting, and those that don’t have the information they need. What’s the solution?
Organizing to reach more people
Both problems have a single solution: reaching more people and educating them about the issues. And I say “people” and not “registered voters” because all of you matter, even if you can’t vote, even if you don’t live in Cambridge. Most importantly, you deserve to be safe too as you travel around Cambridge. But also, with just a little work you can all have far more impact than someone who only votes.
To give a sense of what I mean: 500 of the people who are receiving this email wouldn’t have received it a month ago. Where did those 500 people come from? From the rest of you encouraging friends, family, co-workers, and random passersby to write in.
We win when you help us reach more people—
—and then those new people help us reach even more people—
—and we keep repeating this process until every potential voter in Cambridge knows the stakes, understands why this issue matters, and why they should vote.
So when we ask you to reach out to your friends and co-workers and family, as I’m about to do in the next section, it may seem like a small and unimportant thing. Sending an email is not as dramatic as joining an epic 5.5 hour meeting; handing out flyers is tedious. Most of the work involved with this is tedious, honestly.
But all these small, tedious repeated actions add up, every new person we reach is another small victory, and eventually all of this adds up to make a huge impact.
Even in this short term, it’s worth noting that this particular fight isn’t over. There will be more votes, and they could make the outcomes better… or much worse! So we need to keep fighting, keep writing, and keep showing up to meetings to minimize the negative impacts of the current majority on the Council, and make sure Councilor Nolan doesn’t skew even more against safe bike lanes.
How you can help today, and going forward
Getting the word out: The vast majority of people still do not know these changes are happening and have not weighed in. In the short term, we’re launching a petition to inform people about the ban and delay, trying to get as many people as possible to show their support for safe infrastructure. While it’s important that you sign, as explained above it’s way more important that you get other people to sign. Fill out the petition and then share it with two Cambridge friends who care about your safety: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/stop-the-delay-of-separated-bike-lanes/
And then two more.
And then put up a flier at your office (we can provide a printable PDF, or make your own!); if you’re a parent or guardian, hand out some fliers at your kid’s school or daycare.
And then maybe remember that other person you can talk to about biking.
Every additional person we can reach is a victory, however small.
Making crashes matter: The Councilors who voted for delay are willing to accept the trade-off that a delay will bring more crashes and injuries. We won’t let that stand. If you or someone you know are in a crash in Cambridge, especially on Cambridge St, Broadway, and Main St, please take photos if you’re willing, write up details, and send it to us as soon as it happens. We heard from many speakers last night that their crashes or injuries were not recorded by the police; we want to make sure your stories don’t get lost.
Much more! Cambridge Bicycle Safety will be following up over the coming days and weeks with more ways you can help. It will take more work, but we can and will win this fight for safe streets.
Thank you,
— Itamar Turner-Trauring, and all the other members of Cambridge Bicycle Safety
