Ideas for promoting cycling, or making it safer

Last update: December 18, 2025

Join people already doing the work

I’ve lost count of the number of times someone with no advocacy experience joined the email list and breathlessly said they were starting a new organization.  It never occurred to them to try to partner with established groups.  But we're never going to get anywhere if we continue to have a large number of groups and projects which contain just a few people each, and which quickly die out soon after they're started.   Don’t try to reinvent the wheel, instead join up with any of the other organizations listed in the sidebar at left (or below this article on mobile), or work with the Bicycle Advisory Council.  Don’t start a new group unless you can’t make progress within an existing one.

Be the government

Rather than begging the government for change (and having them say no), it’s more powerful to be the government.  Chris Riley did exactly that:  He joined our email list and reading the discussions got him motivated to make a difference.  So rather than starting yet another organization, instead he ran for city council.  He got elected and then insisted that the City join the national standards for roadways, which meant putting in all those special pedestrian crossings and the bike lanes separated from the car lanes by flexible poles.  It really feels that by doing so, he got more done for bicycling than all the rest of us put together.

So, aspiring activists would be well advised to:

• Join their neighborhood association (NA).  NAs aren't officially government entities, but they wield a lot of power in Austin.  Try to get a leadership position
• With some NA experience under your belt, try to get appointed to the Urban Transportation Commission.
• With enough community service experience, make a run for City Council. or the Travis County Commissioners Court (TCCC, which, despite its name, is not a court of law, but is just the legislative branch for the county).
• Once you’re on the City Council or the TCCC, try to get on the board of the Capital Area Metropolitan Transportation Organization (CAMPO)

About neighborhood associations, Bill Canfield says:  “NAs have a fair amount of political clout in Austin.  They can make or break proposed bicycle-friendly projects in their area.  Most NAs are open to anyone living in the neighborhood, not just landowners.  They tend to be run by a small number of enthusiastic people who want their neighborhood to be a nice place.  Many issues that are important to them are also important to cyclists (e.g. how to reduce car traffic volume and speed).  The cores of the groups tend to be pretty small, and they are always glad to hear of someone who wants to contribute.  You can get your hands on some of the clout just by showing up!  You may not feel like you're changing the world right away, but by working your way into the city’s informal power structure, you will be able to contribute significantly in the future.”

Promote safety

Educate yourself and your friends about how to avoid getting hit by cars.

Get a “Share the Road” license plate for your car.

Convince local bike stores to include a red rear flashing light on every bike they sell. (They can either eat the whopping $5 wholesale cost, or raise the price of the bike by $5. It's a better deal for the cyclist too, because that light that costs the shop $5 would cost the cyclist $15.)

Lobby for bike lanes and bike-friendly streets.  First check out what the City already has planned.  See our list of ideal facilities for bikes.

Get the City Council to ban parking in bike lanes.  They finally did this in 2024.  As a bike advocate, I waited 30 years for it.  Well, better late than never.

Lobby the City to make it policy to include bike lanes on all new roads.  This might have been done already, finally.  If you can find out, please let me know.

Persuade the City to install Bicycle Boulevards — barriers in the roadway every few blocks which prevent cars from going through, but allow bicycles to pass through.  This reduces traffic speeds and cut-through traffic.  Everyone who lives on affected streets can still get to their homes.  This is one where you really need to join the Neighborhood Association (NA) first and get the NA on board, because the first thing the City will do is ask the NA what they think about putting in a bike boulevard, and it the NA says no, then it’s probably a non-starter.

Push to make rumble strips compatible with bicyclists.  Rumble strips are the grooved indentations on the side of highways that make a vehicle “rumble” with a lot of noise if a driver accidentally drifts out of the outermost traffic lane.  They’re a great safety feature, but for years they were often installed with no consideration for cyclists, so there was no paved area to the right of the strips for cyclists to ride on.  Thanks to (see here and here), the federal government and many states now include bicyclist compatibility in their design specs, and that includes Texas, in its Roadway Design Manual. (4.10.6 and 18.4.6)

Push for new laws

The Texas Bicycle Coalition lobbies for bike legislation (and opposes legislation which would hurt cycling) at the state level.  Hook up with them to work on legislative issues for all of Texas.

Lobby for a state law requiring every driver to take a review course before license renewal.  If someone has received 2+ moving violations, a DUI, or a reckless driving citation, require a more intensive course including an emotion control component.

Lobby for a state law which would revoke the license of any motorist convicted of causing the death of any other road user (pedestrian, cyclist, or other motorist).

Promote Access

Help the Yellow Bike Project fix up old bicycles. Don't worry if you don't know how — they'll teach you.

Help the City of Austin Bicycle Program install new bicycle racks around town.

Demand that local businesses let bikes use the drive-thru. (The ones that don't include Bank One, McDonald's, and Taco Bell.) Get free stickers from Ozone or Waterloo Cycles that say "Let Bikes Use Drive-Thru", and stick them in the drive-thru areas of these businesses. 

Report cars parked in bike lanes. The police non-emergency number is 311.  You can also report using the 311 app.

Other

Do guerilla actions to make bike lanes more useful.  Repaint the faded white stripe, and paint "NO PARKING" in the bike lanes and on the curbs.

Lobby for police and the District Attorney to cite and indict drivers who injure and harass cyclists.  Currently, at-fault drivers who hurt us face little to no penalties.

Post an organization’s events to the forum.  Austin bike activists have tended to be insular, not talking to each other.  I’ll never forget the time I ran into a Yellow Biker at Wheatsville and he said, “Hey, how come you didn't promote [such and such event] of ours [in your newsletter/website] [and which has already happened]?”  I replied, “Because your telling me right now is the first I’ve heard of it.”

Promote an Austin-wide bike calendar.  Years ago I made a web page where all local bike groups could enter their rides and events, so they’d be all listed together as one-stop shopping, and also, every group and blog could easily have the list appear on their sites, too.  But I could never interest other groups in posting their events.  I’m willing to resurrect it if you’d like to try either getting groups to post their events, or posting them yourself.

Learn about the politics of transportation planning. We didn't wind up with a crappy transportation system by accident. Find out what's driving bad land use planning and why building more roads isn't the answer.

Education

Volunteer with the Ghost Bike Project which memorializes cyclists who have been killed by cars by painting stencils in the street where the crashes occurred, or locking a white Ghost Bike at the scene.

For years a group called Please Be Kind to Cyclists published ubiquitous bumper stickers sharing the same slogan.  In 12/25 I noticed their website is down and they don't seem to be active any more, so here’s your chance to pick up where they left off.  Imagine how much this idea would be in drivers’ consciousness if every 10th vehicle had one of these stickers.

When people rage against bike lanes online (like on Nextdoor), ask them why they think your life is not worth anything.  When they complain about bicyclists breaking the law, counter that nearly 100% of drivers break the law too, and that you can see red light runners all day at just about every cycle at just about every intersection in Austin, and unlike drivers, law-breaking bicyclists don't actually kill anyone.  When they say that bicyclists aren’t paying for roadways with gas taxes, point out that almost all cyclists also drive, and that gas taxes fund only interstate highways, and local roads are paid for with local taxes, which all cyclists pay.

Start or support a public education campaign to let motorists know that bikes have a legal right to the road.

Direct Action against cars

Report Cars Parked in Bike Lanes.  Here's also a PDF of some "tickets" you can place on the windshields of cars parked in bike lanes.

Report Polluting Vehicles. If you see a motor vehicle pumping out way too much pollution, you can call 800-453-SMOG and give them the license plate #, time & date of the sighting, and street & city of the sighting. Then the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will send the owner a letter asking them to tune up their vehicle. You can also report them online.  TCEQ discontinued that progrem.