I am interested in this discussion too. Our group, BICAS, does not explicitly do advocacy (though it depends what you mean by that -- we have robust programs for "disadvantaged youth" and so forth and maybe the folks doing that work would consider it advocacy) but I think we come pretty close, and of course individually we are all advocacy-minded. My law practice is about fifty-percent bike advocacy.
But it is hard to take too critical a stance as an organization when you have strong connections with local governments that are fruitful in accomplishing your main mission. BICAS does a lot with the City of Tucson and those relationships are important to us, even though most individual cyclists here pretty much cannot stand the general city-cyclist relationship.
I should say that although I am on the BICAS collective, I am not an employee there and I am not the best source of information about BICAS and its programs, but the advocacy question is one I have grappled with considerably and I am interested to hear how it has panned out with other bike collectives.
Erik B. Ryberg Attorney at Law 445 W. Simpson Street Tucson, AZ 85701 (520) 622-3333 email: ryberg@seanet.com website: tucsonbikelawyer.com
Rich Points wrote:
Hey All, Community Cycles in Boulder has recently decided to take on an advocacy role in addition to our shop activities. We will now speak on behalf of the cycling community to the Transportation Advisory Board, City Council and other decision makers who influence infrastructure, policy and cyclists rights.
I'm sure there are other shops out there doing advocacy work as well.
We'd like to hear your stories of success and/or failure.This might be a good topic for a Bike Bike session next year.
Peace