We can’t take on the legislature without you!
| The 2023 legislative session is coming up fast and we’re gearing up to push for biking- and walking-friendly legislation–and to push back against laws that would impact people who bike and walk in Texas. It’s a story we’ve seen repeated over and over—newly-elected legislators come to Austin from towns that have no bicycle facilities, or such a small population of bicyclists that the new legislators rarely notice anyone riding a bike. They arrive in Austin and are immediately greeted by bike lanes, cycletracks, and people of all ages, income levels, and walks of life riding bicycles around the city. They are often uncertain of how to interact with bikes and possibly surprised to learn that all this biking is even legal in Texas. And that’s where we put on our game faces and get to work—educating the new lawmakers, encouraging people who ride bikes in their districts to share their stories, pointing them in the direction of colleagues who have already discovered they can say the word “bicycle” and still get re-elected. And we invite them on a bipartisan bike ride. 2023 is likely to be no different. In fact, this is shaping up to be a session where the message, “I bike, and I vote!” will be as crucial as it’s ever been. To get ready for the legislative session, make sure you’re getting BikeTexas emails: Action Alerts can fly thick and fast once we get into crunch time and you don’t want to miss them when it’s time to reach out to your legislators. Be sure to indicate to your email provider that you want to receive BikeTexas emails–this may mean setting up a filter to send our emails to your main inbox instead of spam. Sign up for BikeTexas emails here–if you only want to receive Action Alerts and no other emails, there’s an option for that on the signup form. If you’re already on our email list and want to update your profile, open any of our emails and scroll to the end. Look for “Update Profile” in the footer and Constant Contact will send you an email with a link to your profile with us. If you’re able to travel to Austin, plan to join us for Cyclists in Suits, Texas’ Bike Lobby Day! More details will be available once the session begins, but our bike lobby day is a great opportunity to speak directly to legislative staff and share your concerns about biking and walking in your district. Read about previous sessions’ Cyclists in Suits days here. Want to volunteer during the session? We found in 2021 that calling constituents of committee members to leave messages asking them to send an email or make a phone call paid dividends in making sure legislators received the message. If you can help in this way, we’d love to have you on board. Call 512-476-7433 and ask Laura to add you to the volunteer list. Let’s do this, y’all. |
