2023 Bike Walk Summit Recap

After a Two Year Hiatus We Were Thrilled to be Back In-Person in Saint Paul!

We’re so excited about how many of you showed up from across the state to hear from an all-star list of morning speakers, participate in productive meetings with representatives and engage and learn from like-minded advocates working towards shared goals. Together we’ve built some incredible momentum! Read on to help us keep up the momentum and plan for 2024.

Survey

Fill out our survey to let us know what you thought of the event, as well as to let us know how your meetings went with your legislators. The survey should only take about 5 minutes! 

Pics

Email or text your pictures from the day to – don’t forget to tag BikeMN on social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). We’ll also have a recording of the morning session available on our YouTube page in the coming weeks, which will be shared on our social media pages.

Contacting Your Legislators

Please send a thank you email to your Representative and Senator or a “Here’s what I support and why” email if you were unable to meet with them. You can also ask your Representative to sign on to House File 677 as a co-author. House bills can have unlimited co-authors. In the Senate the number of authors is limited so just ask or thank your Senator for their support of Senate File 912. You can find resources from our 2023 Legislative Agenda here.

Letter to the Editor

If you’re feeling really excited about yesterday, please think about sending a Letter to the Editor of your local paper! An LTE is a great way to extend a public “thank you” to your legislator for meeting with you yesterday. It will also let folks in your community know that you participated in the Bike Walk Summit and lobbied legislators about active transportation education and infrastructure funding and policy legislation, Safe Routes to School, and more. Legislators and their LAs are very in-tune with local newspapers, so it’s a great way to let them know you appreciated their time. There’s the text you can customize below. Let maya@bikemn.org know if you’d like some help or if you would like the contact info for your local paper.

MN Bike Walk Summit in the News!

The Bill Dooley Omnibus Transportation bill was featured the day before the Summit in a story about Bill in MinnPost.

Thank Yous!

Thank you to all of our speakers, roundtable hosts, Saint Paul Bicycle Coalition, Greater Mankato Walk and Bike Advocates, BikeMN Chapters, and BikeMN Members who helped make our scholarship program possible—and to all of you who came out to speak with your legislators about important issues for pedestrians and bicyclists.

The BikeMN Team

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Letter to the Editor text to customize:
Click here to find out who represents you.

Dear Editor:

It’s no secret that when more people walk and bike, individual lives are better, communities are stronger and better connected, and our state is healthier and happier, not to mention environmentally and economically stronger. I consider myself to be an advocate for walking and biking in Minnesota, so I participated in the 2023 Minnesota Bike Walk Summit hosted by BikeMN in Saint Paul on February 9. I met with my legislators, Senator ______ and Representative ______ to discuss a few issues that are important to me this session, especially the comprehensive Omnibus Transportation Bill named in honor of Bill Dooley. I also spoke with them about funding for Safe Routes to School infrast ructure grants and active transportation, as well as a few policy recommendations supported by BikeMN that would make walking and biking safer and more convenient. They, and I, understand that biking and walking are not the only solution to our public health, climate, community sustainability, and equity related issues, but we agreed that the return on investment is high.

I wanted to publicly thank Sen. _____ and Rep. _____ for taking the time to meet with me to discuss these issues that I feel are important for our district and I’m grateful to them for [their support] OR [their interest in the topic].

I think that making walking and bicycling safe and convenient in communities throughout Minnesota will help ensure that they are places where young people want to live, businesses want to locate and families can prosper. We need to keep working to make it a reality.

Sincerely,

[YOUR NAME]

The 2023 Minnesota Legislative session runs from January 31 to mid-May. Stay in the loop by subscribing to our email lists.

More Bike Walk Summit Resources

Talking to your Legislators and Elected Officials

Find who represents you and suggested tips for talking with your elected leaders
Learn More

2023 Bike Walk Summit Video

Watch the morning speaker presentations and more content on our Youtube channel.
Learn More

[BikeMN’s] advocacy work has had a remarkable impact throughout the state! We need to push cities and towns to be more bicycle and pedestrian friendly – Minnesota could use more sidewalks in rural areas, more traffic calming strategies, more bike rail guards on city streets, bike and pedestrian plazas, and curb cuts! – BikeMN Advocacy Member