Here’s what you can do:

1. Send a personalized email (template below) to Mayor Walsh asking him to include the Boston Bike Budget in his budget this year, and forward the email to your local district city councilor and the four at-large (city-wide) councilors. Contact info is below. If you can, print out your letter, sign it, and mail it to the Mayor and councilors with a personal note asking for their support.
2. Call Mayor Walsh’s office at 617-635-4500 and ask him to include the Boston Cyclists Union’s Boston Bike Budget in his budget this year, and call your local district city councilor and the four at-large (city-wide) councilors to ask them to support it. Below is a script, and their contact info.
3. Call, text, or email your friends, family members, or co-workers and ask them to email and call the Mayor and their city councilors, and post of social media. Here’s a sample message: “I just asked Mayor Walsh and the Boston City Council to support safe, protected bike infrastructure in the city’s budget. Join me in asking them to fund making biking safer and easier!
4. Stay tuned for information on meetings with each city councilor that we’ll be setting up this spring!

Click here to find out who your Boston City Councilor is (and get contact info).

Email Script

Below is a template for emails to Mayor Walsh. Please personalize it and add your own information. You can pick and choose which talking points, below, you actually include in your note. The more personal details, the more effective the letter will be. Don’t forget to forward it to your your local district city councilor and the four at-large (city-wide) councilors with a brief note asking them to support the Boston Bike Budget (look up their emails here). You can use the same content as speaking points when you call your councilors and Mayor Walsh. Thanks!

To:

Mayor@boston.gov

CC:

david.sweeney@boston.gov, joyce.linehan@boston.gov, budget@boston.gov, a&f@boston.gov, chris.osgood@boston.gov, gina.fiandaca@boston.gov, btd@boston.gov, michelle.wu@boston.gov, a.e.george@boston.gov, ayanna.pressley@boston.gov, michael.f.flaherty@boston.gov, info@bostoncyclistsunion.org, [YOUR DISTRICT COUNCILOR]

Dear Mayor Walsh,

As a resident of [YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD] who bikes [OR who would bike in Boston if it were safer], I’m writing to ask you to include the Boston Cyclists Union’s Bike Budget recommendations in your FY19 budget.

[SAY SOMETHING ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL EXPERIENCE RIDING A BIKE IN BOSTON]

The City of Boston has made real progress toward changing its official policies to make riding a bike in the city easier and safer, but changes to our physical infrastructure have been dramatically slower.

The City’s 2013 Boston Bike Network Plan promised 35 miles of protected bike lanes by 2018. It’s 2018, and less than 5 miles have been completed. The GoBoston 2030 proposes an ambitious network of protected facilities without any timeline, plan, accountability metrics, or funding needed to accomplish implementation. At this rate, it will take decades to build the protected bike lane network we need TODAY.

With our proposed Boston Bike Budget, we could build more than a dozen miles of protected bike lanes each year. Today, 2.4% of Bostonians regularly bike to work, and with just 2% of the City’s $898 million streets budget, we could make major strides towards allowing people of all ages and abilities to bike safely in every neighborhood of Boston.

The extra $1 million dollars allocated to Vision Zero last year for Neighborhood Slow Streets does nothing to change arterial streets, where people biking are disproportionately hit, injured, and killed.

If Boston is going to end traffic fatalities, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and make our city more livable, we need a dramatic increase in the city’s funding for safe, protected bike infrastructure.

I hope you will include the Boston Cyclists Union’s Bike Budget figures in your FY19 budget and help make Boston safe and friendly for people riding bikes.

Sincerely,

[Your name]