NCBW/ALRC Roadmap: Resources

NCBW/ALRC Roadmap | Roadmap Resources | Roadmap Tools and Materials

These materials reflect our synthesis of, and response to, findings from dozens of interviews and surveys, reviews of bicycle-friendly and walkable community initiatives, and reviews of community assessments and evaluation tools. We refer to these activities as our original “Environmental Scan.”  We also convened two focus groups to discuss our findings, and to identify policy and other barriers to successful implementation of walk, bike, active living and other active community initiatives. Reviewing data from these sources we recognized a pattern of macro-level organizational barriers to successfully implementing bicycle, pedestrian and healthy community initiatives. 

Barriers include, a need for tools that help navigate and make sense of the various resources available; a need to rethink current models of engagement and outreach efforts to better connect the various stakeholders; a need for a model that helps stakeholders think through engagement and planning activities and to prioritize next actions; a need for planning beyond the plan at the outset of community projects to better capitalize on momentum generated by community-based efforts; and a need for a shift in perspective from disconnected community-based struggles to collective efforts that contribute to a larger movement for social change.

These barriers suggest that communities are largely flying solo as they feel their way through community organizing.  Furthermore, we found few resources designed to support communities in their efforts to connect to state/regional or national support networks.  The four documents that follow, The NCBW / ALRC Environmental Scan for Active Community Implementation, The NCBW / ALRC Roadmap for Active Community Implementation, The NCBW / ALRC Active Community Schools Workbook, and Creating a Roadmap for Producing & Implementing a Bicycle Master Plan developed sequentially, and in response to the barriers identified.  They represent one attempt to improve the accessibility of existing resources for community needs, and to move bicycle, pedestrian, and active living organizing one step further on the path toward social change.