Pour the concrete already!
One of the many tools by which we support and work with our city agency partners is by providing support letters for their grant applications seeking funding for different projects and plans. Support letters help add credibility to an application making it more attractive for the evaluation panel.
In the year 2022, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) wrote 50 support and comment letters for various projects, plans, and measures. Out of these, 42 were support letters for various grant funding opportunities that cities and agencies apply for. Each request takes a lot of time and the process of drafting a support letter is not as simple as it may seem. SVBC staff take multiple steps to ensure that the support letter is well-informed and well-written.
The first step is to reach out to the respective local team (if it exists) or advocates in the area to gather their feedback.
Staff then studies the project drawings and plans (if they exist) to get a better understanding of the project.
For controversial requests, staff discusses the matter with the Policy Advisory Committee.
Finally, staff drafts the letter and gets it reviewed and signed by the Executive Director.
This process takes an average of 3 to 4 hours per support letter, which means that 42 support letters require almost one month of work for a full-time employee!
While support letters are important, staff time is also very precious and can be better utilized in growing our local teams, working on campaigns and more! Therefore, SVBC has decided to be more strategic in deciding if and where it will provide a letter of support and has decided to de-emphasize planning and prioritize construction.
Going forward, SVBC will not be providing support letters for any plans or projects in the planning stage. On the other hand, we’d be very happy to support any project that helps pour concrete, stripe paint on the ground, or move a project across the finish line!
Projects can easily take several years to complete. From conception, to inclusion in a community plan, project planning, community engagement, grant application, grant award, additional engagement and project amendment, grant expenditure (often many years after the award), and finally project construction. Plans and project planning are not only time consuming, but also very expensive! A bike/ped plan for example easily costs thousands of dollars. Many cities in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties have had bicycle master plans for over a decade and very small percentages of those plans have actually been built. Yet cities keep spending money making new plans. Similarly for projects - a lot of time and effort goes into planning and the on-the-ground outcome is very small. For instance, despite several years of planning, pop-up events, extensive community engagement, and detailed design drawings, no section of El Camino Real has any bike lanes!
In the strategic plan adopted by SVBC last year, one of the key activities includes - Expedite projects using quick builds and pilots and relentlessly push agencies to shorten timelines from planning to construction.
We really urge cities and agencies to accelerate their implementation timeline by using different strategies. For instance, quick-build projects can be realized in a matter of months, and they are designed to be temporary, allowing for modifications based on real-time feedback from users. For instance, San Jose was able to construct 10.7 miles of downtown bikeways using the quick-build approach in less than two years. Another way is by tying complete streets efforts with ongoing street-maintenance projects. SVBC would be more than happy to help procure funding for any such projects.
P.S. This is a new process SVBC is adopting and we are using the “quick-build method”! This new process incorporates feedback from supporters we received last year. Staff will continue to review this process intermittently and make changes as required.
