BETTER BUDGETS FOR BIKES AND BUSES

BETTER BUDGETS FOR BIKES AND BUSES

We believe that in order to reduce our emissions quickly, as well as the financial stress many of us feel from the upkeep of a car (and to escape the worry of high gas prices), we need to dramatically increase the availability people throughout our city have to travel by bike or bus. Studies consistently show that up to 85% of people would gladly try to commute by bike to places around their city *if* there was appropriate infrastructure to keep them safe. We need an increase in the annual budget for true, concrete-curb-protected bike lanes, more greenways, and more frequent bus service. Until these modes of transportation are treated as more equal to the car, our city will never truly have the freedom to choose where we want to go in the way we want to go. This campaign will work with the City to increase the budget in creative ways, including searching for state and federal grants to fund capital projects like bus shelters and bike lanes. 

Join us in working toward ‘better budgets for bikes and buses.’

SAYING YES TO MORE CHOICES IN TRAVELING

Our initiatives are based on simple concepts, like having more freedom to safely and efficiently get around town in something other than a car. This on-going campaign seeks to push the City to continually increase our annual budget for the infrastructure required to make public transit and bikes equally valid methods of transportation in town. We believe that we are not truly free to choose to travel how we want until our funding as a City gives equal value to methods other than a car. If we keep dedicating most of our resources to car-dependence, we willl never actually have a choice in how we get around town.

HOW TO SAY YES

  • The easiest way for you to show your support for this initiative is to email us and join our organization. It’s free, and the more people our movement has behind it, the more powerful our collective voice becomes when we speak to the City or to the Planning Commission. In your email, make the the subject line ‘YES, PLEASE’ and provide us with your basic details like name and street address. Your address will stay private, but it helps us know where in town our supporters are. We may use your name for petitioning purposes.

  • If you want to take immediate action, alongside joining our movement, go to https://www.knoxvilletn.gov/government/city_council and find your City Council representative and email them. Tell them you support increasing the budget for things like the bus system and protected bike lanes - and that you support YES! Knoxville’s B4 Initiative to identify potential grants for this funding, as well as novel ways to keep the budget at increased levels.

  • Want to help us do ground work advocacy? This may involve showing up to neighborhood meetings to explain your desire for more bike lanes and more frequent bus service, it may involve helping us recruit more neighbors to support this initiative, or it may involve your design skills to help us create visions of what could be. Who knows! But if you want to be directly involved in the B4 Initiative, email us with the subject line ‘B4 TEAM’ and we’ll get in touch!