Be Part of the Solution – Be a Conference Presenter

FBA needs your expertise for our upcoming ProBike/ProWalk Florida Conference, “The Dollars and Sense of Bicycling and Walking”, being held in Lakeland, May 11-13, 2010.
At our inaugural Bike Summit at Florida’s state capitol last April it became very clear that for significant headway to be made at this level – or any level, for that matter – it’s necessary to put dollar values on the benefits of creating communities that are bike/ped-friendly. Likewise, costs associated with not having that kind of environment are just as important.
Beyond money spent on bike-related tourism and accompanying tax revenue collected by the state, cycling and walking impacts many aspect of our economy. Some examples include individual and government savings or costs related to health, environmental impacts, and the one with arguably the biggest impact – transportation.
To assist FBA begin what we know will be the complex process of collecting and analyzing credible data, we’ve decided to make bike/ped economics the theme of ProBike/ProWalk Florida 2010.
If you have something to offer in terms of a conference session topic, please submit a paper summarizing what you’d like to present by December 1, 2009.
We’d also like to get sessions that are appropriate for professional development credits certified for planners, landscape architects, transportation engineers, and other professionals, so please keep that in mind when developing your topic.
FBA is looking forward to the information that comes from the conference – and follow-up research – being substantial enough to use to begin making the case that routinely accommodating pedestrians and cyclists makes total economic sense.
Please direct your questions and submit session summaries to Dan Moser, FBA Program Manager, at dan@floridabicycle.org.