BWAM!

Bike Walk Alliance for Missoula Begins to Roll

By Dave Loos, 11-14-07

The Bike/Walk Alliance for Missoula, one of this town’s newest non-profits, has an admirable mission, eager volunteers and already more than 90 members. It also arguably has one of the worst acronyms—BWAM—of any local organization (a quick Google search shows a Missouri-based bike group of the motorized variety and a definition in the Urban Dictionary that can’t be printed here).

We’ll try not to hold that against them. After all, Missoula needs all the help it can get improving its bicycle and pedestrian network. The group’s organizers also throw a really good chili dinner, which NewWest.Net attended last weekend. The event served as launching point of sorts for the group, which officially formed last year but had yet to host any community gathering like this one.

In a packed room at the MCT Center for the Performing Arts, BWAM president Jim Sayer told the crowd that the group formed after last year’s Bike Walk Summit, where members of the community saw the need for an organized effort aimed at improving biker and pedestrian infrastructure for the 14 percent of Missoulians who commute under their own power each day.

Following a half hour of discussion amongst attendees at their tables, BWAM’s leaders condensed dozens of suggestions into a Top 10 list of goals for the group. That list was in turn condensed into a Top 6 list:

1. Improve the connectivity of Missoula’s bike system
2. Better education of cyclists, motorists and pedestrians about laws
3. Biker/Pedestrian-friendly planning
4. More biking and walking facilities and services
5. Advocacy and promotion with public officials
6. Expansion of infrastructure

A list of specific projects included a Bitterroot spur bridge, improvements to the Rattlesnake trail and major upgrades on S. Higgins Avenue between Brooks Avenue and the Higgins bridge. While it appeared many in attendance were ready to debate the merits of each project all night, BWAM leaders wisely cut off those arguments and left the longer discussions for the next meeting.

To keep tabs on this new org, visit www.bikewalkalliance.blogspot.com.

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