We need to build a lot of power very quickly as a pro-bike & transit movement. That means we need to improve our advocacy efforts. Fortunately, there is always room for improvement and you probably have lots of ideas on how to improve your advocacy. Run experiments to test your ideas! As you figure out what does and doesn’t work, you can incorporate those learnings to strengthen your advocacy.
Though the real world isn’t a laboratory and political science isn’t a “hard” science, you can still run all sorts of experiments to figure out ways to improve your advocacy. You could test messaging, tactics, strategies, or even just assumptions. Once you pick what aspect of your advocacy you want to focus on, then you can design an experiment around it, conduct the experiment and incorporate your learnings.
Step 1) Pick an idea to test.
This weekend, some friends and I tested an idea. Specifically, we set out to test a hypothesis put out by a bike lane opponent.
As I’ve written about before, the big road by my home is getting a redesign. The proposal involves lots of safety improvements and protected bike lanes. The community is on board and the politicians seem to like it too. Last year, I spoke with merchants along the corridor and several of them signed a letter in support of the project. But, as always, some merchants think that people only shop by car and that shoppers only go to places they can park directly in front of.
A key issue in all bogus “bike lanes vs. merchants” discussions is that there is a lot of focus put on the parking spots directly in front of the shops. Parking spots within the overall shopping area and neighborhood often get ignored in the discussion. Considering that big box stores can have parking spots up to 500 feet away from their front door and 700 feet from the center of the store, I’m a little doubtful of the claim that potential customers can only use the street parking spot in front of a store.
(A much higher proportion of street parking in commercial corridors should be designated “handicap parking” spots because not everyone can walk 500’, there should also be more loading zones and outdoor dining parklets-- but that’s about how the spots are allocated– not about the total number of spots.)
Some friends and I thought that it would be a great idea to run a test on. So, we decided to try and figure out the answer to the question of “how do people actually get to Grand Ave?”
Step 2) Design an experiment to test the idea
The crux of the question depended on getting data that separated out the people who drove and parked on Grand vs. the people who parked elsewhere. We also wanted to get insight into which of the many other non-car ways a person might have gotten to Grand.
We also didn’t want to get just a few anecdotes from passersbys, we needed to get a lot of data. There are probably all sorts of high-tech solutions and sensors that some consulting company could use to collect that data. But we figured it’s a lot easier to just ask people directly and do it on a Grand Ave sidewalk itself.
One of my fellow volunteers created a big board with the question of “How did you get here?” and taped sheets with the different category titles to it where we could collect answers. I wanted the data to speak for itself, so rather than us marking each person’s answer, we asked people to put their name or initials on the paper themselves.
Lots of walkers! The majority of respondents got to Grand without a car
Step 3) Conduct it
We went out on a Saturday morning to a spot on Grand and started asking folks. Our plan was to do a quick 1-hour test of the experiment. We wanted to collect data on how people got to Grand but more importantly on how we should design the survey. Whatever idea you test out in your advocacy, remember, it’s not all or nothing. You can learn a lot when you dip a toe in with a small first test. You can learn, iterate, and redesign from there. Then come back and do a bigger test of your idea.
Step 4) Reflect, iterate and try again
Whatever idea, tactic or strategy you test and regardless of how you test it, you will get a lot of data. People will give you all sorts of explicit and implicit feedback. You will get a lot of data about the stuff you were trying to get data about and also about things you weren’t expecting. My favorite little moment was realizing that giving people a ballpoint pen and asking them to put their initials on paper evoked a feeling of a quasi-legal agreement to some folks. That made them hesitant to participate. Next time we’ll bring colored markers or maybe crayons to eliminate that barrier to completing the 1 question survey. Incorporate what you learned to make your next test stronger.
It’s easy to get a flood of data and think that all you need to do is hone your test and try again. But before you do that, take a step back and try to see what you’re missing. That can be tricky since you are in the thick of things– but it’s vital to consider that there might be a whole component you are missing. If advocacy is cooking, it’s so easy to be focused on making and serving a great soup that you forget the spoon. After our first run, we realized we didn’t ask people “how would you LIKE to get to Grand.” Since advocacy is about making the future better than the present, it’s important to ask people about what they want and not just how they’re getting by in the current situation.
Perfection isn’t possible in bike & transit advocacy, but continuous improvement is. You can’t do continuous improvement without continuous effort. So go out there, try some stuff out, get data, reflect on what you learned, iterate and try again!
What’s an idea, tactic or strategy that you want to test out to improve your advocacy?
Upcoming free online training: “How to Win Better Transportation in Your Bay Area Community” 5/29 with Transbay Coalition & Voices for Public Transportation. Learn more and register here.
