The Power of Blogs and Social Media in Transportation Policy

Bike bloggers got a nice win when GM pulled an ad mocking cyclists a few weeks ago.

Bike Portland was the first to call out GM. TheLeague of American Bicyclists followed suit. Tweets started pouring in from all over the country. The next day — boom — GM promised to pull the ad and issued an apology.

In the scheme of things, it was a small victory. But hardly the only one.

Speaking to Streetsblog in July, attorney David Savoy gave bloggers credit for the granting of a retrial to his client, Raquel Nelson, who was charged with vehicular homicide after her four-year-old son was hit by a car as they attempted to cross a dangerous arterial road on foot. “I’ve never understood the power of the blogosphere,” Savoy said, “and now I’m humbled.”

Bloggers Curt Ailes of Urban Indy and David Alpert and Matt Johnson of Greater Greater Washington had a chance to discuss this phenomenon at the recent Rail~Volution conference.

From Johnson’s recap of the discussion:

As Curt explained, the urban conversation in Indianapolis hasn’t come as far as it has here [in Washington]. As a result, Urban Indy plays a large role in introducing Indianans to planning concepts. Curt recounted an instance where the print media came to him about a bike path. He was able to help the reporter (and the readers) to get the terminology right and understand what was at stake.

And that’s really how I see the role of Greater Greater Washington. Not as a way of bringing people over to our opinion, but as a way to give people the tools they need to be a productive participant in the conversation.

Now transit agencies themselves are harnessing these tools, Johnson reports.