About

Advocacy is well-informed, strategic, and long-term. As transportation professionals, we take the long view on how to bring about policy and infrastructure change.

We assemble data-driven, research-based policy positions, and rally community support to influence decision makers.

We live the mission by getting around town by walking, biking, or riding the bus. Local Motion’s mission is a critical aspect of our personal identity; it’s not just a job.

How we get around town is crucial to our advocacy because it quietly but publicly shows how walking, biking, and transit are practical and feasible.

Transportation affects everyone, but it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way.

We focus our efforts on raising the voices of people who may be overlooked in transportation decision-making, like lower-income people, people of color, people with disabilities, and people walking or biking.

Our ability to accomplish our mission is directly dependent on the people we have on our team. Our people are people first, not employees.

We value our physical health, mental health, and work-life balance. We have flexible schedules and provide the best salaries and benefits we can.

And we work to get the right people in the right seats. As we learn each other’s strengths, we move responsibilities around to best match our skills and interests.

We make no decision lightly. We research, analyze, discuss, debate, and finally come to a strategic conclusion.

And when we reach that conclusion, we have a united voice among our team of Local Motion staff and board members.

Our team is organized in a shared leadership model; we rely on each other’s expertise in different areas. We value having open, honest conversations, and respect each other’s viewpoints. We’ve built a culture of trust and confidentiality.

Our board is actively involved in working towards our mission, and builds strong relationships with our staff. When something big comes up, it’s all hands on deck and we come together as a team to get it done.

We focus on our mission in order to maintain a reputation of integrity. If we advocate outside the scope of our mission, we run the risk of losing our credibility and power.

Nonprofits exist to fill a gap, to serve a need that wouldn’t be addressed otherwise. We look upstream to find solutions to underlying problems, rather than putting a bandaid on a symptom.

In many cases the underlying problem can be addressed through policy change, so we spend most of our time and energy advocating for changes in policy and infrastructure.

We are reliable, follow through on what we say we’ll do, and produce quality work – whether by providing solid information to decision-makers, mobilizing people for a big vote, offering training workshops, or trying hard not to exaggerate how much bikes can change your life.

We are constantly evaluating how we’re doing and innovating our next steps. We look back on where we’ve been successful so we can build momentum. And we acknowledge where we’ve fallen short so we can either try a different approach or stop trying and do something else.

We are open-minded, ready to accept feedback, and eager to change based on new information.

Nonprofits are corporations. We’re just corporations in business for the greater good rather than to make our investors wealthy. But we have to pay attention to how we operate just like any other business. We diversify our income, keep clean financial records, and are transparent with our donors on the impact of their investments.

We provide good customer service, respond to questions and concerns, and provide resources. And we have an abundance mindset rather than a scarcity mindset, believing that we can always find more ways to do more good.