Two great examples of communicating urban mountain biking to the masses

One of the biggest hurdles in doing urban mountain biking isn’t building the trails.  It’s that point between having the idea and getting permission to build.  (And yes, you should always have permission first.)  There is a need to communicate what your intentions are and what you envision things looking like.  Often, the difference between a failed urban mountain biking proposal and a successful one starts, not a public meeting, but in the upfront communication.
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Today we will look at two documents that show some great ways to communicate the items or methods of creating great urban mountain biking to the public.  We will display them and then talk about what makes them so good

​Gateway Green – Portland, OR

Part of the ongoing design and implementation of Gateway Green is this draft design presentation.  Its designed to communicate where the project is at and where it is going.  Also, it allows citizens to see what various proposed items will look like when installed.

​What you should copy for your proposals:

• Page 2 – The timeline is a good way to communicate the process you see unfolding with your proposal.  It’s likely you will have to work with city employees to make sure you get the timeline to match the cities’ proposal steps.  But it communicates to the public and to the city that you are interested in going about your proposal carefully and “by the book”.
• Page 7 – Here we see a map of the proposed and existing trails.  Notice the map is devoid of any details that are confusing.  Many of the pages before this one and a few after show the different levels of information about the property.  This is a great way to keep the maps easy to read.  Often proposers can feel like they need one map that shows everything.  Because that map has everything, it gets hard to read and therefore confusing.  Making more maps that show one level of information at a time is better to get the point across.
• Page 10 -  Instead of just talking about what will be included in the proposal, they have found pictures that represent the concept.  Notice that these pictures do not come from Portland, per se.  When creating mountain bike proposals, it’s important to have large clear pictures showing the types of riding that will be taking place on the trails you propose.  Many members of the public might know mountain biking only from Red Bull ads and therefore might have the wrong idea.  Use photos from actual urban mountain biking locations across the country to show an accurate picture of what urban mountain biking looks like.

​Duluth Traverse – Duluth, MN

A mini-master plan for the last section of the Duluth Traverse to be built.  Also, as part of this mini-master plan, information about the previous phases of the Duluth Traverse are included.  This also allowed some minor changes in the user management techniques that Duluth has previously employed on the Duluth Traverse.
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What you should copy for your proposals:

• Page 20,21 – The Guiding Principles here allows a quick and easy understanding of the goals of the project.  In Duluth’s case the mini-master plan included public outreach and surveys that allowed these goals to reflect the community consensus.  For a proposal where the public process hasn’t begun, you can use a similar set of principles to communicate to the public what the product will be.
• Page 34 – The tenets of trail development are the same whether you are Duluth or Seattle.  This is one of the clearer expressions of what they are.  (Though the numbers are a bit confusing as all are equally important.)  This type of infographic makes it clear what goes into creating a trail.
• Page 39 – Clear graphs showing costs over time and maintenance duties.  These graphs in one shot torpedo arguments about cost and maintenance responsibilities by tax payers.  If there is only one set of graphs to use from this document, these are two that might save you the most grief with city officials and the public.

There is a lot to learn from these two documents, so poke thru them to see what could help you create a successful proposal.

If these types of documents seem beyond your reach, remember that one of the services provided as part of a Knobbies in the Neighborhood presentation is illustrations, handouts and graphs free of charge.