It's likely most of our readers haven't heard of Regions Bank or at least haven't seen some of their trademark television spots featuring their distinctive lime green bicycles (Regions refers to them as "life green"). That's probably because most of their branches are in the Southeast U.S, so they likely advertise locally instead of purchasing national buys. But many of their cool adverts are on YouTube so I'll try to embed and link to as many as I can for the bike-curious.

With all the horrible bike ads out there, for years I've admired Regions Bank's marketing arm and their positive integration of the bicycle into their ad campaigns. Most of their settings have a real warm feeling of community and many of their commercials feature a very vibrant downtown vibe with a few slow-travelling cars, plenty of smiling pedestrians and bicyclists rolling around on their Regions classic cruisers. Sure it might be a little livable streets nirvana, but for 30 or 60 seconds you are there.

And sometimes they get artsy. They even did a series of ads featuring bicycle-riding acrobats!

Coincidentally, the bank's colors happen to match up with the MUTCD standards for painted green lanes which is fortuitous for them. In recent years they've also become a partner in the bike share world.  And Regions donated bikes to the BamaBikes program at the University of Alabama.  Here's a short clip on that program:

Regions has many more bike-themed commercials to watch via their website. I encourage you to watch those including the really well made "Brigade" spots.

Frankly, I'm hoping this post isn't the last you'll read here about Regions Bank. Prior to publishing, I attempted to contact someone at Regions over the last few weeks so I could ask them about their choice of bicycle marketing and just how they came to stick with it all these years. No dice. So I ask to the executives at Regions Bank if you are reading, I'd love to know more!

However, on New York City's 9th Avenue protected bike lane (which back in the day was NYC's first) three bike oasises have been installed between 36th and 40th streets. Having bike-parking replacing a car parking spot in the floating lane is definitely a first for New York City, and quite possibly the first in the United States.

And as we found small businesses seem to already love them.  We filed a short report.

As Streetfilms viewers know, many of the big cities in the U.S. are in the midst of expanding their bicycle networks by installing protected bike lanes. We've shown these projects in New York City, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., but some of the newest cities installing them are smaller cities you might not be aware of. Places like Missoula, Flagstaff, Indianapolis, Austin, and Memphis have either installed protected lanes or are breaking ground shortly.

Over the next five weeks, we'll be publishing the rest of the Streetfacts series, which we hope will come in handy in your advocacy. And if they're a big hit, we'll take nominations for other topics and make another batch of Streetfacts later in the year.

You'll also hear from one of the conference headliners, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard, who has overseen some dramatic changes in his city. When he took office, Indy had one mile of bike lane. It now boasts 75. Plans call for 200 by 2015. In addition, the Indianapolis Cultural Trail, a multi-use path which runs through the heart of downtown, officially opens in May. You can be sure Streetfilms will be there to check it out.

And if you haven't seen it, make sure to check out our video on the Women's Bike Summit which was held prior to the NBS.

Here's a montage of what we heard (sorry to the many left on the cutting room floor), set to cycling scenes in a dozen cities throughout the U.S.

First came this brand new, wonderfully creative ad from VerizonWireless featuring the Droid Razr. I'm not gonna spoil the end of it, but we get to spend thirty seconds with a young man energetically zipping up and down the hills of San Francisco on his bike just to do something cute for his girl. It's got some great editing, watch it:

Nice to see cycling in a positive and fun light. I did some research and actually located the Verizon casting call on Cyclelicious, which was up only a month ago.

But I also knew I'd seen this glyph-on-a-map-app stunt done in the bike world before so I went hunting and found a bike ride celebrating the SF Giants making it to the World Series that could have been the inspiration. Whether Verizon "stole" the idea or not, I heartedly endorse more commercials like this.

The next biking spot up I'd seen before, but it's still relatively new to the airwaves. Quaker Up put together this inspirational spot featuring a kid using the energy of his morning meal to power up the top of a hill. The kid can sure dream, but bicycling is certainly becoming the cool thing to show as healthy and fun.

And finally returning to the Bay Area, the third spot was actually a promo for ABC's new series "Red Widow" which even after visiting the Wiki page, I'm not quite certain what the show is all about. However, the 60 second teaser is beautifully moody and features a half dozen shots of the female lead (Rhada Mitchell) on her bike.  Unfortunately, that shorter spot isn't available on-line, so you'll have to settle for this 2 1/2 minute preview which does start off with some bicycling in the first 20 seconds.

I encourage you to find the better spot currently running in heavy promotion on ABC.

I'll keep writing this stuff as I see it and I see a lot more of it these days. That's a good thing.

This past fall, the Green Lane Project brought a few dozen transportation planners from those cities together in New York City for hands-on workshops and face-to-face peer exchanges to see the NYC Department of Transportation's innovative bike lane designs. We were able to tag along on some of the events and share some highlights of that trip.

As you'll see, the conference featured some nice twists on the usual fare and included many great speakers, including U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Brookings Institution's Bruce Katz. Among the headliners was NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who nicely encapsulated how some elected leaders are starting to approach transportation in their cities differently than their predecessors:

"Streets are there to transport people. They're not there necessarily for cars they're there to transport people - and there are lots of different ways of transporting people, and in fact one of the original ways was walking. So we've come full circle here - surprise, surprise."

Also, if you haven't already seen it, do not miss Streetfilms' video of the NACTO commissioner's panel, hosted by MSNBC's Chris Hayes. It is 52 minutes of fascinating dialogue between the transportation commissioners from five of America's greatest cities.

Last summer Local Spokes synthesized everything the coalition had gathered from this process into a neighborhood action plan for bicycling [PDF]. The goal of the action plan is to ensure that residents of the Lower East Side and Chinatown will have a role guiding decisions about bike-related policies and initiatives for their streets, and to create a model for community-based bike plans in other neighborhoods.

Streetfilms teamed up with Local Spokes in 2012 to document their work, and in this video you can see them in action.

So, what’s next? After receiving initial support from the JM Kaplan Fund, this year Local Spokes is seeking new funding to realize the goals of the action plan. Also on the agenda for 2013: releasing a blueprint for how to bring a Local Spokes-style coalition to the neighborhood where you live. Stay tuned for the blueprint launch at the 2013 Youth Bike Summit and on the Local Spokes website in February.

Political support for sustainable transportation initiatives is a precursor to success. The combination of agency champions, political champions and savvy advocacy groups is coming of age across the nation. Not all cities have all three and diverse agency structures determine the alliances needed to garner support. Visionary mayors and elected officials must be there to open doors and communicate your agency’s objectives to their constituents.

This session explores the political dialogue which governs local transportation initiatives. How can your agency build credibility and support without causing sticker shock? What are the key milestones of success and how can you work with the press to reinforce your accomplishments?

Moderator: Chris Hayes, Host, MSNBC’s UP w/ Chris Hayes  Featuring: Janette Sadik-Khan, Commissioner, New York City Department of Transportation, Gabe Klein, Commissioner, Chicago Department of Transportation, Ed Reiskin, Director of Transportation, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Tom Tinlin, Commissioner, Boston Transportation Department and Rina Cutler, Deputy Mayor of Transportation and Utilities, Philadelphia.

Selected highlights from the panel are below:

09:00 - Ed Reisken "we need to make public transit accessible, reliable and enjoyable"
11:30 - Gabe Klein  talks about young people and transportation's vitality to a city
15:14 - Rina Culter on "Money Matters"
17:23 - Tom Tinlin "Mayor Menino has said, 'The car is no longer king in Boston' "
23:50 - Gabe Klein talks gas prices in Netherlands vs. U.S. and transportation infrastructure
31:03 - Janette Sadik-Khan - "We need to find partners in creating public spaces in NYC."
33:30 - Chris Hayes refers to cars as "speeding machines of death"!
36:56 - Janette Sadik-Khan: "in New York, two-thirds of New Yorkers get around without a car, less than half own a car"
48:21 - Chris Hayes asks the panel about public criticism from the media and giving advice to future commissioners.

Former Streetsblog Reporter Noah Kazis covered the campaign for protected bike lanes in East Harlem and helps recount the story in this video.

Thursday marked the first day of modest subway restoration. It also saw the return of limited ferries. As well as a full MTA bus schedule and Mayor Bloomberg's emergency order declaring all vehicles crossing the East River Bridges must have three occupants. But the numbers of people using their feet and bicycles is huge and an always encouraging sign. Streetfilms was up early in Queens near the Queensboro Bridge to see how people were using all the transportation options out there.  Here's the montage we got.

This summit provided women cycling advocates the opportunity to talk about topics that aren't often programmed into bicycle conferences.  The question driving the summit was: What do we need to do on a national level to get more gender equality in the bicycling world? Some specific break-out topics in this year's conference discussed family biking, equity, marketing, and participating in the political process.

The energy and connections built in this first national women's bicycling summit will lead to more organized discussions on these topics in conferences to come. The goal: By 2025, 50 percent of U.S. cyclists will be women.

You'll find the digital "bicycling barometer" on the AM inbound side of the Hawthorne Bridge. It was made possible by the non-profit group Cycle Oregon which  purchased the machine with a $20,000 grant. Lots of yummy extra details are over at Bike Portland, including an in-depth look at how the system works.

Seattle is reportedly just about to install one as well.  Which city/location in the U.S. should be next?  Where would you put one in New York City?

In addition to her consulting work, Jen also operates a freight trike for The City Bakery. She deals with the daily logistics of transporting food, baked goods, and supplies from bakery to bakery with human power — which, as it turns out, is the most efficient mode for this neighborhood-scale operation. Of course, one of the perks of driving a freight trike for The City Bakery is the fuel: a hot-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookie.

Squid was a pioneering organizer of alley cat races and track bike competitions to bring messengers together. Recently, he has devoted himself to mainstreaming cycling as a mode of transportation in NYC, serving as a Bicycle Ambassador for Transportation Alternatives and educating working cyclists on bike safety. In our profile, he discusses how city streets have become more bike-friendly and how he has changed his own riding habits to be a role model for young cyclists.

Many thanks to attorney Adam White for sponsoring this Streetfilm.  In this short clip, Adam explains why he wanted to sponsor this video and why it is important to support Streetfilms.