Hello everybody, My name is Jason Jenkins and I work for Active Trans. We're not regular Reddit users but we're thrilled and surprised to be nominated! Who are we and what do we do? Well, we're awesome and we do a lot!
In a nutshell we are a not for profit advocacy organization that works in the Northeastern Illinois region (Chicago and surrounding counties mostly, but sometimes nationally) to improve conditions for people who walk, bike and take transit.
We do that in a number of ways:
-We have advocacy campaigns that engage grassroots organizing to push elected officials to make positive changes for biking/walking/transit. An example is our recent "Safe Crossings" campaign: http://www.activetrans.org/blog/kwhitehead/new-campaign-aims-raise-awareness-about-pedestrian-safety
-We have education programs that work in schools to teach kids to walk and bike safely and help schools find ways to encourage walking and biking to school. For example our "Kids on Wheels" program that brings bikes to schools for kids to practice on: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4izgLX6v0k
We also just do general education for the public, check out some of our videos as a sample, I recommend starting with our "How (Not) to Get Your Bike Stolen" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wg23WTfz0M
-We have a planning department that works with municipal governments to help them create pedestrian, bike and "complete streets" plans and policies that redesign their streets to be friendlier to people who bike/walk/use transit. An example of that is we just wrapped up helping Memphis, Tn. draft and adopt their Complete Streets policy and guidelines. http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/documents/p1-memphis.pdf
-We have crash support programs that provide resources to bicyclists or pedestrians who have been involved in craashes. And we sometimes work with families of fatal crash victims to support them as they navigate the legal system in search of justice. http://www.activetrans.org/knowyourrights/after-a-crash
-We lobby at local, state and federal levels to get more funding for biking, walking and transit. We advocate for laws to make biking and walking safer.
-We host encouragement events "Bike the Drive"(http://www.bikethedrive.org/) "Four Star Tour/ Boulevard Lakefront Tour/ Bike and Chow" (http://www.4starbikeandchow.org/), "Bike to Brews" (http://www.activetrans.org/event/2014-07-26t000000/bike-brew), our bike to work contest the "Commuter Challenge" (http://bikecommuterchallenge.org/), our winter biking contest "Roll the Cold" (http://www.activetrans.org/sites/default/files/whybcc.html?q=rollthecold) and others.
We are also a member based organization with approx. 7,000 dues paying members that support our mission.
So, uh, yeah, that's us! We do a lot, and we can always use more support, be it financial, volunteer or other! Thanks again for the nomination and please let us know if you have any other questions, we'll try to answer them.