State and local bicycle coordinators and other professionals whose responsibilities include planning, designing, building, and maintaining safe facilities for bicycling need current information upon which to base their decisions and guide their actions. The 1999 American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities remains the primary resource for bicycle transportation professionals responsible for planning, designing, and building facilities to enhance and encourage safe bicycle travel.⁴ The Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) also contains guidance with respect to recommended signs and pavement markings for bicyclists and bicycle facilities.⁵

The Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (APBP) offers a one-day training course to "bring bicycle and pedestrian professionals up-to-date with the very latest technical information: the AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities, the MUTCD, TEA-21, and the Uniform Vehicle Code." It also sponsors professional development seminars that provide an opportunity for professionals to discuss specific technical issues in greater depth (http://www.apbp.org/).

FHWA has also developed a training course for graduate and undergraduate transportation planning and design students. The course "provides current information on pedestrian and bicycle planning and design techniques, as well as practical lessons on how to increase bicycling and walking through land-use practices and engineering design" (see http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/univcourse/pbcrsbroch.htm). The course contains 24 modules that can form the basis for a "stand alone" course or be incorporated into other courses.

NHTSA and FHWA have combined to produce the NHTSA/FHWA Bicycle Safety Resource Guide, which contains information about problem areas, bicyclist and motorist errors, target groups, and countermeasures. The resource guide (over 15,000 pages of material), now available entirely on the FHWA Web site, also contains information on facility design, planning, guidelines, good practices, tools and outreach materials to aid in problem identification, countermeasures development and raising awareness (see http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/tools/docs/welcome_bsg.pdf).

Other initiatives such as Safe Routes to School training programs and even on-bicycle tours for planners and engineers are being used to train practitioners (see case study #9).