Shifting gears, group merges transit message

Usually, when advocates for non-car-based transportation try to get something done -- better bike paths, say, or improved mass transit -- they go it alone. But now, a new advocacy group called the LivableStreets Alliance is pledging to tie all of those interests together.

''We feel strongly that one of the reasons that advocacy hasn't been as successful as it could be in Boston is that people have been very 'siloed' in their modes, and it's hard to get traction," said Jeffrey Rosenblum, executive director and cofounder of the alliance. ''Whereas when we power in with the bike advocates, the pedestrian advocates, [and] the advocates for transit, that's going to require them to take notice."

This month at the Sherman Cafe in Somerville, Alliance board member Phil Goff, formerly a planner for the city of Portland, Ore., presented a slide show of changes made to the transportation grid there, along with suggestions for applying Portland's solutions to Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville.

Afterward, board member Mark Chase, one of the founders of Zipcar, said he believes that the group's approach -- idealism balanced by professional expertise -- will set it apart from others with a more radical, less practical approach.

''It's not anti-car; it's really looking at the balance of the system. The power that we have in our group is a lot of professional transportation planner-thinker people who are not just reactionary," he said. ''We all like alternative or sustainable transportation, but people drive and use cars, and we're really looking for a balanced system."

The group is planning to launch a membership drive in May; for information, go to www.livablestreets.info .