Bicycling and trails advocates meeting in Houston Wednesday heard exactly what they wanted from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who received a standing ovation when he listed the steps the city is taking to make biking safer and more accessible.

“​Every time we can do something other than get in a car, that is a plus,” Turner told attendees of the Texas Trails and Active Transportation Conference, meeting in the Texas Medical Center.

Crediting advocates and former mayor Annise Parker, Turner said the city has a thriving bike sharing system, better on-street amenities and a major asset in the bayou trails system. Still, 25 fatalities related to bicycling from 2010 to 2014 mean there is a lot more to do.

“​It is unfortunate and it is unacceptable,” Turner said of the bike-related crashes.

A citywide bike plan, which Turner said the city will use to build a much better bike network, is just one of the efforts underway to make Houston – though still car-centric – an example of good bicycle policies.

“​We are moving in the right direction,” he said. “We are not where we want to be, or even where we need to be. But the reality in this city is we are not standing still.”

Neither are advocates, who will spend the next three days discussing successes and challenges for improving cycling in Texas. Here are three things sure to play a big role in talks not only at the conference but in many communities.

Electric bikes are coming

The buzz at the conference is about electric bikes, something that will intensify as an electric bike expo begins Friday at Rice University.

“It’s another kind of mechanical advantage,” said Charlie Gandy, a nationally-known cycling advocate who was BikeTexas’s first executive director.

In Houston, where traveling distances are farther than in other metro areas, some suspect the bikes will be popular.

“​When Houston discovers e-bikes it is going to change your lives here,” said Robin Stallings, executive director of BikeTexas.

They’re pricey, however. Bikes displayed at the conference cost about $4,000, but they are selling in increasing numbers nationally.

Locals will lead

“​I think at the local level we can make tremendous progress,” Stallings said. “We can transform everything while they are still arguing in Austin.”

Potential funding heavily favors local bond elections and other municipal and county investments as opposed to state money. While the Houston area has repeatedly supported investments in transit and the bayou trails, Texas’ transportation officials have included language in the last two statewide ballot provision restricting spending to highways.

Houston is improving, via special investment

As much as can be done to improve Houston, much has been accomplished, local cycling advocates said.

“​It is really exciting to be in Houston right now,” said Robin Holzer, an associate principal at Traffic Engineers Inc.

In just the past three years, the city installed its first green cycle track along Lamar and dramatically expanded bayou trails.

The Energy Corridor, on the city’s western edge, competes with Austin in terms of dedicated bike lanes, Stallings said.

Many of those successes, however, came within special districts, which have different sources of money. Uptown officials, for example, are using captured sales tax revenues dedicated to the redevelopment authority to remake Post Oak, including a controversial dedicated bus line and also wider sidewalks for cyclists and pedestrians.