We’ve just won a big battle for biking and walking in the Senate. After several long weeks of intense work from advocates around the country, the Cardin-Cochran Amendment has been accepted as part of the base Senate transportation bill, MAP-21.
If MAP-21 becomes law, the language from this amendment will ensure that local governments, school systems, and metropolitan planning organizations are able to access much-needed funds to make bicycling and walking safe and accessible.
With the acceptance of the Cardin-Cochran amendment, here’s how MAP-21 would work if it becomes law:
Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails are consolidated into a new program called Additional Activities.
State Departments of Transportation (DOTs) will make their Additional Activities funding available to metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) and local governments. Here’s how they’ll allocate the funds:
The state DOT will allocate 50% of the Additional Activities, based on population, to MPOs and rural areas. MPOs will then distribute the funds through a competitive grant program for projects in their communities.
For the remaining 50% of Additional Activities, the state DOT would host its own competitive grant process for projects. Local governments, school districts, and others would be eligible to compete for this funding.
If it becomes law, this legislation would ensure that local governments and communities have a voice in the transportation decisions that affect their streets. The safeguards included in MAP-21 would ensure that communities of every size benefit from making their own localized transportation decisions for safe streets.
Huge thanks to everyone who helped make this happen, including:
Senators Cardin (D-MD) and Cochran (R-MS) who sponsored the original amendment.
Environment and Public Works Committee leadership who accepted the language into the base bill:
Senator Boxer (D-CA)
Senator Inhofe (R-OK)
Senator Baucus (D-MT)
Senator Vitter (R-LA)
And of course, everyone who called and emailed in support of this amendment. Your voices made this possible!
In order to make this law, the Reid Amendment must pass the Senate. Please urge your Senators to vote for cloture on the Reid Amendment!
Stay tuned to the America Bikes website for updates and developments. And thank you again for your continued support and hard work to make biking and walking in America safe and accessible.
It’s time to ask both chambers of Congress to save our streets.
The current Senate transportation bill dilutes walking and biking programs. To improve the bill, we’re asking senators to vote for the Cardin-Cochran amendment on the floor to guarantee local governments a voice in transportation decisions, allowing them to build sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that keep people safe.
In the House, we are asking representatives to oppose the House transportation bill. Despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is a low-cost investment that creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking.
As written, the Senate’s transportation bill removes dedicated funding for walking and biking and allows state DOTs to opt-out of safe street programs. The Cardin-Cochran amendment would improve the bill by ensuring that local governments can apply directly for funds to build walking and biking infrastructure.
Tell your senators:
Local governments deserve a voice in transportation. The Cardin-Cochran amendment ensures that cities and counties have a voice in making transportation decisions for safer streets in their communities.
Safety matters. Bicycle and pedestrian deaths make up 14% of all traffic fatalities, but only 1.5% of federal funds go towards making walking and biking safer. These programs provide funding for sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that make streets safe for all users.
Active transportation is a wise investment. Walking and biking infrastructure is low-cost, creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway spending, and is critical to economic development for main street America.
On the other side of Congress, the House is considering a transportation bill (HR 7) that reverses 20 years of progress in making streets safer for people. Despite the fact that walking and biking make up 12% of trips but receive only 1.5% of federal funding, the House bill eliminates dedicated funding for walking and biking. It’s time to defeat this bill.
Tell your representative:
HR 7 takes us back to the 1950s. HR 7 takes us back to a 1950s system by eliminating dedicated funding for biking and walking AND kicking transit out of the highway trust fund. We need a transportation bill to meet 2012 needs, not 1950 needs.
HR 7 doesn’t invest wisely. Federal transportation laws should invest our finite resources in cost-effective, efficient infrastructure solutions that create jobs and keep the economy moving. The House bill eliminates walking and biking, despite the fact that walking and bicycling infrastructure is low-cost and creates more jobs per dollar than any other kind of highway funding.
HR 7 makes streets more dangerous for kids. By repealing the successful and effective Safe Routes to School program, the House bill makes the streets more dangerous for kids on their walks and bike rides to school.
As we continue our efforts to preserve critical funding for biking and walking in the next federal transportation bill, it’s vitally important that policymakers and the press have the right information when it comes to the benefits and of active transportation. On that note: Andy Clarke has a great post over on the League of American Bicyclists blog debunking some off-base weekend remarks from House Speaker John Boehner.
The executive director of the League points out that: “Speaker John Boehner’s weekend claim that 25% of the highway dollars are ‘siphoned off for non-economic projects – such as beautification and bikepaths’ came as a bit of a shock. The nation’s bicyclists must have gotten a big raise over the holidays, because last November Boehner and his buddy Eric Cantor were claiming only ten percent of highway funds were ‘diverted’ this way. Neither figure is anywhere close to the truth, of course.”
In fact, people who bike and walk make up nearly 12 percent of trips and 14 percent of roadway fatalities but get less than 2 percent — 2 percent! — of federal transportation dollars. If you haven’t already, download the 2012 Benchmarking Report and make sure your local policymakers understand the tremendous impact that tiny sliver of federal funding has on your community.
Read the full blog for Andy here. And stay tuned for future posts fact-checking policymakers statements and providing you the talking points you need to preserve funding for biking and walking during this critical time.
On Thursday, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee narrowly voted against preserving the small amount of essential federal funds that make it safer for people who walk and bike across the country. During the contentious vote, 27 committee members supported the bipartisan Petri-Johnson-Lipinski amendment, coming just two votes shy of a victory.
The good news: Thanks to incredible efforts of many local advocacy leaders to engage grassroots members in action, we gained bipartisan support for the amendment and showed Congress that we mean business.
The amendment was introduced with support from both sides of the aisle: Representatives Tom Petri (R-WI), Tim Johnson (R-IL), and Frank LoBiondo (R-NJ) and all committee Democrats voted in favor of the bill. These three Republican Representatives deserve special commendation, because they chose to champion safety for all road users despite extreme pressure from their House leadership to essentially throw school children, pedestrians and cyclists off the bridge to the future.
And we definitely got the House leadership’s attention. The amendment sparked heated remarks from both sides, including an impassioned defense of Safe Routes to School by Representative DeFazio (D-OR).
But there is still a long climb ahead.
Elimination of funds for biking and walking isn’t the only reason the House bill is terrible policy. The House bill puts public transit in jeopardy by diverting transit funds, an issue that has raised the alarm at Transportation for America and the American Public Transportation Association. A coalition of environmental organizations strongly objects to the bill’s environmentally backwards provisions, as well.
The Alliance joins our partners at America Bikes in thanking the tens of thousands of bicycling and pedestrian advocates from across the country who contacted their representatives on the T&I Committee in support of the Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School programs. The amendment also drew support from more than 60 national, state, and local organizations that recognize the importance of federal support for local infrastructure and safety projects. Several Alliance organizations engaged their membership on this effort, and we appreciate their leadership.
As the House bill moves through committee to the floor and the Senate makes progress on its transportation bill, the Alliance is working with America Bikes to engage our organizations in key states that will help ensure influential Representatives and Senators are on our side and can support needed action to protect funding for walking and biking. Please stay tuned for specific emails to engage your organization in this focused strategy and be sure to contact me at Jeff@PeoplePoweredMovement.org with any questions or concerns.
And be sure to register for two important events this Wednesday, February 8:
1 p.m. Eastern: Federal Policy Webinar, hosted by the Alliance and the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. We’ll be joined by Caron Whitaker, Campaign Director for America Bikes, who will have up-to-the-minute information from Capitol Hill and insight on collective strategies to preserve dedicated funding for biking and walking in the next federal transportation bill. Register here.
2 p.m. Eastern: Working with Your Members of Congress Mutual Aid Call. Now, more than ever, building and cultivating relationships with your members of Congress is vital to protecting biking and walking funding at the federal level. Hear examples, strategies, tips and insight from Tyler Frisbee, legislative assistant to Congressman Earl Blumenauer; Ed Barsotti, Executive Director of the League of Illinois Bicyclists; and Gerik Kransky, Advocacy Director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance. Register here.
Yesterday, the House released its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. We expected the bill to be bad news for biking and walking, but we didn’t think it would go so far as to reverse all progress we’ve made over the past 20 years. (Check out the Top 10 Reasons the House Bill is Bad for Bicycling and Walking from Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists, on the right.)
If your member of Congress is on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, please take action TODAY. With a vote coming in the T&I committee TOMORROW, tell your Representative to preserve biking and walking. Click here to contact your Representative through the League’s Action Center.
House leadership is exerting pressure to completely cut bicycling and walking out of transportation. Lawmakers seem to have gone through the bill, line-by-line, to gut programs that make streets safer. The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act:
Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
Removes requirements for states to build bridges with safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
There’s still a chance to save biking and walking. Tomorrow, in the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Representatives Tom Petri (R-WI) and Timothy Johnson (R-IL) plan to stand up to leadership by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Petri and Johnson can only be successful if everyone with a stake in safe sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways contacts his or her Representative today.
This is as urgent as it gets. Even if we win this amendment, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress.
If members of the Transportation Committee are going to stand up to House leadership by supporting biking and walking, they need to know their constituents are behind them. Please contact Congress TODAY and ask your Representative to preserve dedicated funding for biking and walking.
If you have a Representative on the T&I committee, please forward this action alert to your members and supporters. Pass it along to all your local partners — particularly high-level contacts like mayors, school board members, and business leaders — and ask them to weigh in, too. And thank you for all you do to advance biking and walking!
By Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator, America Bikes
For the past 20 years, the federal transportation program has included dedicated funding for biking and walking. Over the course of twenty years and three federal transportation laws, federal support for bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure projects has slowly ticked upwards. As a result, more and more communities feature safe roads for people who travel on foot or by bicycle.
In 1992, Congress passed ISTEA, the first federal transportation bill to include funding for transit, biking, and walking. As each consecutive transportation bill passed and continued dedicated funding for biking and walking, funding increased from $23 million for 50 new projects in 1992 to $297 million for 971 projects in 2000, to a record $1.2 billion for 3,010 projects in 2009.
But now a new transportation bill threatens to eliminate dedicated federal funding for biking and walking.
Next Thursday, February 2, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will vote on the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, a bill that eliminates crucial funds for biking and walking. Representatives on the T&I Committee are in a key position to save dedicated funding for biking and walking. If you live in the district of a T&I committee member (click here for a list), please take action today. Click here to send a message directly to your Representative through the League of American Bicyclists’ Action Center.
The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act, the long awaited multi-year transportation bill, eliminates the two largest programs that fund biking and walking infrastructure — Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. Without these programs, communities across the country will lose resources to build the sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways that make biking and walking safer and more accessible.
We can’t let that happen.
Biking and walking are essential aspects of everyday transportation in the US, and turning off federal funding for projects that keep Americans safe would represent a significant step backwards.
Federal funding for biking and walking keeps people safe. Two out of three pedestrian deaths take place on roads built with federal funding, and new sidewalks, crosswalks, and bikeways help end preventable deaths and make roads safer for everyone. Moreover, biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips and 14 percent of road fatalities, but only 1.5 percent of all federal transportation funding.
We at America Bikes are working with our partners to introduce an amendment that will preserve funding for biking and walking. During Thursday’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee vote in the House, Representatives will have the opportunity to pass this amendment to save biking and walking. If you live in the district of a T&I Committee member, please take action today!
To learn more about this issue and keep up-to-date as the bill moves forward, visit http://americabikes.org/.
The America Bikes coalition — representing the nation’s leading bicycling and walking groups — today expressed their appreciation for the continued inclusion of funding opportunities for biking and walking in MAP‐21.
America Bikes remains deeply concerned, however, that bicycling and walking programs suffer disproportionate cuts in funding in the new bill, and that significant additional activities are made eligible for these limited funds. We remain committed to working with the EPW Committee and full Senate to resolve these issues, especially in the light of the Senate’s continued, strong bi‐partisan support for bicycle and pedestrian funding as shown in several recent votes on the Senate floor.
The process of honoring the public’s strong support for these programs begins immediately with amendments that have been introduced already by Senate supporters of dedicated funding for non‐motorized transportation.
Specific concerns include:
1. The current dedicated funding programs for bicycling and walking are combined into one program, with significantly less funding;
2. An expanded list of eligible activities are added to this smaller funding pot, including such big‐ticket items as NEPA compliance and land acquisition for wetland mitigation; and
3. The proposed bill effectively allows states to completely opt out of the program and would allow all this money to be redirected to highway construction.
The America Bikes coalition calls on the leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to restore dedicated funding for bicycling and walking in MAP‐21 and remove the opt‐out provision that would encourage States to eliminate funding for these two modes altogether.
When America Bikes, America Benefits
From San Francisco to Bentonville, Arkansas, and from Oklahoma City to New York City, communities are increasingly investing in bicycling and walking infrastructure and programs to support popular, healthy and cost‐effective transportation. These investments — made possible by dedicated federal transportation dollars — are working:
Commuting trips by bike have increased nationwide by more than 40% since 2000; bicycling and walking now account for 12% of all trips in the United States.
Thousands of Safe Routes to School programs are reducing congestion and improving safety in communities across the country.
Recreational trails are heavily used and provide crucial economic benefits, especially in rural communities.
A transportation bill designed to efficiently move America in this new century should continue to include dedicated funding to create safe and accessible places for people to bike and walk. Since 2005, a total of just 1.5 percent of annual federal transportation funding has been devoted to supporting these activities. Biking and walking not only comprise more than 12 percent of all trips but also account for 14% of annual traffic fatalities.
Dedicated funding for bike/ped projects – one or two cents of every dollar – is a time‐tested, popular, and effective approach to building a truly multi‐modal national transportation system that offers choice, safety and access for all. Increasing the safety and use of non‐motorized transportation reduces congestion, saves lives and money, protects the environment…and creates more jobs per million dollars of investment than highway‐only projects: exactly what MAP‐21 should be trying to do.
Dedicated funding for bicycling and walking enjoys broad support at all levels of Government. Less than one week ago, 60 Senators voted in bi‐partisan support of preserving the Transportation Enhancement program – the third such vote in support of the program this year. At the state level, transportation enhancement, safe routes to school and recreational trails programs typically receive at least three times more requests for funding than is available. In May, a survey by the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed solid support among Mayors for funding of bicycling and walking infrastructure.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee published its proposal for the next federal transportation program late on November 4. The 600-page bill will be marked-up in committee on Wednesday, November 9. The proposed legislation makes significant changes to the core, dedicated funding programs for bicycling and walking activities, as this side-by-side analysis shows.
America Bikes coalition members and staff are analyzing the bill, working with committee staff and members to address specific issues, and preparing to brief the media and stakeholders on all aspects of the proposed legislation. Please visit the America Bikes website and stay tuned to the Alliance blog for updates today and in the days ahead.
It’s happening again. Just one month ago, Sen. Coburn (R-OK) failed in his efforts to strip funding for Transportation Enhancements from the six-month transportation extension. Now, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is taking the lead in trying to destroy Transportation Enhancements. On November 1, the Senate will finalize the transportation appropriations bill, which sets funding levels for FY2012. Sen. Paul has offered an amendment to redirect all funding for Transportation Enhancements to bridge repair.
We agree on the need to keep our bridges safe, but the lives of pedestrians and cyclists are important, too. Thirteen people died when the Minneapolis bridge collapsed in 2007. Since then, close to 20,000 pedestrians and 2,800 cyclists have died on our nation’s highways, largely as a result of poor highway design and a lack of safe non-motorized infrastructure – exactly what the enhancement program was created to fix.
If Sen. Paul’s amendment is successful, it would eliminate approximately $700 million in federal funding for FY2012 that is used to construct sidewalks, bike lanes, bike paths, trails and other infrastructure that makes it safe for bicyclists and pedestrians to get around. Even if every penny of these funds is diverted to bridge repairs, Senator Paul’s plan will still take 80 years to fix the backlog of bridge repairs we have today — by which time all those repaired bridges would be falling down again.
Remember that the TE program represents less than two percent of the federal transportation program and these projects help alleviate traffic congestion, improve safety, get people active, and create more jobs per dollar than highway-only projects.
Remember also that last year, states sent back to Washington $530 million of unspent bridge funds in rescissions. The states are leaving bridge repair funds on the table, unspent, year after year. They should at least spend these funds first.
If the Paul amendment succeeds, it will make it much more challenging to sustain funding for Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails in the long-term transportation bill that the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee starts debating on November 9.
We must turn back any amendment to strip Transportation Enhancements.
Last month, more than 75,000 messages were sent to Senators to ask them to stand strong for Transportation Enhancements. Thank you, that was an amazing turnout – but we must do better this time. Every time someone in Congress attacks bicycling and walking, we must push back even stronger than we did the time before. And, we will keep doing it until bicycle and pedestrian funding is protected.
This is the third time in a month that a small group of Senators has targeted Transportation Enhancements, using a different angle each time. It is a waste of the Senate’s time and taxpayers’ dollars to focus on this small and valuable program when we are in dire need of real and viable solutions to fix our failing transportation system.
Yesterday, the Alliance hosted our partners at America Bikes for our latest Federal Policy Call. Mike Samuelson, our Members Services and Open Streets Coordinator, compiled these detailed notes…
Debt Ceiling: What it means for the new transportation bill Any discussion or debate on the new transportation bill has been put off until after Labor Day, as Congress is focused on resolving the issue of the debt celling. The debt ceiling debate has increased partisanship, which will negatively affect everything else still on the table, including transportation. The increased partisanship will make it more difficult to keep transportation funding at SAFETEA-LU levels. Due to the time constraints between when Congress returns from the summer break and when the current bill expires on September 30, there is an increased likelihood that we won’t see anything new until the end of September. Then we may see some short-term extensions at the end of September. This is all assuming that the debt ceiling is raised in August.
Senate Bill We did see some movement toward a new bill in the Senate this month. Senators Boxer (D-CA) and Inhofe (R-OK) announced that they have an agreement for a two-year bill at current funding levels (compared to the House bill, which would cut total funding by 35 percent). The main theme of the hearing was to let interest groups know that, if they want to avoid a cut in funding, they need to get behind the Senate’s bill.
In order to keep this level of funding, the Senate needs to find an additional $12 billion. Senator Baucus (MT), the Chair of the Finance Committee, is optimistic that he can secure this funding, but he can’t do it until the debt ceiling is resolved. Senator Inhofe has been very clear that he will not support a bill that is not paid for, so it is crucial that the Senate find the needing funding to preserve SAFETEA-LU levels.
At the hearing Senator Boxer said that, Safe Routes to School, Recreational Trails and “bike paths” will continue to have dedicated funding (meaning these programs won’t have to compete with road projects). We believe “bike paths” are referenced instead of Transportation Enhancements because that program will be under a new name. However, we still believe it will include dedicated funding. We have asked for equivalent levels of funding to what the programs receive now, which we believe to be the case in the Senate’s proposal. We thank Senator Boxer for her continued support of biking and walking and anxiously await the actual bill language. Until we see the language, we cannot be sure the bill adequately protects biking and walking.
In both the Senate and the House bills, there is language on streamlining projects, which could be a benefit for biking and walking projects — but again we still need to see language to be sure. There has been talk of penalizing agencies that don’t issue permits in a certain time frame, which would be good for our projects.
We expect to see language sometime in September, but it depends on several factors.
House Bill Earlier this month, Rep. Mica (R-FL) released an outline of the House bill and had a press conference, which was followed by a Democratic response denouncing the bill. We are hearing the House version has no Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School or Recreational Trails. Mica says he is trying to give as much flexibility to state DOTs as possible, and that these programs are still eligible for funding. Eliminating dedicated funding for these programs will make it difficult for them to secure any funding. (Please see the League memo on the difference between dedicated funding and eligibility.)
There may be something on performance measures related to congestion, state of good repair and safety. We are not sure how this will affect our projects, since these measures will be used to judge if DOTs are acting in the “national interests,” and Mica has come out and said that non-motorized projects are not considered part of this “national interest.”
We are looking for champions to get dedicated funding back into the bill. We hope to add an amendment at the committee level. The amendment would include all three programs (as opposed to separate amendments for each program). The bill is so unpopular that it will need to be moved through committee quickly and then to the floor, rather than a long sub-committee and committee process.
House THUD Next up on House schedule for the 2012 budget is Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, which is currently funded at such low levels that leaders don’t want to address its funding yet. Given that the House needs to do a budget, they are more likely to move on to the transportation appropriations bill, which would authorize Federal Highway Administration. The transportation appropriations bill doesn’t set funding for each program, which is good for us because it means to defund our programs Congress would have to specifically call out no funding for biking and walking, which would be much easier for us to fight against than Mica’s bill.
We expect our programs to fair well in the appropriations sub-committee, but we are preparing for a possible fight at the full committee or floor debate. We are hoping to avoid that, but we may come back to Alliance groups in September saying there is an amendment in the appropriation process to cut bike/ped.
What is most likely to happen is we get a short-term extension on SAFETEA-LU and a continuing resolution on the budget for two to four weeks. We are looking at a fight on the extension, with the House saying they won’t do an extension without some cuts to funding, and bike/ped may be vulnerable to these cuts.
Outreach to Members of Congress Please contact your member of Congress and ask them to support continued dedicated funding for biking and walking in both appropriations and transportation. At this point, it is too early to ask about extensions. We are asking local advocates to reach out to congressional members in August, when they will be in-district for most of the month.
It’s important to constantly be working on your relationship with your member of Congress. Here are some things you can do:
Go to town hall meetings (Find out when they are by contacting your district office.)
Invite them to events to show off a bike/ped facility or do a “study tour,” piggy back on another event, invite them to address a crowd of constituents at your event
Media events/ op-eds/ articles/ etc
If you have not met with your member of Congress, schedule an in-district meeting
It is also important to remember that you won’t always be able to get the member to attend your meeting or event, but it is still worthwhile to have a staffer attend in the member’s place. Staffers help formulate the member’s policy, so influencing staffers is key to influencing members.
Action Alert from America Bikes America Bikes issued the first national action alert of the year on July 7th, after Mica’s press conference on the House’s new transportation bill. America Bikes asked that advocates contact their members of Congress to ask for dedicated biking and walking. We are showing a total of 56,000 messages to members. In the House, more than half the offices received 25 messages or more, while in Senate more than half of the members received 277 or more. Both California Senators received more than 3,000 messages each.
Thank you to everyone who responded to the alert and contacted their members of Congress.
For more information on the response to the alert, contact Nathan at Nathan@americabikes.og. If you have additional data to share that didn’t go through any of the national partners, please contact Nathan, as well.
These action alerts play a huge role in shaping the national policy. An earlier push in California led to dedicated funding in the Senate bill by putting pressure on Senator Boxer. You are making a difference. Keep up the great work!
TIGER 3 Darren Flusche of the League of American Bicyclists attended a question-and-answer event with senior policy staff at USDOT on applying for TIGER grants. The staff said that adding a bike/ped piece to a proposal can make a project more attractive, but it is important to focus on how bike/ped is part of a larger transportation strategy and not just for recreation.
Remember to estimate the number of users for the new project. USDOT needs these numbers to calculate the economic benefits of project. And as simple as it sounds, it is so important to read the application guidelines and make sure your application meets those guides. Show how your project is a high priority. There is also $10 million minimum for application, so don’t bother applying for any projects smaller than $10 million.
TIGER 3 will total $527 million dollars, funding multi-modal, non-traditional projects that are difficult to fund through normal funding process. Multi-modal programs are very popular, and more than half in the past grant awards have included biking/walking. These include complete streets projects, bike and ped networks, as well as projects where biking and walking are included but not the central piece.
Rumble Strips Since early 2010, the Alliance, League of American Bicyclists and Adventure Cycling Association have been working with FHWA Safety Office on concerns over rumble strip applications. In May 2011, the FHWA quietly distributed a new Technical Advisory (guidance) to district offices and state departments of transportation (DOTs) on the installation of rumble strips. Unfortunately, this guidance doesn’t meet the standards necessary to ensure the safety of cyclists, and we did not get a chance to review it before its release.
The new FHWA guidance on the installation of both shoulder and centerline rumble strips is significantly worse for bicyclists than the 2001 guidance. Not surprisingly, they did not notify us of the new guidance before sending it out to their district offices, even though we’d continually asked them to do so. Upon learning of the new guidance in mid-June, we immediately contacted FHWA and set up a meeting. On July 18, the Alliance, League and Adventure Cycling met with FHWA and USDOT staff to express our concerns with the process and the lack of accommodation for bicycling in the new guidance. As a result, we are submitting written detail of the specific points the bicycling community wants to see addressed in the new guidance.
We made it clear that we are holding back on raising the alarm with bicyclists across the country, but we are asking for a complete revision of the Technical Advisory and will track this process very closely in the coming weeks. If we don’t succeed we will let you all know and mobilize as needed. For now, please wait to take any action.
America Bikes Starting a Bi-Weekly Newsletter for Hill Staff
America Bikes is about to launch an e-mail newsletter to cultivate stronger working relationships and to share up-to-date information with our allies on the Hill. A major objective of the newsletter will be to generate more enthusiasm for bicycle issues in the Hill by spotlighting successful efforts to advance biking and walking at the state and local levels – especially those that demonstrate broad public support for biking and walking as a top priority.
Please make a habit of sending us stories on successful state legislative wins. For example: Delaware bike advocates recently secured $5 million for bike-ped through a General Assembly bond bill which was endorsed by the Governor and enjoyed unanimous support on committee. We want to hear what’s happening in your state and community. Send your stories to Carolyn@PeoplePoweredMovement.org.
Dedicated funding for biking and walking has been cut in the transportation proposal from the U.S. House of Representatives.
John Mica, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, would eliminate critical Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails programs — programs that Mica referred to as “not in the national interest.” Chairman Mica’s statement that these uses remain “eligible” for funding is worthless. Without dedicated funding for these three programs they are effectively eliminated.
Things on the Senate side are not much better. Senator James Inhofe, a lead negotiator in the Senate debate, declared that one of his TOP THREE priorities for the transportation bill is to eliminate ‘frivolous spending for bike trails.’ This is in direct conflict with Senator Barbara Boxer’s commitment to maintain dedicated funding for biking and walking. However, the Senate is working towards a bi-partisan solution – and Senator Inhofe’s comments mean funding for bicycling and pedestrian programs is at risk of total elimination.
We need every single person who simply wants safe options to walk or bicycle to contact their Senators and Representative TODAY! We ask all Alliance member organizations to engage your members to make these calls as well.
Thanks to our partners at the League of American Bicyclists, you can direct your members to use the LAB Action Center to send message to their members of Congress.
Not in the National Interest?
Biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips in the US – even as funding for biking and walking projects only account for 1.5% of the federal transportation budget. That’s more than 4 billion bicycle trips and 40 billion walking trips per year, including trips to work, school, shopping and for recreation and tourism.
Frivolous?
Bicyclists and pedestrians are the victims of reckless highway design, accounting for 14% of all traffic-related deaths. Two-thirds of all pedestrian deaths are on federally funded highways. Bicycling and walking programs build sidewalks, crosswalks and bikeways, improving accessibility and saving lives.
The Facts
Biking and walking are important forms of transportation, and dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian improvements is a very efficient use of federal transportation dollars. Portland, Oregon built a 300-mile network of bike lanes, multi-use trails, and bike boulevards for the cost of one mile of highway.
These projects also create jobs, and build local economies. Building bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure creates 46% more jobs than building road-only projects per million dollars spent. Cities that invest in bicycle and pedestrian projects turn downtowns into destinations, and capitalize on increased business activity.
Finally, shifting 1.5% of transportation spending has no impact on the federal budget, but instead, decreases transportation options for American families in a time of rising gas prices and an uncertain economy.
Help Protect Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and Recreational Trails. Contact your Representative and Senators, and tell them to reach out to Senators Inhofe, Boxer, and Congressman Mica to urge them to continue dedicated funding for these important biking and walking programs. We need every Senator and every Representative to speak out for walking and biking.
Why Now?
Both the House and Senate long-term transportation bills are being written as we speak. We still have a chance of influencing the outcomes. Let’s make sure that dedicated funding for biking and walking programs don’t disappear for many years.
Your Next Steps
Use the LAB Action Center — and direct your members to use the LAB Action Center — to send a message to your members of Congress.
We appreciate your efforts to help all of us maintain these important programs. Please contact Jeremy Grandstaff, Alliance Member Services Director, at jeremy@PeoplePoweredMovement.org, if you have any questions.
Yesterday, the Alliance held a federal policy call with input and insight from our partners at America Bikes. Listen to the call recording here and download timelines for the transportation bill here. Notes below from Alliance member services fellow, Mike Samuelson.
Transportation Bill
We have less information now than when Representative Jim Oberstar was the chair of the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, so we have to be ready whenever the bill is released. We know we keep sending updates, saying the bill is coming, but that is what we are being told. We know this is frustrating and we appreciate your willingness to stick with us.
We are hearing that there will not be funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School in the House version of the bill, so it is important that we are ready to contact committee members once the bill comes out. We are currently working with Republicans to stick up for our programs as the bill is being written.
Once the bill is made public, we expect to have 72 hours before sub-committee or committee action (most likely to be in committee). There will be a federal policy call within 24 hours of the bill’s release, briefing you on what our actions will be.
Rep. John Mica, chair of the House T&I committee, has asked Republicans to not introduce or vote for amendments in committee, in return he will include their priorities in a manager’s amendment before introducing the bill on the House floor. We are now hearing the House bill will be released the week of July 4. Even if that happens, and we have committee action in July, there may not be floor action until September, because Congress will be busy addressing the issue of the debt ceiling. Once the bill is on the floor, there will almost certainly be an amendment trying to strip any funding for biking and walking that we have been able to add to the bill, so we will have to be ready to combat that. That means we will have all of August to reach out to members of Congress when they are home, in the district, during recess.
On the Senate side, we are in a better position because we have more friends on the committee writing the bill. We are hearing that the Senate bill will come out in June, although this seems increasingly unlikely. Again, it is hard to judge when the bill will be released because the staff keep telling us it could be any time now. We are more confident — but not convinced — that our programs will be in the Senate version of the bill, and again we will likely see a floor amendment trying to strip our programs from the final bill.
The current bill is scheduled to expire September 30, and if the new bill is not on track, there may be an extension of the current bill. Although an extension is looking more and more likely, it is still important that we make our voices heard. It’s likely that an extension will be funded at lower levels, or with program cuts, and we want to make sure that bike/ped programs fair well.
Appropriations/Budget Process
A recent change in House rules and the lack of money in the Highway Trust Fund means that funding levels, even in an extension, may not be extended at current levels. This year the Appropriations committee will have a larger role in determining which programs get funded. This may actually be good news, because the members of the Appropriation Committee (and especially the transportation sub-committee) are friendly toward us. The Transportation and HUD sub-committee plans to have a bill out by July 11 and marked up by July 14. If your member of Congress is an appropriator, please reach out to them and ask them to support dedicated funding for bicycling and walking programs, like Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School and the Recreational Trails Program.
On the Senate side, the process will be more delayed. They won’t start their process until the debt ceiling issue is decided. We probably wont see anything out of the Senate until September, meaning we will want to weigh in with the members in August.
What can be done at the local level
Continue reaching out to your Representatives and Senators to schedule in-district and in-state meetings and invite them to event and ribbon cuttings. Even if you have already had a district meeting, you can schedule another, once the bill is released. Let them know that people in their district/state use these programs and there is strong support for their continued funding.
Job Creation Study
America Bikes has been working with the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research Institute (PERI) on a study examining the number of jobs created from infrastructure investments. Specifically, the study compares the number of jobs created for bike projects compared to road projects. The current study is based on 11 cities and 58 projects, and is a continuation of a smaller project in Baltimore, which showed bike projects created roughly twice as many jobs as road projects. Results appear to be similar to those in the initial Baltimore study, which showed that bicycle and pedestrian projects create more jobs per million dollars thank road-only projects. The final report will likely come out in the next couple of weeks.
From 2000 to 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed on American roadways. Another 688,000 were injured — the equivalent of a pedestrian being hit by a car or truck every seven minutes. Despite this preventable epidemic, few resources are dedicated and little attention is paid to making our streets safe for vulnerable users.
This disturbing trend is laid out in compelling and action-able fashion in Dangerous by Design 2011, released today by Transportation for America.
The update to a 2009 report by the same name uses a Pedestrian Danger Index (PDI) to rank the country’s largest metropolitan areas according to their relative risk to walkers. Topping the list of most-dangerous communities for pedestrians: Orlando-Kissimmee, FL; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL; Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL; Jacksonville, FL; Memphis, TN-MS-AR; Raleigh-Cary, NC; Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN; Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX; Birmingham-Hoover, AL; Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA.
Click here to find data for your state or community.
Overall, the report finds: “The roads have gotten somewhat safer, but pedestrian fatalities have fallen at only half the rate of motorist fatalities, dropping by just over 14 percent during the period, compared to 27 percent for motor vehicle fatalities. In many places, including 15 of the country’s largest metro areas, pedestrian fatalities have actually increased, even as overall traffic deaths fell.”
Dangerous by Design also highlights the critical role of the federal government in providing the funding and creating the policies to improve pedestrian safety.
According to the report: “[Pedestrian] deaths typically are labeled ‘accidents,’ and attributed to error on the part of motorist or pedestrian. In fact, however, the majority of these deaths share a common thread: they occurred along “arterial” roadways that were dangerous by design, streets engineered for speeding traffic with little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on bicycles… 67 percent of all 47,000+ pedestrian fatalities from 2000 to 2009 occurred on federal-aid roadways — major roads eligible to receive federal funding for construction and improvements with federal guidelines or oversight for design.”
“Fortunately,” the report continues, “improving the pedestrian environment requires a relatively small public investment, one greatly outweighed by the cost savings that would result from reducing traffic-related fatalities and improving health. Congress has an opportunity to help communities fix past mistakes and make our streets safer – not just for people on foot, but for everyone who uses them.”
T4America suggests several key ways the next federal transportation bill can start to reverse this tragic trend, including:
Retain dedicated federal funding for the safety of people on foot or on bicycle.
Adopt a national complete streets policy. (Click here to learn more about the Safe and Complete Streets Act of 2011 and contact your member of Congress.)
Commit a fair share for safety. (Click here to read the latest Advocacy Advance report on winning funding for bike/ped projects from the Highway Safety Improvement Program.)
Download the full report, access the interactive map of pedestrian fatalities and see how your state ranks on the T4America website.
In case you weren’t able to make it to the Alliance Federal Policy Call yesterday, here are key topics we discussed with our partners at America Bikes.
Budget Cuts to CDC Programs The 2012 budget proposed by the President in February zeros out funding for two important programs run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These two programs, the Built Environment program and the Healthy Communities program, support communities and non-profits in building and promoting active transportation. The Safe Routes to School National Partnership and the YMCA are circulating a sign-on letter for organizational sign on. Click here to read the letter and here to access background sheets on the two programs. For ease of collecting and collating the signatures, the partnership created a quick SurveyMonkey form that everyone can use to add their organization. It’s available at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FTQJJZN.
AASHTO letter UPDATE: Good news: “In response to the concerns expressed by several members of AASHTO’s Board of Directors, President Martinovich has directed AASHTO for the time being to withdraw its request that FHWA rescind its guidance on the meaning of “due consideration” of bicycle and pedestrian needs.” Read more from the League here — and thanks to all who acted on the League’s alert on this issue!...
BACKGROUND: In early March, US Department of Transportation put out a call for comments/suggestions on how to make its regulations run more smoothly. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) released a letter and supplemental document, which asked the USDOT to weaken its guidance on accommodating bicyclists and pedestrians. America Bikes has written a letter to USDOT outlining why we disagree with AASHTO. The National Center for Bicycling and Walking has also sent a letter to AASHTO, while the League of American Bicyclists and the National Complete Streets Coalition contacted friendly state DOTs to ask them to contact AASHTO and express their disagreement with the letter. America Bikes now has a meeting set up with AASHTO to discuss their stance on bike/ped issues. If you have contacts with your state DOT, ask them to contact AASHTO and express their support for biking and walking, and their concern with AASHTO comments to USDOT. This is another chance to show the strong support that exists for biking and walking. As we enter back into reauthorization discussions, this gives us a platform to show that state DOTs are still too focused on building roads and that we need set asides for bike/ped funding.
2011 Budget and Rescission The Partnership for Sustainable Communities (HUD / DOT / EPA) and TIGER were not cut. Money in 2011 bill that was set aside for TIGER is still there for the most part, so keep an eye out for the next round of grants. However, the budget did include $3.2 billion in transportation rescissions. A large part of the rescissions ($700 million) will be coming out of old earmarks that, in some cases, stretch back more than a decade. An additional $2.5 billion is being taken from across the board. Even though TE and CMAQ are only 7 percent of the total budget, last year they made up for 44 percent of rescissions. Please contact your state DOT and let them know that we do not want disproportionate cuts for these programs. Safe Routes to School is not part of this rescission, which is why you do not see it in the alert. DOTs will have to make decisions on rescissions in the next two or three weeks. Some states did make proportional cuts last year, but the majority did not. The alert targets governors since they are elected officials and the DOT works for them. Please use the alerts that we have forwarded.
Transportation Authorization Bill The House of Representatives is looking at the introduction of a new bill between early May and early June. They’re looking at a 35 percent funding cut, which could bring the bill to less than $200 billion over six years. It’s very unlikely that it will include any of our programs (SRTS, TE or Recreational Trails). We have a much better chance of keeping our programs in a committee vote than if we have to go to the full House for a vote. The Senate is also looking to introduce a bill in late May or early June. That bill is looking to be about $285 billion (about the size of SAFETEA-LU). The Senate’s bill is looking at Obama’s budget plan and trying to consolidate many of our programs into one program — most likey with CMAQ. If both chambers do not include SRTS, TE and Rec Trails in their bills, we risk losing the programs completely. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is willing to fight for us, but she is getting a lot of pressure to consolidate programs. We do have many good allies in the Senate who we can work with.
Given where we are and that the bills are supposed to be coming out in the next couples weeks, this is a great time to reach out to your Representative or Senators, especially if they are members of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the House or Environmental and Public Works Committee in the Senate. Follow up with people you have had meetings with and see if you can get them out for a Bike-to-Work Event. Use member’s in-district time to meet with them and gather as many allies as you can to show the wide support for biking and walking. It’s even better if you can do a “show me” event, during which you take a Representative or Senator to a bike/ped project that was built with one these programs.
Dangerous by Design Dangerous By Design, a report by Transportation for America (T4A) highlighting pedestrian fatalities, is due out May 24. This year’s report will include state-level data and maps showing the most dangerous counties and metropolitan areas, and will advocate for funding on biking and walking and complete streets. T4A will be organizing state-level events and in–district meetings, and they’re looking for local groups interested in participating. Please contact Akshai Singh (akshai.singh@t4america.org) if you’re interested in participating or helping to organize the district visit and/or a press event. This report got significant news coverage two years ago, and should again.
During our information-packed Federal Policy Call last week, our friends at America Bikes highlighted the importance of upcoming listening sessions being held by Congressman John Mica (R-Florida). Mica is the chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and made clear that, before he starts to write the new federal transportation bill, he’ll visit the districts and hear from the constituents of all the new members of the T&I committee.
If you live in one of these cities or regions, mark your calendars and attend a listening session. This is a vital opportunity to make sure our issues are heard.
Listening session locations:
February 14 – West Virginia
February 17 – Philadelphia, PA
February 18 – Rochester, NY
February 19-20 – Columbus, OH; Indianapolis, IN; suburbs of Chicago, IL
February 21-23 – Portland, OR; Vancouver, WA; Fresno, CA; and Southern California
We know that federal policy can feel far removed from your day-to-day efforts to improve biking and walking in your community. But Congress is gearing up for a crucial vote that could dramatically impact funding for bicycling and walking. In this tough budget climate, we’ll need a tidal wave of support to preserve popular and cost effective programs that fund active transportation projects.
To get you geared up for action, we hosted our latest Federal Policy Call with America Bikes yesterday. Here are the highlights and action items from that call. You can download the full recording of the call from our Resources Library
New Study Shows Biking and Walking Projects Create More Jobs
American Bikes contracted with the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts on a new job-creation study focused on Baltimore, Maryland. The research showed that nearly twice as many jobs are created from biking and walking projects than regular road construction. The report (click here to access it in our Online Resource Library) is getting widespread attention, including this piece in Fast Company magazine. America Bikes hopes to work with other cities and towns to get similar data. If you’re interested in helping facilitate such a study in your area, e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
Important Change to House Rules
At the start of every new Congress, members of the House sit down and look at their rules. This time they made several changes that effect transportation funding. Generally speaking, federal programs go through two committees: one that determines policy and the other that determines funding levels. But, for the past decade, transportation funding has been different than any other federal program. Since 1998, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has determined both the policy and funding levels. Now, under the new rules, transportation will have to go through the appropriations like all other federal programs. That makes things a little more difficult for advocates.
Another unique aspect of transportation funding was the certainty provided by SAFETEA-LU — the federal transportation bill passed in 2005. It set levels of funding through 2009, specifying how much would be spent on each program. But, the latest extension of SAFETEA-LU expires on March 4. Congress will have to determine new funding levels for transportation and, because of the rule change, it will be appropriations, instead of T&I, leading that decision. The unfortunate reality is the committee will be looking to make dramatic cuts.
Maintaining funding at the 2009 level is a tough sell, because that would put the Highway Trust Fund into deficit spending. Members of Congress clearly aren’t keen on that idea. To only spend what’s in the Trust Fund, though, would mean as much as a 30 percent cut across the board — a drastic, and thus unlikely, scenario. But, it’s possible programs that fund biking and walking — Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes To School — could come under attack, and even be zeroed out.
So the grassroots ground game in the coming weeks will be critical. We need to show members of Congress that biking and walking programs are popular and cost-effective. Just as important, we need to show elected officials that it’s not worth disappointing thousands of voters to save such a small amount of money in the grand scheme of a large deficit. The stronger our showing now, the less likely our programs will come under attack again. So get ready: The very strong likelihood is that a House vote will happen the week of February 28th.
New Members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee
It’s been determined that T&I will have 61 members: 33 Republicans and 28 Democrats. A full 19 of the 33 Republicans are freshmen, which means they’re coming in with very little knowledge of how transportation has been done in a past and therefore facing a huge learning curve. The committee is also smaller than it has been in the past and, because of the push to eliminate earmarks, many experienced members jumped ship for more prestigious committee assignments.
Mica Listening Sessions
Congressman John Mica (R-Florida), the chair of T&I, will be holding listening sessions in the districts of new committee members before he writes the transportation bill. This is a vital opportunity to get out to these meetings and make sure our issues are heard. We’re confident these meetings will start around February 18th and run two to three weeks, but we don’t have the exact dates and times yet. It’s likely we’ll only get a week’s notice of these meetings, so, if you have a new member on the T&I committee (click here for a list), keep your eye out. We’ll let you know as soon as we do.
In-district Meetings with Members of Congress
After the mid-term election, America Bikes compiled a list of 191 members of the House who could be important in a vote on transportation. Over the past month, we’ve been working with advocates in those key districts to set up meetings with their members of Congress. Because we’re expecting a vote the week of February 28th, getting those meetings scheduled over the next several weeks is absolutely crucial. If you haven’t been contacted about setting up a meeting but would like to get involved, please .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at the Alliance.
If you have been contacted, you will receive (or may have already received) materials from America Bikes and the Alliance, outlining recommended talking points. For additional resources and inspiration, click here and here for two great examples of handouts highlighting the benefits of bicycling from the Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin. And check out this helpful resource from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (Sections 2-4 especially), which lists Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements funding in your state.
For members who have been supportive of biking and walking is the past, we want to express our gratitude and ask if they will be willing to speak on the House floor about the importance of these funding programs. For members who are new to Congress, we want to educate them on all the benefits of biking and walking and ask that they support continued funding of programs that fund these popular, cost-effective projects. In all cases, please report back to us what your member of Congress says and the results of your meeting. Again, federal policy may feel remote, but this upcoming vote is incredibly important. Being vocal and engaged in the next few weeks could make a lasting impression and reduce the number of battles we have to fight to preserve or reinstate federal funding in the future.
Messaging and Messengers
When planning and executing your meetings with members of Congress think strategically about who attends. If you have a personal connection or have an ally who has a personal connection to that member, bring him or her along. Invite bicycle supporters from the business community, the tourism industry or sympathetic local elected officials. Don’t overcrowd the room — three to six people is ideal — but think about and recruit messengers that will have the greatest ability to influence that member of Congress.
Get Ready for Action!
As we’ve said, we don’t know the exact date, but we’re confident that a House vote on federal transportation funding will happen the week of February 28th. Please understand the importance of this vote and forgive any duplicate messages from national bicycle and pedestrian organizations. We will likely need a large push from the grassroots to preserve funding in the House — and we may need that tidal wave of public reaction in as little as 24 hours. Please stay tuned for these critical alerts and be prepared to mobilize your members!
Don’t hesitate to contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at the Alliance for additional resources or assistance.
We’ve got a parade of new, but familiar, faces taking the helm of Alliance organizations in 2011. Many of you know Dave Snyder from his frequent role as the expert facilitator of our Winning Campaigns Trainings. But now that he’s the executive director of the revitalized California Bicycle Coalition, we wondered what he’s been up to in recent years and what winning ideas he has planned for the Golden State.
When and how did you first get involved in bike-ped issues way back in the day?
I got involved on Earth Day 1990, when I decided that bicycling promotion was a good way to channel my activism. I published a newsletter (this was pre-world wide web) to facilitate communication among the various flavors of bicycle activists and coordinated them under the name of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, an organization that had gone legally defunct after its 1971 founding but was being maintained in name, at least, by one stalwart dedicated activist.
Anyone who’s been to an Alliance Winning Campaigns Training knows you’ve had many and varied successes in your long career; what was the very first campaign you worked on?
It was one I wouldn’t have worked on if I had had the training! Highway One between Stinson Beach and Mill Valley had closed due to mudslides. It became a beautiful bike ride: We fought to keep it closed to cars forever. It would have been amazing but utterly un-winnable and not exactly on message or mission in any case. We had fun, though!
You grew the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition into a powerhouse organization; what’s one of your best memories or biggest lessons learned from those years?
Turning out about 150 people to a hearing on the citywide bicycle network, and coordinating the testimony to make an incredibly strong statement about the need for the network.
I’m assuming you left SFBC to start Livable City? Why? What else have you been up to since SFBC?
Creating bicycle habitat by changing land use is equally, if not more, important than adding bike facilities to streets, as it also can make housing more affordable and therefore especially improve the lives of lower income people. After I passed Livable City on to another great leader I decided to work for the Alliance for Biking & Walking (then the Thunderhead Alliance) as the Director of Program Development. After that I served a stint as the Transportation Policy Director of a local think tank called San Francisco Planning & Urban Research, and most recently as the project director of yet another startup organization: the San Francisco Transit Riders Union.
What are some of the successes of the California Bicycle Coalition that you’ll be building on in 2011?
California started the Safe Routes to School movement and was the first large state to adopt a complete streets policy. We’ll build on that by working to ensure the complete streets policy is implemented, and that the California delegation to Congress voices strong support for the federal safe routes to school program.
California often pushes the envelope for the rest of the country on progressive issues like transportation and energy. Do you see CBC helping to advance that reputation on the bike-ped front?
I think that we can work with our new governor, Jerry Brown, to create a transportation policy for the state that can be a model for reauthorization of the federal bill. Brown is known as a frugal, practical leader, and California’s challenges in transportation policy — huge deficits coupled with extreme difficulty in raising taxes — call for creative solutions that the rest of the country can learn from.
You took the helm of the SFBC back in 1991; now you’re taking over the CBC in 2010. How has the national/state/local atmosphere change? How does this gig feel different?
I think that state level advocacy is so different from local advocacy that it’s hard to say what’s different. There are communities in California that are no more advanced than San Francisco was in 1991, so for those communities, there’s little difference. Except for this: There’s a general acceptance at all levels of government and among a majority of the population that bicycling is a realistic transportation option for some people. It used to never occur to policy makers that bicycling mattered. The implications of this are huge, because a supportive context can allow a community to become more bicycle-friendly in much less time than it took us in the early ‘90s. Fresno, California, has made as much progress in the past two years as San Francisco has made in a whole decade. Also, the example of New York City shows that supportive policy makers can utterly transform a city and do it quickly.
I look at this job from two perspectives. One, I’m going to simply try to do my job well and make sure the CBC plays its part as a player on the larger team: the federal effort, state efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and reform transportation policy, and strengthen local efforts. Second, I’m looking for the big win, but I’m not sure what that is, yet. Age has not made me more patient. If anything, it’s done the opposite, because I’ve seen 20 years of bicycle activism increase bike to work rates from about 1 percent to about 4 percent. I want to see 10 percent or 20 percent and I don’t want it to take another 20 years!
Ray LaHood doesn’t need to be convinced that biking and walking should be promoted as critical aspects of our transportation system. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation has shown enthusiastic commitment to active transportation projects since he was appointed to his post. But the bike-ped champion was duly impressed in a meeting with bicycle and pedestrian advocates earlier this week.
This afternoon, LaHood recapped the Tuesday gathering that included board members of America Bikes. In the positive post, the Secretary celebrated and circulated the new data they presented. The first study, which came from the Political Economy Research Institute, concluded that bicycle and pedestrian projects provide more job creation than other road construction. The second, released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, revealed that 67 percent of Americans support streets design that’s more conducive to active transportation.
“Putting the two studies together creates a powerful argument for continuing the Department of Transportation’s support for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects,” LaHood wrote in today’s blog. “Even as these investments increase mobility, they also generate economic growth. And, people are demanding them for their communities.”
Jeff Miller, Alliance President/CEO, attended the meeting and said LaHood recognized the power of advocates on the ground, who are driving that shift in public — and political — opinion. “LaHood recognized right away the importance of our grassroots work and what our organizations do to make a difference,” Jeff said. “He cited specifically the major victory we had with Representative LaTourette supporting Complete Streets, saying that such a 180-degree turnaround shows the power of the grassroots.”
But LaHood didn’t downplay the difficult days ahead, as Congress works on the next federal transportation bill in a tight, cost-cutting climate. “He said we’ve got our work cut out for us, but also reminded us that the President is still our ally and supports what we do,” Jeff said. “He also said we have strong support in the Senate and, even if the House does something drastic, we have that firewall of the Senate and President. Though, that doesn’t mean shouldn’t work hard on the House!”
But even faced with a challenge on Capitol Hill, LaHood expressed confidence in bike-ped advocates.
“Bicycle and pedestrian activists have been very successful at achieving valuable safety gains for their stakeholders. Now is the time for advocates of cycling and walking to get into gear once again,” LaHood wrote. “Armed with the powerful arguments of energy conservation, environmental and health benefits, public demand — and now job creation and economic development — I am confident they will succeed.”
We’ve just won a big battle for biking and walking in the Senate. After several long weeks of intense work from advocates around the country, the Cardin-Cochran Amendment has been accepted as part of the base Senate transportation bill, MAP-21. 
As we continue our efforts to preserve critical funding for biking and walking in the next federal transportation bill, it’s vitally important that policymakers and the press have the right information when it comes to the benefits and of active transportation. On that note: Andy Clarke has a 
By Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator, America Bikes
From 2000 to 2009, more than 47,700 pedestrians were killed on American roadways. Another 688,000 were injured — the equivalent of a pedestrian being hit by a car or truck every seven minutes. Despite this preventable epidemic, few resources are dedicated and little attention is paid to making our streets safe for vulnerable users. 
We’ve got a parade of 
Ray LaHood doesn’t need to be convinced that biking and walking should be promoted as critical aspects of our transportation system. The U.S. Secretary of Transportation has shown enthusiastic commitment to active transportation projects since he was appointed to his post. But the bike-ped champion was duly impressed in a meeting with bicycle and pedestrian advocates earlier this week. 
