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.
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!
A new report from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy dispels the commonly held notion that only residents of big cities bike and walk. According to “Active Transportation Beyond the Urban Centers” folks in rural areas travel by bike and on foot as much — and in some cases, even more — than people in major population centers.
“It’s a widespread assumption in popular media and politics that people in small towns and rural areas do not walk or bike for transportation purposes,” says Tracy Hadden Loh, co-author of the report and research manager at RTC. “This report demonstrates that, in fact, rates for walking and bicycling in rural areas are close to, and sometimes higher than, the national average.”
Some key findings in the report include:
In terms of total trips, rural Americans bike at a rate of between 74 percent and 104 percent of the overall national rate, depending on the type of community in which they live.
The share of work trips made by bicycle in small towns is nearly double that of urban centers. Within small towns of 2,500 to 10,000 residents, people walk for work purposes at a rate similar to the urban core communities.
Federal investment in biking and walking benefits rural areas as much or more than urban centers. Rural areas receive almost twice as much funding per capita as urban areas from the federal Transportation Enhancements program
Among a list of travel priorities, rural Americans selected sidewalks more often than any other transportation need and nine out of 10 cited the importance of pedestrian friendly communities.
The report couldn’t come at a more pivotal moment. Congress is moving on the next federal transportation bill and the current House bill guts all funding for biking and walking projects and programs. This report proves that short-changing biking and walking by eliminating programs like Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School affects all communities across the U.S.
“Small communities need safe and convenient walking and bicycling facilities just as much as big cities,” says Kevin Mills, report co-author and RTC’s VP of Policy and Trail Development. “To meet this need, Transportation Enhancements has provided twice the funding per capita in rural America than in big cities. This includes rehabilitating walkable main streets in small town that have been bypassed by interstates.”
According to RTC: “In coming years, active transportation can play an even bigger role in making small town America more attractive for young families and business investment — improving economic vitality, traffic safety and overall health in smaller communities in every region of the country.”
Read the full report and check out the interactive map here.
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 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.
Thanks to our partners at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy for spreading the word about the positive outcome of the vote on the Rand Paul amendment we alerted you to last week.
According to RTC: Today, by a vote of 60 to 38, the U.S. Senate rejected an amendment by U.S. Senator Rand Paul (Ky.) that would have shifted dedicated funding for walking and biking infrastructure to bridge repair, thus eliminating a hugely popular program that has been shown to create jobs and efficient transportation choices for millions of Americans for the past 20 years.
Thank you to everyone who contacted their Senators!
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.
After a mandate from members and a decade of dedicated work, Bike Pittsburgh celebrated last week as the local Port Authority announced 100 percent of buses now have bike racks.
The story starts way back in 2002, when BikePGH was just getting its feet wet as an upstart advocacy organization. Already, the Port Authority and City of Pittsburgh had received a $75,000 grant for “Ride, Rack and Roll,” an initiative intended to outfit 75 buses with bike racks. But, a year after the program was established, only eight routes had racks — and often, even on those lines, buses would arrive sans rack. So BikePGH got to work.
“[From 2003 to 2006] stakeholders represented by Sustainable Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh’s Department of City Planning, the Port Authority and BikePGH met on and off to try to figure out the issues regarding the Rack ‘n Roll service,”
Erok Boerer, BikePGH Advocacy Director, explained on the group’s blog last week. “It was clear the only answer was to get more racks into the entire system.”
In 2004, the program got an influx of money — $290,150 from the federal Transportation Enhancements program — to grow the program to 12 routes. But still, service was spotty and riders had little confidence that their bus would arrive with a rack. So it wasn’t surprising that BikePGH members considered the bus situation a major frustration. “At a BikePGH strategic planning session, members expressed that outfitting 100 percent of Port Authority buses with bike racks should be a high priority campaign that we should pursue,” Boerer explained.
So, in 2007, when the Port Authority announced it was buying new buses without racks the advocates pressed for a new policy that could solve the problem: No new buses should be purchased without a bike rack. The Port Authority agreed. By 2008, the landscape started to change as old buses were retired and, from the get-go, the new ones hit the streets with racks attached. To make sure the Port Authority had the cash to complete the task, BikePGH worked with local officials to get funding from another federal source — the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program — and from a private foundation. By the end of 2009, they had secured the dollars to outfit the remaining 190 buses and the city promised to get it done by the end of 2011.
Finally, on Friday, the Port Authority and BikePGH had reason to party: All the city buses are now equipped with bike racks.
“This momentous development didn’t happen overnight,” Boerer wrote before the event. “It took a decade, with many different folks working to better the program. When it all came down to it, though, it was all about advocacy and leadership that made it happen.”
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.
Idaho is currently the only state not participating in the Transportation Enhancements program, dramatically reducing the state’s ability to provide livable communities and safe, alternative transportation options for Idaho residents.
Transportation Enhancements are federal funds provided to support projects aiming to expand transportation options and improve quality of life for residents, going beyond the typical transportation project. The TE program is a competitive, application-based program that passes these federal funds to projects throughout Idaho to enhance communities, including pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. It provides $14 in federal money for every $1 allocated by the local government. But, beginning in April 2008, the Idaho Transportation Department suspended its TE program. On March 29th, IPBA kicked off an effort to convince the state to reverse its decision and reinstate funding for important bike/ped infrastructure.
Currently, Idaho officials are choosing to spend TE funds only on the state roadway systems or to return them to the federal government to satisfy rescission requirements. In a recent blog post, the IPBA pointed out that the “restoration of the program will help complete needed pedestrian and bike infrastructure projects in ways communities want.”
Follow the latest from Idaho on the IPBA blog. If your organization is interested in a campaign related to federal funding, check out the new website and focus of Advocacy Advance, a partnership between the Alliance and League of American Bicyclists that gives you the tools to increase federal funding for biking and walking projects in your community.
Last week, at the National Bike Summit, I was one of the hundreds of advocates who converged on Capitol Hill to tell our members of Congress to protect federal funding for biking and walking projects and programs. This week, when I returned to the office, the latest newsletter from the League of Illinois Bicyclists had arrived on my desk. And what was the leading headline? The LIB’s major role in directing more than $50 million federal dollars toward bikeways in the Prairie State.
Since 1991, the federally funded Illinois Transportation Enhancement Program has been the main source of money for active transportation projects and, in the 1990s, about half of ITEP dollars went to bike/ped facilities. But, as the LIB reports in the Illinois Bicyclist, that number plummeted to less than 30 percent under former governor Rod Blagojevich. Making matters worse, the state started raiding the ITEP program to deal with federal rescissions, too.
The LIB helped turn back that shortsighted trend.
During the last round of rescissions in August, Illinois advocates mobilized to protect bike/ped dollars. “LIB, the Active Transportation Alliance and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy urged IDOT and Gov. Pat Quinn to more fairly spread the cuts across transportation categories,” LIB reports in its newsletter. “Thankfully, no ITEP dollars were rescinded.”
But that was just the prelude to an even bigger win: The latest ITEP grant list that includes more than $50 million for bikeways.
“Each major issue advocated by LIB – especially selecting more bikeway applications – came true in a record way,” the League notes. “Gov. Quinn had often expressed his desire to fund more bike trails in Illinois. Three times in 2010, LIB personally spoke with him, suggesting an ITEP bicycling emphasis as a way to do so without impact on the state’s financial situation. Our thanks have gone out to the Governor and IDOT Secretary Gary Hannig.”
Read more about the League of Illinois Bicyclists here. And learn how you can mobilize for more federal, state and local dollars in your community by getting connected to Advocacy Advance — a partnership of the Alliance and League of American Bicyclists — here.
We’ve been telling you for weeks that our movement is facing a critical moment in the U.S. Congress. The time to act is now just days away.
We expect that early next week the U.S. House will be voting on the 2011 budget. It’s very possible amendments to that bill could devastate or eliminate programs and funding for biking and walking. We hope the efforts of America Bikes, and groups like yours, will prevent the inclusion of such shortsighted amendments, but we need you to be prepared to mobilize your organization, members and supporters. It’s almost certain that we will have less than 24 hours to act!
It’s going to be an incredibly tight window, but the stakes are high. This first vote will inform and influence all the others, so it’s critically important we present a strong, unified voice for biking and walking. Please keep your lines of communication open and ready to blast this crucial action alert as quickly as possible.
We knew in August that federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects was in jeopardy.
Now, the results of the latest round of rescissions are in — and programs that benefit biking and walking were, in fact, first on the chopping block in many states.
This summer, Congress passed a jobs bill that contained a $2.2 billion rescission of transportation funds from state Departments of Transportation. Just-released data from the Federal Highway Administration shows that many states cut disproportionately from programs that fund biking and walking when they determined what funds to send back to Washington. (For data on each state from the FHWA, click here.)
The Transportation Enhancements program, for instance, was heavily tapped. According to the National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse (NTEC): “In most states, TE is between 2 percent and 3 percent of all federal aid for highways. However, in this most recent rescission, funds from TE funding codes composed 26 percent of the total rescinded funds nationally.” Thirty-three states returned a disproportionately large amount of funds from TE and four states (Arkansas, Nevada, Nebraska, and Texas) used TE funds to make up more than half of the total rescission. In total, $580 million came from TE - more than from any other single program. There was some good news, though: The District of Columbia and nine other states didn’t send back any money from TE. (Read the full brief from the NTEC here.)
But, as Darren Flusche, policy analyst for the League of American Bicyclists points out, TE wasn’t the only program affected. “CMAQ [Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality improvement program], an important source of bicycle and pedestrian funding, was hit hard,” Flusche writes on the League’s blog. “States rescinded $388 million from CMAQ. In addition, $116 million is now gone from statewide planning and research.”
So what now?
“The only way to avoid these losses in the future is to make our voices heard and urge the DOTs to spend money on biking and walking as aggressively as they spend on highways,” Flusche suggests. “See our reports on rescissions, CMAQ and HSIP for advice on how to do that.”
In the next few days, officials could swipe millions of dollars from bicycle and pedestrian projects in your state.
Don’t let your Department of Transportation send crucial federal funding for biking and walking back to Washington, DC!
Last week, Congress passed a jobs bill that contains a $2.2 billion rescission of transportation funds from state DOTs. In many states, the DOT will likely target bike funding programs to send those dollars back to Washington — unless local advocates speak up and make sure that doesn’t happen.
States must report which program funds are affected by August 25 and the law gives officials maximum flexibility to choose which unobligated balance of funds are rescinded. So we need you to take action this week.
Funds may be rescinded from the following programs:
- Transportation Enhancements
- Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ)
- Recreational Trails
- State Planning and Research
- Surface Transportation Program
- Metropolitan Planning
The US DOT is urging state DOTs to reach out to stakeholders, which makes this a perfect opportunity to remind your state’s DOT of the value of bicycle and pedestrian projects. One request we have of state DOTs is that they follow the “proportionality clause” of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 – this ensures that cuts be made equitably across programs.
What can you do? Flood your governor with calls and e-mails to showcase the importance of bicycle and pedestrian facilities — and prove we’re paying attention! Tell your governor: Don’t let the state DOT disproportionately cut funding for Transportation Enhancements, recreational trails, and bicycle and pedestrian projects.
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. 
A new report from the 
Some key findings in the report include:
By Mary Lauran Hall, Communications Coordinator, America Bikes
After a mandate from members and a decade of dedicated work, 
Idaho is currently the only state not participating in the Transportation Enhancements program, dramatically reducing the state’s ability to provide livable communities and safe, alternative transportation options for Idaho residents. 
Last week, at the National Bike Summit, I was one of the hundreds of advocates who 
We knew in August that federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects 
