Federal Transportation Bill cuts cycling support

Congress is due to vote today on a new transportation bill that reverses years of progress on biking and walking policy and cuts funding for local safety projects such as sidewalks, crosswalks, and bike lanes by 60 to 70 percent.

For the past 20 years, a modest portion of federal transportation investments — less than 2 percent of all transportation funding — has been dedicated to biking and walking projects that make streets more accessible for everybody, reduce preventable traffic fatalities, help boost local economic development, and create construction jobs. But, despite an outpouring of support from mayors, county executives, and the American public, the deal negotiated by a small number of Congress members behind closed doors eliminates much of this popular funding.

“This new transportation bill is bad news for biking and walking,” said Caron Whitaker, campaign director of America Bikes. “Across the country, people are biking and walking more, and vehicle miles traveled are decreasing. Young people are delaying getting their driver’s licenses and the real estate market shows that people want to live and work in areas where they can walk and bike safely. Yet this new bill ignores current trends and includes drastic and disproportionate cuts to biking and walking.”

In addition to slashing funds for bikeways, sidewalks, and other facilities, the cuts will reduce funding for Safe Routes to School, a popular national program that strives to encourage and support children in walking and biking to school.

“All of the funding for our successful Sonoma County Safe Routes to School program,originates at the federal level,” says Tina Panza, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition’s Safe Routes to School Program Director. “Thanks to those dollars, thousands of kids in Sonoma County are gaining access to safe, health-promoting modes of transportation. Congress members who support these cuts will halt that momentum, and send the message that they don’t care about safe and healthy children.”

The bill would also eliminate funding for two critical research, data, and policy resources: the Pedestrian & Bicycle Information Center, and the Safe Routes to School Clearinghouse.

“Both of these think tanks,” says Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Gary Helfrich, “provide engineering resources that prevent local organizations and governments from re-inventing the wheel. Without them, it will be difficult to impossible to assemble the data necessary to advocate for meaningful Complete Streets policies.”

For many months, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition in collaboration with its national partners has urged members and constituents to ask their Congress members to protect dedicated funding for bicycling and walking.

“Congress members received hundreds of calls and emails from Sonoma County bicyclists alone,” says Sandra Lupien, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition Outreach Director. “With 83% of Americans wanting continued or increased federal funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects, I know Senators and Representatives from across the nation have been feeling the pressure; I hate to think that this bill could have been worse if people weren’t engaged around this issue.”