New Bill Eliminates Bike/Ped Programs!
New House Bill Reverses Decades of Progress
It’s so much worse than we thought… Today, the House released its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Act.
Last week, we knew the bill would be bad news for biking and walking. But we didn’t think it would go so far as to completely remove every reference to bicycling and walking in the federal transportation policy. Despite making up about 1% of federal funding and over 13% of fatalities, it’s on the chopping block…
House leadership is pressing to eliminate bicycling and walking in the transportation bill:
- Transportation Enhancements is gone, the primary source for bike-ped programs
- Safe Routes to School is gone, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and bike to school
- Allows states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
- The Congestion Mitigation Air Quality program (CMAQ) is less likely to support pedestrian, bicycle, and transit improvements because air quality is no longer the operative measure.
- Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
- Eliminates language that insures that rumble strips “do not adversely affect the safety or mobility of bicyclists, pedestrians or the disabled”
- Eliminates language that specifically includes traffic calming and bike-ped safety improvements as eligible for HSIP funding
But we can still save biking and walking in this bill!
The benefits of biking and walking extend into all aspects of everyone’s life:
- We save money on commuting costs, which we spend elsewhere
- We improve our health with every trip we take
- We reduce congestion on our roads by driving less
- We reduce our impact on the environment by not creating pollution
- We connect with our communities by being outside and ringing our bells at our friends as we pass by
- WE HAVE FUN!
After the bill is out of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee this week, hopefully with some amendments to reinstate bike-ped programs, we will need everyone to contact your Representative before it goes to the House floor for a vote!
If we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress. We know we are asking a lot of you and we thank you for all you’re doing to preserve biking and walking. Tell your friends!
Read more about the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act via AmericaBikes.org
Contact your Representative to ask them to support biking & walking via BikeLeague.org
Find your Representative to contact via AmericaBikes.org
