I just took action on an important bicycling issue and thought you might find it interesting too. Disclaminer I’m triathlete just like you with no affilations…
*** Please POST your actions yah or nah so people her can be informed***
Today, 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
Thanks for posting. I’ve seen this from some of the bicycling sites I follow. I sent a message to my representative in Nevada. Hopefully more people will take the time to support trails and cycling.
Unfortunately, by a vote of 27 to 29 http://support.railstotrails.org/site/R?i=RzUAwx_3Offj_ZLDyEDvoQ , the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee just moments ago voted down the bipartisan Petri/Johnson/Lipinski amendment that would have fixed many of the deficiencies in the House transportation bill, particularly as they relate to the Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School programs. The amendment would have also restored eligibility of rail-trails.
But all is not lost. The many thousands of you who contacted your representatives during the past few days about this amendment made a strong and powerful statement that Americans from all across the country want, need and deserve more trails and walking and bicycling opportunities.
While I obviously enjoy biking (and walking), it’s not like the government it outlawing them. They are simply not subsidizing projects anymore (less spending… yay). Your local communities are free to fund as many projects as they would like. And it’s not like there aren’t still roads to bike on and sidewalks to walk on. Am I missing the point of this bill in the first place?
I didn’t say don’t build a path, I said let the local community or the company building the bridge pay for it. Why must it be subsidized by the federal government? Which is in turn taking money that should be used for real problems and spending it on fluff.
This has, thankfully, been getting out to people over twitter for the last couple of days so hopefully this can be amended.
On a related note - while this is happening here, there’s a new push in the UK for bike safety, awareness, and local council-led initiatives being pushed by the Times newspaper and supported by top cyclists. Their leading article on this: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/cyclesafety/article3306502.ece
I’d love to see things swing this way… more cyclists on the road is safer and better for everyone.
