We aren’t exaggerating when we say this ask has never been more urgent.

Click this link to contact your member of Congress in support of bicycling and walking:

http://support.railstotrails.org/site/R?i=MU6Bn3Xx8UZZlnZ9Tmaq9w

Thursday, February 2nd, the Transportation Infrastructure committee in the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on our nation’s next multiyear surface transportation bill.

There is no way to spin this: From the perspective of bicycling, walking, and trails, the bill is a total disaster.

Among its worst features:

* It eliminates dedicated funding for the Transportation Enhancements (TE), the nationa’s largest funding source for bicycling, walking, and trails facilities – funding which has provided hundreds of key bicycle, pedestrian, and trails projects in Missouri since 1991.

* It removes the rail-trail category from TE eligibility – funding which made projects like the Katy Trail possible.

* It complete eliminates funding for the Safe Routes to School program - funding which has provided sidewalks, crosswalks, and trails to safely connect neighborhoods to over 150 Missouri schools since 2006.

* It eliminates funding for the bicycle and pedestrian coordinators at state DOTs – a position that has helped MoDOT integrate bicycling and walking into its planning, funding, and policies.

In short, the bill eliminates everything the federal government has done since 1991 to turn around our country’s complete neglect of bicycling and walking.

Please take two minutes now to contact your member of Congress–tell them we won’t accept turning back the clock by eliminating support for bicycling, walking, and trails:

http://support.railstotrails.org/site/R?i=MU6Bn3Xx8UZZlnZ9Tmaq9w

But . . . there is still a chance.

Representatives Tom Petri (R-Wis) and Tim Johnson (R-Ill) have introduced an amendment in the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee that will fix many of these issues.

But they need to hear from other commmittee members, including the three committee members from Missouri, who will support this amendment.

Please take two minutes and ask your representative to defend bicycling, walking, and trails:

http://support.railstotrails.org/site/R?i=MU6Bn3Xx8UZZlnZ9Tmaq9w

Key votes will take place Thursday and soon thereafter, so please contact your member of Congress as soon as you can–and continue to urge their support until this issue is resolved.

Our country needs bicycling, walking, and trails–for our health, our communities, and to provide real choice and freedom in our transportation. Let’s not undo the past twenty years of progress–progress due in very large part to the very programs the House proposal eliminates.

Thank you!  When you take two minutes to contact your elected leaders, our united voice really DOES make a difference!

–Brent

Dr Brent D Hugh
Executive Director
Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation
director@mobikefed.org

P.S. All national bicycle and pedestrian organizations, including the Rails to Trails Conservancy, the League of American Bicyclists, the Adventure Cycling Association, the Alliance for Biking and Walking, Bikes Belong, and others, are working together in this campaign to save funding for bicycling and walking.

Thanks to the Rails to Trails Conservancy for the information and action link in the above alert.

http://support.railstotrails.org/site/R?i=MU6Bn3Xx8UZZlnZ9Tmaq9w

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle politics, cycling

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle safety, cycling, traffic design

So what you have here is simply a fog line with lane marking — sharrows, basically — indicating that bicyclists belong on the shoulder. Since they are not really lanes, what you’ll see are plenty of traffic conflicts and areas of confusion. Those shoulders, by the way, are exactly the same as when I rode these streets in the 60s and 70s.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle safety, cycling

Here’s an idea for Springfield’s bicycle shops that I found in Bentonville, Arkansas.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure

I was unable to attend the meeting. The News-Leader published an article today.

It’s difficult to tell how much talk there was of painting bicycle lanes. I’ve written plenty recently about lanes.

My position going forward: It appears the bicycle lane tide is rising fast, so there’s almost nothing to be gained by my continued opposition to all lane painting. Instead, I plan to save my energy for fighting lanes that put novice bicyclists into immediate danger — unnecessary conflicts with motorists, e.g. door-zone lanes.

Technorati Tags: bicycle advocacy, bicycle infrastructure, bicycle politics, bicycle safety, cycling, Transportation Planning, Urban Planning