Transportation bill cuts bike and ped funding

From bicyclesigns.com

The federal Transportation bill that was released yesterday will effectively eliminate dedicated funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects. According to an email message sent yesterday by the League of American Bicyclists:

Moments ago, Congressman John Mica (R-FL) announced the introduction of the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act. The proposed bill eliminates dedicated funding for bicycling and walking as we feared, and it goes much further and systematically removes bicycling from the Federal transportation program. It basically eliminates our status and standing in the planning and design of our transportation system -- a massive step backwards for individuals, communities and our nation. It's a step back to a 1950s highway- and auto-only program that makes no sense in the 21st century.

The bill reverses 20 years of progress by:

• destroying Transportation Enhancements by making it optional;
• repealing the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school;
• allowing states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles;
• eliminating bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs; and
• eliminating language that insures that rumble strips "do not adversely affect the safety or mobility of bicyclists, pedestrians or the disabled."

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will vote on the bill on Thursday. Representatives Petri (R-WI) and Johnson (R-IL) will sponsor an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. There are no Virginia representatives on the T&I Committee. However, you can take action. See the LAB Advocacy page for suggested next steps.

Proposed Transportation bill contains mandatory sidepath law

The Wash Cycle summarizes key bicycle-related provisions of the proposed Senate Transportation bill:

First of all it rolls three key bicycle programs into CMAQ, funds them at a lower level than all the programs combined got last year, and then allows states to spend that money on nothing but roads.

Among the casualties are three key bike-ped programs: Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails. Those programs would be consolidated and listed as “eligible uses” under an $833 million subset of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Program (CMAQ). That would represent a sharp drop from the $1.15 billion devoted to those programs in 2010. That year, Transportation Enhancements was funded at $878 million, Safe Routes to School at $183 million, and Recreational Trails at $85 million.

States could also divert their share of the $833 million to projects that add traffic lanes or don’t involve bike and pedestrian infrastructure at all. The bike-ped sub-category of CMAQ spending would be broadened to allow new road construction as an eligible use if the project “enhances connectivity and includes public transportation, pedestrian walkways or bicycle infrastructure.”

But if the effective loss of federal funding isn't enough, there's also the loss of access to roads on federal lands (page 226):

(d) BICYCLE SAFETY.—The Secretary of the appropriate Federal land management agency shall prohibit the use of bicycles on each federally owned road that has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater and an adjacent paved path for use by bicycles within 100 yards of the road.

This is bad news for bicyclists. Sidepaths adjacent to roads are often in very poor condition. Fairfax hasn't had funds to maintain their paths for many years; imagine if cyclists were required to ride on these trails and were denied their right to ride on the road, roads that are only partially funded by user fees. General taxes cover more than half the cost of most roads.

America Bikes, the Alliance for Biking and Walking, and the League of American Bicyclists are all working hard to change the proposed bill. America Bikes created a comparison of the proposed and current bills.

Transportation Enhancement program on the chopping block

The Post has an article today entitled Tight money, looser constraints? With the transportation budget stretched, Congress may jettison mandates that have guided funds to bike paths and walkways. The Transportation Enhancement program funds projects such as rail-trails like the W&OD trail. Back in 2007 and 2009 Senator Coburn tried to cut TE funding, each year getting more votes in favor of gutting the program. In 2009 Virginia's Senator Webb vote for the cuts.

The current battle is being led by Senator McCain who wants to retain funding for "active transportation projects" but cut funding for the other Enhancement programs such as landscaping, historic preservation, museums and welcome centers. McCain and Coburn may have gotten the message about how popular bicycle projects are in most communities. According to Streetsblog Capital Hill:

Notably, even Sen. Tom Coburn - author of the last attack on TE - specifically noted in his floor speech supporting McCain’s language that “this is not about attacking the bicycle community.” He also seemed to commend McCain for excluding from his measure the active transportation elements of TE that Coburn said appear to be important to many people. (That means he got an earful from a lot of walking and biking advocates last time around!)

Ron Paul rides a bike

Congressman Ron Paul, Republican candidate for president and physician, recently took a break from the campaign for a 12-mile bike ride. Ron Paul Takes a Bike Ride in N.H. — Sans Helmet, Of Course and Paul hits the bike trail:

Clad in snappy white matching Pearl Izumi bikewear, Mr. Paul said he “dared” his GOP rivals to break from the campaign trail for time on the bike paths.

There's a good chance the bike trail on which he was riding was funded by the Transportation Enhancement program, which Sen. Coburn recently tried to kill and which will be on the chopping block when the latest extension of the Transportation Bill expires in March 2012. Maybe Ron Paul can convince his son Rand Paul, who joined Coburn in speaking out against TE funding, that bike facilities are a critical part of our transportation infrastructure.

Virginia bicycle and pedestrian funds in jeopardy

According to the League of American Bicyclists blog, Virginia and other states have been asked to send transportation funds, including those dedicated to bicycle and pedestrian projects, back to the federal government. We urge Fairfax cyclists to use the LAB action alert to contact Governor McDonnell to urge him to work with VDOT to ensure balanced cuts:

Yesterday, June 30, the Federal Highway Administration informed state Departments of Transportation of another rescission of funds, this time totaling $2.5 billion. The action is taken under the 2011 Full-year Continuing Appropriations Act. Attached is the FHWA notice, which includes the total amount of funds each state is to send back to Washington.

States are given maximum flexibility about the source of the funds that are rescinded – from among a variety of transportation programs. Most critically for bicycling, the transportation enhancements, congestion mitigation, and recreational trails programs are included in the list of programs. Fortunately, the Safe Routes to School program is not included, so those funds are safe.

We say that because Transportation Enhancement and Congestion Mitigation Air Quality funds have consistently been inequitably targeted for rescissions in most states – and this will likely continue unless State DOT’s hear from their customers. In August, 2010 almost $1 billion of CMAQ, TE and Recreational Trails funds were returned to Washington, out of a $2.2 billion rescission. That means that State Departments of Transportation didn’t spend these funds in the first place – even though they could have been using the funds to build better bicycling infrastructure, provide bicyclist education, install bike parking – and now are choosing instead to send the money back to Washington.

Given the complexity of issue, the short turn-around time, and the fact that there’s a Federal holiday of some note on Monday, it’s a challenge to know how to effectively respond and try to influence the outcome of this rescissions process – however, we have set up an action alert here that you can use. Governors often seem to have little influence over their Departments of Transportation and State DOT directors certainly need to know your concerns but will rarely be the person making the actual decision. If you have a statewide advocacy group in your state, they will be a good place to go for any targeted action or inside information on who to contact and how.