September 13, 2011
This year, around $700 million of Federal transportation funds, which is less than 2 percent of total transportation dollars, will be spent on bicycling and walking.
|A family biking on the |
Chester Valley Trai
In 2012, that figure might be a big fat zero. Please contact your Senators TODAY and let them know you support continued funding for biking and walking.
Over the next three years in the Delaware Valley region, only 1.4% of federal transportation dollars is allocated through the Transportation Enhancement program to the the five PA counties for spending on biking and walking; in New Jersey counties, it accounts for only 0.52% of all federal transportation dollars. Although only a tiny portion of what the federal government sends back to our region to pay for transportation, these funds are at risk of disappearing altogether if the Senate eliminates Transportation Enhancements from its bill.
In the next few days, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) will ask Congress to eliminate the federal Transportation Enhancements - the primary funding source for the past 20 years for bike lanes, trails, bike racks on buses, bike education etc. This isn't safe or smart; it's not good for the economy or the environment; this is bad health policy and bad transportation policy. But they are going to try because they don't think bicycling matters.
Even though bicycling projects create more jobs per dollar than highway-only projects and cutting enhancements won't impact the deficit - the money just won't be spent on bicycling - some Members of Congress want to force us backwards to a 1950s highway-only mindset: as if oil embargoes, congestion, smog, the obesity epidemic and climate change never happened.
Now is the time to save biking and walking. In our region, 19% of fatal traffic fatalities are bicyclists or pedestrians. Transportation Enhancement funding was instrumental in making possible highly valuable trails, education programs and safer streets such as the Chester Valley Trail, the Perkiomen Trail, and the Schuylkill River Trail on Schuylkill Banks, Philadelphia's Bicycle Ambassador program and Doylestown's Bike and Hike Network.
Eliminating Transportation Enhancements from the federal transportation bill will make our roads less safe and result in transit service cuts. As we expect the Senate to move first, we are asking you to contact your Senator and urge them to support continued funding for biking and walking. Don't let them take away this vital investment program for smart, sustainable, safe transportation choices.
Please take action today.
Sarah Clark Stuart