Advocacy Updates

Recent federal transportation spending bills have helped bicycling with policies and funding provisions. Bike advocates around the nation have been working to ensure that the new 6-year bill is as bike-friendly as possible. Earlier this year, both the Senate (“SAFETEA”) and House (“TEA -LU”) passed their versions of the bill. The next step is a conference committee to iron out the differences, before going to the President. In general, the bike provisions fared well. Some highlights from the two versions:

· Transportation Enhancements funding is slated to increase from the $3.33 Billion under TEA -21: $4.8B (Senate), $3.7B (House) over six years. TE is the main funding source for bike projects

· A new Safe Routes to School program is funded at $1B (House), $420M (Senate). Most of this would go to infrastructure improvements, a bit to education and promotion.

· The House bill has 25 bike/ped specifically-earmarked projects (of a total of 216 transportation projects) for $14 Million.

· The Senate bill includes a provision requiring that bike/ped projects be funded from a dedicated safety category at a percentage equal to the bike/ped traffic fatality percentage

· Unfortunately, a “Complete Streets” amendment was not included, to strengthen existing (but largely ineffective) language that bikes/peds “shall be considered” in new and reconstruction road projects