Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Support funding for bike projects in stimulus package
Bicyclists are encouraged to contact their Senators and Congressional representatives to encourage them to support explicit funding for bike projects in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that was just passed by the Senate. See the Rails to Trails web page for more information.While the House version contained explicit funding for Transportation Enhancement projects, the Senate version did not, possibly due to Republican opposition. As Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer stated in his response to efforts to strip funding for bicycling from the Plan, No, Seriously: Republicans Don't Get It. He lists the many ways that funding of bike facilities helps the economy and the enviornment:
"Nationally, if we doubled the current 1% of all trips by bike to 2%, we would collectively save more 693 million gallons of gasoline - that's more than $5 billion dollars - each year. From 2007 - 2008, bicyclists reduced the amount Americans drive by 100 million miles."
Update: See the League of American Bicyclists alert regarding the Enhancement funding.
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