BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Well Altmire is a member of the Congressional Bike Caucus, so he's at least semi-friendly to bike issues. I think you could ask him a general question such as "how are you going to make sure that all modes of transportation are addressed in construction projects including biking and walking?"

I'm not sure if a public forum is the appropriate place to ask for his co-sponsorship of CLEAN-TEA and the Complete Streets Act, but you could at least mention the bills. (http://bike-pgh.org/2009/03/14/bikepghs-visit-to-the-national-bike-summit-in-washington-dc/)

Altmire has held two such meetings recently, one in Beaver and one (last night) in New Castle. There has been only one bicycle specific question that I can recall, and that was from an anti-bicycle perspective (as in how do we get bicyclists, who also use the roads, to pay "their fair share" through vehicle registration, etc)

Altmire has spent a lot of time at these meetings talking about re-authorization, and the value to the region of having him on the Transportatin Committee, so I think the CLEAN-TEA and Complete Streets questions are completely fair.

"mr altmire,

I rode my bike here form downtown. It was 99% along

the river, however there was 0% bike path along the

river. This would have made my commute a lot better. "

CLEAN-TEA is worthless without the cap and trade system in the administration's proposed budget. Dems and Reps, alike, are cool to the idea. They all fear that if we tax carbon emissions, then the companies will pass along the tax to the consumer.

Stay away from questions regarding how to generate the funds, and focus on how to efficiently spend the money we are currently printing

Ask questions regarding multi-modal policy: make necessary inclusions to surface transportation projects which address concerns from all modes of transportation, not simply the car. Repaving a road? Add a bike lane, or walking path in the shoulder. Fixing a bridge? Make the expansion dams and inlets bicycle/pedestrian safe.

One idea that I would like to push is the development of a sliding scale for the necessary local matching funds to federal surface transportation dollars - usually it's 80% fed and 20% local.

Such that, if the project is rehabilitation of aging infrastructure (need-based), then lower the necessary local matching funds - say to 15% or 10%. Additionally, if the local sponsor is willing to include multi-modal issues within the design and construction, then reduce the local match even further.

Carrot and stick approach to mitigating bridge collapses and heathen cyclists running into those innocent passenger vehicles.

Edit:

Like this... http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/bp-broch.htm

Ask questions regarding multi-modal policy: make necessary inclusions to surface transportation projects which address concerns from all modes of transportation, not simply the car. Repaving a road? Add a bike lane, or walking path in the shoulder. Fixing a bridge? Make the expansion dams and inlets bicycle/pedestrian safe.

this is exactly what the Complete Streets Act of 2009 is all about. introduced last month by rep matui from california. ask him to co sponsor it

Actually CLEAN-TEA isn't worthless at all. One of its purposes is to get our legislators to understand how connected transportation is to climate change (since CLEAN-TEA is connected to an upcoming climate bill - not the administration's budget). It would be amazing if revenues from cap and trade would fund clean transportation. But it does look like the first iteration of cap and trade will be cap and dividend instead so that it shouldn't affect consumers as much as cap and trade.

I'll be going to this tonight if anyone needs a ride.