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GOP Senator to Introduce Bill to Eliminate Bike Funding

(I'm bumping the following message from an email I received a few minutes ago. Their website has a sample letter, and after you put in your zip code, it makes it very easy to send to your senators.)


Federal funding for bicycling is under serious attack. Today or tomorrow, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma will introduce an amendment to eliminate dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements, which is the main source of funding for bike projects of all types. We need you to take action today by emailing your U.S. Senators to urge them to oppose and defeat Mr. Coburn's amendment.


If Senator Coburn's amendment succeeds, bicycling in the U.S. will become less safe and more difficult. Twenty years of consistent, cost-effective investment in beneficial bike projects will stop.


When we launched peopleforbikes.org, we promised you that we would only ask for your help when we really needed it. This is one of those times.


We need every U.S. Senator to hear from hundreds, if not thousands, of their constituents who value government support for bicycling. A strong vote against Coburn's amendment will be a convincing statement of how much Congress and Americans value bicycling, and will influence all future votes on bike and pedestrian programs and funding.


Please email your U.S. Senators today and tell them to oppose Coburn's amendment and preserve funding for bicycling. (You can find your Senators, review basic suggested text for your email, and send your note directly from this link.)


Thanks for your support and your quick response to this call to action.


Tim Blumenthal

Director, Peopleforbikes.org


atleastmykidsloveme
2011-09-14 19:03:18

Much better post title than the one I came up with.

This issue is important, not just for us but for society as a whole.


ahlir
2011-09-14 23:59:49

I wrote the following, in addition to sending the prepared letter. I figured Toomey may need a different approach. I'm copying/pasting to give ideas to anyone else who is so inclined to write.


Mr. Toomey, I'll be brief in hopes that you actually read this yourself. I'm writing concerning Sen. Coburn's desire to strip funding from alternative transportation. I will concede that perhaps rail-to-trail funding should not be categorized as transportation funding, necessarily. However, such funding is very important to our state of Pennsylvania. I grew up in a sleepy town called Ebensburg, the county seat of Cambria County. After moving away from my hometown for the better part of a decade, while serving in the Navy, I came back to find the completed Ghost Town Trail connecting Ebensburg with Blacklick (some thirty three miles away). What I have discovered is that people from all of the small towns along the way are out jogging, walking, and bicycling. They are meeting up along the way and actually talking to one another and establishing a sense of community. I never witnessed either of these things ten years ago, and yet, now I see families, the elderly, and kids sharing a public resource. A positive role model has been established for our community, as we witness our peers engaged in healthy activities. It is hard to ignore how much community awareness has increased because of projects like the Ghost Town Trail that could have never existed without significant support and funding. Aside from health and community, these projects create an active engagement in our state's history. Rail trails raise questions about the past of rural Pennsylvania. Our children come to wonder how people traveled before automobiles existed; they ask questions about how our ancestors lived. Rail trails help us to understand the historic backbone of America because they allow us to witness first hand how America grew into the industrial giant that it is today. Mr. Toomey, the point that I'm trying to make is that this funding is not an issue of flighty lefty ideas of alternative transit but funding that affects a community as a whole regardless of political affiliation. These trails are used by hunters just as much as they are used by alternative transportation advocates and I hope that you keep this in mind when you cast your vote. Please, at the very least let this issue come to a vote and do not allow Senator Coburn to filibuster. Thank you for your time.


Just to be clear, I do consider bicycling as alternative transportation a very important issue. However, I was trying to approach this topic from a rural point of view. I mean no offense to anyone here with my comments that were meant to appeal to a conservative reader who doesn't ride a bike (to my knowledge). I wouldn't write the same letter to a newspaper, but I thought my wording was appropriate for Sen. Toomey.


headloss
2011-09-15 03:00:46

This is what I got back from Toomey:




Dear Nick,


Thank you for contacting me about transportation funding. I appreciate hearing from you.


If done in a sensible manner, transportation infrastructure investments can be important for economic growth and ensure that we travel safely and efficiently. A number of Americans have expressed concern about the state of our transportation infrastructure, and I therefore understand your support for federal funding for this issue.


That said, our nation is facing a $1.5 trillion deficit for the current fiscal year, and the President's latest budget proposal continues this unsustainable path for years to come. All areas of government spending must be carefully examined so that we can put our nation on a path toward fiscal solvency. Inevitably, tough choices will have to be made, and making such choices is something that I have promised to the people of Pennsylvania.


You may also be interested to know that the Senate passed and President Obama signed into law the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2011 (Public Law 112-5) on March 4, 2011. Among its provisions, this new law extends the authority of the Highway Trust Fund for various transportation programs pending the enactment of a longer-term transportation reauthorization. Please be assured that I will keep your views about transportation funding in mind as work continues on the Fiscal Year 2012 budget process and a transportation reauthorization bill.


Thank you again for your correspondence. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future if I can be of assistance.


Sincerely,


Signature


Pat Toomey

U.S. Senator, Pennsylvania


ndromb
2011-09-15 04:18:13

That's identical to the emailed form letter I got from him on July 8th, when I emailed him last time.


This time I sent him a letter on paper. I didn't customize my letter, just sent the prewritten one.


I expect to get another copy of his form letter in response to my form letter. But his count of people interested in bike funding gets incremented, and maybe that'll help.


Last time, Toomey replied much faster than Casey. Casey took a whole month to email me his transportation form letter.


steven
2011-09-15 05:45:24

That's more than I got. I pushed the buttons on a robo-mail from a pro-bike website, and within the hour got back this:


Dear Stuart,


Thank you for contacting my office. I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts about current issues. Please be assured that constituent correspondence will receive a reply in the near future.


Sincerely,


Pat Toomey

U.S. Senator, Pennsylvania


For that matter, I got this from Sen. Casey's office a few minutes after that:


Thank you for your email. Your message has been received by my office.


Sincerely,

Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.


P.S. If you would like to respond to this message, please use the contact form on my website: http://casey.senate.gov/contact/


stuinmccandless
2011-09-15 10:28:27

Valiant effort, headloss. Still pretty lefty though, I mean, there's no Cha-ch$$ng in "community". But aside from that, I'm pretty sure, in Toomey's lexicon, "tough choices" means "slash everything but bombs".


edmonds59
2011-09-15 11:19:10

... maybe I should have included something about bicycling to church and NRA meetings? :p Funny how those two things fit together so well.


As for response, I received the same letter as Nick from Toomey.

I received the short version from Casey:


Thank you for your email. Your message has been received by my office.


Sincerely,

Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr.


headloss
2011-09-15 14:26:54

+1 to headloss. What a great letter.


I suppose I need to get off my lazy butt and write a letter about my transportation needs. I mean, it's true that when I ride from Rockwood to Meyersday, it is close to the equivalent of that South Carolina congress critter's remark about bike trails and golf courses. But for me, a trail from the South side to Homestead is not recreational, it is efficient transportation infrastructure that doesn't have any other practical alternative.


I took Toomey's answer to Nick to be this: "Having a black democrat with a funny name in the presidency is unacceptable. If we have to torture the American people to get rid of him, it's a small price to pay."


Perhaps I'm being unfair to him, I don't know.


mick
2011-09-15 14:40:21

The successful letter to Toomey might make mention of the fact that this is at the end of the day, infrastructure spending (however marginal) of the sort that the founding fathers anticipated government would do (Postal Clause of Constitution specifically authorizes the creation of post roads,) as opposed to [name your favorite cherished social program here]. :-)


jkp1187
2011-09-15 14:43:53

Trying to talk to Orie about it. Not sure I have the time for anything other than email, but in the past, on other matters where she sided with myself and others, she was very good about responding personally.


orionz06
2011-09-15 14:48:26

@ headloss.


Even though you say you wouldn't write the same letter to a newspaper, I encourage you to make your letter to Toomey an open letter by sending it to the local paper from the Ebensburg area. And if it gets published, sending a copy to Toomey's office, of course.


mick
2011-09-15 15:20:44

yes, do that. it was a great letter with your unique perspective as a native from that community.


tabby
2011-09-15 15:26:31

I got a positive response, on the phone, from someone from Jane Orie's office. I pointed them here as well. I was surprised to get a call and felt bad as I did not read up on everything as much as I would have liked and threw out an email quite quickly to her.


orionz06
2011-09-15 18:53:11

@orion just curious why you're talking to Orie about it? She's not a U.S. Senator and she's probably not long for being a state senator either.


scott
2011-09-15 19:45:53

I kind of hoped no one would have pointed it out....


Early AM mix up. Still though, the only one (so far) to get back to me.


See previous statement of me being under prepared. Imagine figuring out you got a call back from the wrong person right then and there. Could be worse I guess.


orionz06
2011-09-15 19:55:09

Curious also how many people on this thread found out about this action alert through the BikePGH eMessenger and how many found out through Bikes Belong, Alliance for Biking & Walking, and/or League of American Bicyclists.


scott
2011-09-15 20:01:44

According to my email the first one I got was from Transportation for America.


tabby
2011-09-15 20:22:24

@Scott I've heard about it through all of those sources except Bikes Belong, as well as a few other bike blogs.


dmtroyer
2011-09-15 20:24:05

email from People for Bikes, I think.


edmonds59
2011-09-15 20:54:12

imba email


cburch
2011-09-15 21:24:33

Transportation for America email.


stuinmccandless
2011-09-15 22:51:15

The BikePGH email, plus the League of American Bicyclists email that was forwarded to the GAP mailing list.


steven
2011-09-15 22:57:40

I got a PA Walks and Bikes email earlier in the week. Tuesday, maybe?


I say look beyond this extension and to the next long-term transportation/infrastructure bill. Both parties wish to consolidate programs, though they differ the details.


Toomey's rhetoric on this subject is a positive for exurban and rural development of bike trails to promote in-state tourism and leverage economic development funds for those rural communities.


Economic benefits/tourism for rural communities; and transportation options/safe routes to school for urban and suburban communities.


sloaps
2011-09-15 23:38:52

Thanks for the positive feedback, I shouldn't hesitate to make use of the letter to the editor option, especially when that may be the only way that locals become aware of an issue like this. Actually, I'm quite proud of my last letter to the editor which concerned Don't Ask Don't Tell. What was funny, was that a few of my very conservative neighbors approached me with compliments and agreed with everything that I said... The irony, was that I took the liberal position but made my own argument in favor of it, and made my neighbors reconsider their positions. The power of the pen. :)


However, it's moot, as the legislation did move forward today and passed with I believe 92 positive votes.


headloss
2011-09-16 03:16:25

@Scott, I heard about the legislation through a friend on facebook; she probably picked it up via BikePgh.


Sad really, as I'm subscribed to several rail-to-trail type pages and didn't see any mention of the issue.


headloss
2011-09-16 03:19:05

Update: The funding bill including the money for bikelanes passed last night. So the status quo remains, at least for a year. In return for his vote, Coburn got a promise that the mandate which allocates 10% of federal highway funds for "enhancements" (landscaping, pedestrian, bikers) will be eliminated next year.


So the inevitable has only been postponed. (Is pedestrian safety and biker amenities simply enhancements? Isn't it part of core transportation?)


ahlir
2011-09-16 15:00:36

Link to story re: Coburn's promise?


jkp1187
2011-09-16 17:49:02

BOOM. Story, for real.


sloaps
2011-09-16 17:56:34

So, short term yay, long term we're screwed. Am I reading that right?


stuinmccandless
2011-09-16 18:37:41

Maybe Coburn's petroleum industry owners will get tired of him.


mick
2011-09-16 18:41:24

Thanks, Sloaps. I don't see a reference stating that the allocation would be eliminated. Instead it says:


"Coburn’s provision would allow states to opt out of a program requiring them to set aside millions of dollars for beautification projects like bike paths, sound walls and decorative highway signs."


So it sounds as though pressure should be placed on Harrisburg to ensure that Pennsylvania does not opt out next year.


jkp1187
2011-09-17 01:49:26

what we really need is for law makers and those in charge of infrastructure building to keep bike paths out of the "beautification projects" pile. For that matter, same as sound walls (that's not beautification to the neighbors, it's a decent night's sleep and property value increase). Decorative signs, ok. Even flowers, ok (though planting appropriate plants over recently cleared land is not "beautification" but "stabilization").


If we can't afford to do it properly, we should not be doing it at all. I'd rather not have a highway if we can't build it right for the community it runs through, the community it services, the land surrounding it (including the wildlife that lives on it), and if we can't afford to maintain it properly for its entire life span (pretty much forever for most roads).


This is ridiculous. Someone needs to give us a time out until we learn our lesson.


ejwme
2011-09-19 15:48:44

This is ridiculous. Someone needs to give us a time out until we learn our lesson.


one imagines this can be said for the majority of american politics.


unfortunately, chaotic though it is, it does the job for the most part, and isn't likely to be replaced wholesale with anything that works better.


hiddenvariable
2011-09-19 16:07:52

the man is too polarized for a moderate state like PA


Yeah, I'd have thought that too until our esteemed fellow voters went and elected the turd.


salty
2011-09-20 04:09:29

Haven't you heard the old saying "PA is Pittsburgh and Philadelphia with Alabama in the middle" ?


edmonds59
2011-09-20 10:19:00

...and that border, in the Pittsburgh area, is approximately the Green Belt.


stuinmccandless
2011-09-20 11:11:13

I've always referred to it as Pennsyl-tucky.


headloss
2011-09-20 15:25:13

Better late than never...


Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding the reauthorization of our Nation's transportation programs. I appreciate hearing from you regarding transportation funding.


Surface transportation programs are authorized under the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU), which was enacted in 2005, expired in 2009 and has been extended by a series of short-term measures. As you may know, the Senate passed an additional funding extension that will expire in March 2012.


Long-term reauthorization has become increasingly difficult during the last two decades, primarily due to the controversy over how to fund the Nation’s transportation programs. Nevertheless, I believe that consideration of a comprehensive multi-year bill to reauthorize our Nation's transportation programs is long overdue.


The most difficult issue when considering such reauthorization is how to finance it. While the Highway Trust Fund and revenue sources had been a reliable mechanism for financing highway and transit programs for five decades, this is no longer the case. The increased prevalence of fuel efficient vehicles coupled with the economic downturn has resulted in a reduction in revenue from the federal gas tax, which is a primary source of revenue for highway and transit funding across the nation. In order to maintain funding for our roads and infrastructure, we must pursue alternative sources of funding for these programs.


One of the issues that has come up during the reauthorization debate is the use of Transportation Enhancements (TE) funding, which provides federal resources for bicycle and pedestrian facilities, streetscape improvement and rehabilitating historic transportation facilities. Among other purposes, TE-funded projects create jobs along with helping to make our transportation system more efficient. I have supported a number of TE projects since joining the Senate and believe this funding stream not only strengthens safety and reliability for commuters but creates opportunity for economic development.


Over the course of the next several months, Congress may consider legislation that invests in our aging infrastructure and creates jobs. As our Nation takes steps to compromise on a path toward economic recovery, putting Americans to work by repairing and expanding our transportation infrastructure can help meet important policy goals while providing a boost to our economy. By focusing on infrastructure, we can increase the efficiency of our transportation system and make important investments in our local communities that will create the foundation for long-term economic growth.


Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me. Please do not hesitate to contact me in the future about this or any other matter of importance to you.


If you have access to the Internet, I encourage you to visit my web site, http://casey.senate.gov. I invite you to use this online office as a comprehensive resource to stay up-to-date on my work in Washington, request assistance from my office or share with me your thoughts on the issues that matter most to you and to Pennsylvania.


Sincerely,

Bob Casey

United States Senator


headloss
2011-10-26 03:48:10

I too got an identical letter from Sen. Casey within the past day.


stuinmccandless
2011-10-26 10:03:45

Likewise


orionz06
2011-10-26 12:15:01

i got the same letter


bear250220
2011-10-27 01:44:58

yeah, just got that letter too. I just emailed him again regarding the link Scott posted, so we'll see what I get back from him this time.


tabby
2011-10-27 14:06:00

Top. Please contact our state senators, especially Casey. He needs to know we have his back when he votes against Paul's bill.


scott
2011-10-29 14:34:41

Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland explains how increasing the share of biking and walking trips can actually reduce maintenance costs and extend the useful life of road infrastructure:


With all this talk of bridges and funding, I think it’s a good time to recall a story we did in April 2010 about the impact bicycling has had on the Hawthorne Bridge. The story was based off an analysis by Portland Bureau of Transportation’s bike coordinator Roger Geller. Geller’s theory, which he backs up with statistics and analysis you can see below, is that the Hawthorne Bridge has been able to carry more people with less traffic and at lower costs in infrastructure investment because of one major factor — bike traffic.


Maus goes on:


In the case of the Hawthorne Bridge, the negative effects of congestion have been kept at bay. Because, while the number of vehicles increased 20% between 1991 and 1998 2008, that increase has been almost wholly in bicycle traffic. Had the increase been—as it might be in most places—automobiles, then the intersections at either ends of the bridge would likely have failed in their ability to effectively and efficiently move traffic.


However, because the increased demand for mobility has been borne almost exclusively by the bicycle, automotive traffic flows in this area the same today as it did in 1991. It is for this reason, in part, that Portland’s award winning traffic engineer, Rob Burchfield, states that: “Bicycling infrastructure is relatively easy to implement and low cost compared to other modes. It is by far the most cost-effective way to provide for personal mobility in an urban transportation system.”


So eliminating Transportation Enhancements not only won’t fix the nation’s bridges — the $900 million pot of funds couldn’t even pay for patching things up with duct tape — but could increase the overall cost of infrastructure maintenance.


scott
2011-10-29 15:42:18

I'm still looking for how our two senators voted. Anyone have a link with that info?


stuinmccandless
2011-11-01 18:06:02

From here.


Toomey voted for it, Casey voted against it.


richw
2011-11-01 18:12:27

Not surprising, I guess. Not a single non-Republican on the "for" side, and of those on the "against", the only Republicans are those known to vote conscience before party.


Thanks for the link!


stuinmccandless
2011-11-01 18:37:00

Alas! Toomey is not up for re-election until 2016.


But most of us will remember.


mick
2011-11-01 19:55:25

like most of us were going to vote for him anyway...


cburch
2011-11-01 22:05:54

Most of us would not have actively campaigned aginst him.


A lot of people remembered Rick Santorum at senatorial election time. Now he's being tag teamed by Michele Bachman and Newt Gingrich.


mick
2011-11-02 03:57:12

Hence the "I bike. I vote." campaign that the League of American Bicyclists is kicking off. We'll definitely remember the next election.


scott
2011-11-02 12:43:09

How about, "Keep bikes in the far right lane, not Senators." :P


headloss
2011-11-02 13:01:42