Recent News
America Bikes, Hundreds of Organizations Thank Secretary LaHood
5/28/10 - Hundreds of organizations from around the country joined together to thank U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood today for his leadership in making bicycling and walking safer and more accessible. Check out our press release here.
Active Transportation Important for Health, Says CDC
4/30/10 - The Centers for Disease Control released their Recommendations for Improving Health through Transportation Policy yesterday. Read more here or check out the CDC's website at www.cdc.gov/transportation
DOT Releases Details of TIGER II Grant Program
4/28/10 - The U.S. Department of Transportation announced the availability of funding for the TIGER II Grant Program yesterday.
Learn more in the America Bikes Issue Paper or check out the official Federal Register notice.Secretary LaHood Announces Bicyling Will Be Treated as an Equal Mode of Transportation
3/23/10 - America Bikes cheers Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s announcement that bicycling will be treated as an equal mode of transportation. He announced DOT is integrating the needs of bicyclists in federally-funded road projects by discouraging transportation investments that negatively affect cyclists and pedestrians and encouraging innovative design to make streets safer and more accessible to all users.
Read more in the America Bikes press release here.Representative Blumenauer releases Active Community Transportation Act
3/2/10 - Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) released the Active Community Transportation Act (H.R. 4722), also known as the ACT Act, today.
This groundbreaking bill creates a competitive grant program for communities to build bicycling and walking networks. For the first time, communities will be able to compete for multi-year funding to build active transportation systems just as they do for transit and road infrastructure.
Read more in the America Bikes press release here.
New TIGER Grants Fund Bicycling and Walking Projects
2/18/10 - The recipients of the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grants, announced by the Department of Transportation yesterday, included a signficant number of bicycling and walking projects.
Twenty-four of the fifty-one grants included a bicycling or walking component, with two grants specifically providing funding to complete nonmotorized transportation networks in Philadelphia, PA and Indianapolis, IN.
Read more in the America Bikes press release here.
You can also check out our list of projects that integrate bicycling or walking here or the full list at: www.dot.gov/documents/finaltigergrantinfo.pdf
Alliance for Biking and Walking Releases 2010 Benchmarking Report
1/29/10 - A new report, Bicycling and Walking in the United States: The 2010 Benchmarking Report, released yesterday by the Alliance for Biking and Walking shows that a lack of investment in biking and walking could be contributing to higher traffic fatalities and chronic disease rates in the U.S. Check out the whole report at the Alliance's website here.New Pedestrian Safety Report Released
11/9/09 – A comprehensive report on pedestrian fatalities in America was released today by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership and Transportation for America. The report, Dangerous by Design, takes a closer look at the almost 5,000 pedestrians a year that die on our roadways and makes recommendations to help prevent future deaths.Using data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the report breaks down pedestrian deaths into demographics and geographic area. The researchers find walking has a higher associated risk for children, the elderly and select ethnic groups. The report also measures the relative danger of walking in cities across the country, finding the top four most dangerous cities are in Florida, with all top ten all in the South.
The report analyzes how these communities can do much more with increased safety spending and better engineering. The authors conclude that there are also national remedies for this epidemic, including a national Complete Streets policy, an expanded Safe Routes to School program and increased federal investment in overall pedestrian safety.
You can read the full report here.
Transportation Bill Extended 6 More Weeks
11/3/09 - The continuing resolution that originally extended the deadline for all transportation funding until October 31st has been extended for 6 more weeks.The resolution was amended with the extended time period in the 2010 Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act (H.R. 2996). The bill included a provision that all agencies and activities yet to go through the appropriations process for the 2010 fiscal year would be funded at present levels until December 18th.
Both the Senate and House are presently debating a more long-term extension to the transportation bill that they hope to enact before the December deadline. We will keep you updated as both houses near a decision.
Federal Investment In Bicycle and Pedestrian Projects Reaches New High
10/22/09 - Federal spending on bicycle and pedestrian projects totaled nearly $1.2 billion in fiscal year 2009, according to an estimate released this week by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA). Read More >>Representative Blumenauer Announces Creation of Livable Communities Task Force
10/19/09 – Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-3) announced today the creation of the Livable Communities Task Force, a collection of Congressmen united in improving and expediting legislation that builds more livable communities.The task force, made up of 20 Representatives, is charged with working to improve our communities through federal legislation that helps reduce our nation’s dependence on oil, protect the environment, improve public health and invest in housing and transportation projects that create jobs and give people more commuting choices.
Representative Blumenauer, chairman of the task force, announced its formation on Streetsblog and explains more on the task force’s website.
Climate Bill Moving Forward on Transportation Funding
10/19/09 – The Senate climate bill, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, is moving along. The next step will be to set funding allocations including funding for green transportation.The climate bill, introduced on September 30th by Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Boxer (D-CA), is a comprehensive bill posed to fight global warming by putting a cap and trade on CO2 emissions. The funding levels for the bill, which are still being negotiated, have been expected to give only a small percentage to increase green transportation, such as bicycling and walking, despite the fact that thirty percent of our nation’s emissions come from the transportation sector.
As the bill is being debated, the low percentage of funding for transportation is being seriously discussed and it is possible we may see an increase in the allocations going to combat emissions from the transportation sector.
The Committee on Environment and Public Works has also announced the panel at their first hearing on October 27th. The speakers include Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.
Senate Majority Leadership Recognizes Need for Shorter Extension
10/18/09 - Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Assistant Majority Leader, recently stated that he would like to see a transportation bill passed by early 2010, much sooner than expected.
This announcement, made at a summit of regional business leaders in Iowa, comes as a break from the 18-month extension proposed by the Obama administration and Senator Barbara Boxer, Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, the body posed to write the bill.
Elena Schor at Streetsblog analyzes the possible repercussions of the Senator’s statement and has the original story from the Quincy Herald Whig.
Senate Climate Bill Lacks Robust Transportation Funding
10/14/09 – Senators John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) released the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, the Senate’s version of the Climate Bill, last week.The bill includes policies to help reduce the 30 percent of greenhouse gases (GHG) that come from the transportation sector, but appears to lack the funding needed to effectively deal with this large and fast-growing source of GHG. Read More >>
Congress Extends Transportation Funding for One Month
10/1/09 – At the 11th hour, Congress passed a continuing resolution to keep all transportation funding at FY 09 levels until the end of the October. The bill was approved on the last day before the present transportation bill, SAFETEA-LU, expired on September 30th. We expect to see a longer extension enacted when the resolution expires on October 31th.
FHWA Report Shows Rescissions May be a Threat to Bike/Ped Programs.
9/11/09 – Last week, FHWA issued a notice to State DOTs that $8,708,000,000 of unobligated Federal – aid highway funds apportioned to States will be rescinded on September 30, 2009. This notice describes how the rescissions are calculated. Read More >>Highway Trust Fund Secure through September.
8/7/09 – The August recess officially begins in full today as the Senate heads home, not to return until after Labor Day.
Before leaving, the Senate matched the House’s transfer of $7 billion into the Highway Trust Fund to make sure it stays solvent in their absence.
This means everything is status quo for now, but with SAFETEA-LU, the present transportation authorization, expiring on September 30th, we expect the weeks after their return will be a hectic race as Congress tries to agree on a course of action before the month’s end.
House Passes Bill to Keep Highway Trust Fund Afloat through September
7/30/09 – The House passed a bill (H.R. 3357) yesterday to transfer $7 billion into the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent through September. This acts as a much-needed patch to keep the account in the black until the current Transportation Bill, SAFETEA-LU, expires on September 30th.Read More >>
Congressman Blumenauer’s Green Routes to Work Bill Makes it Easier to Bicycle and Walk to Work
7/21/09 – Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) will introduce his Green Routes to Work bill tomorrow. This bill creates tax incentives for anyone who wants to bike, walk, carpool or ride transit to work. Read what the bill proposes here.New Transportation Bill strong on Bicycle and Pedestrian Policy
On Monday, June 22, 2009, Chairman James L. Oberstar, Rep. John Mica, and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee introduced the committee print of the next Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009.We are very encouraged by many of the elements contained within the bill, including: creating the Office of Livability, improving data and research, establishing the US Bike Route System, and emphasizing Comprehensive Street Design. Read More >>
