Posts by Caron Whitaker

UPDATED: An amendment offered by Senator Chuck Schumer of New York to make bikeshare membership eligible for federal commuter tax benefits, passed in the Senate Finance Committee today. This is an important first step to recognizing bikeshare as a commuter option. What would this amendment do?

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 18.4 cents-a-gallon gas tax. Like many of us experiencing birthdays, the gas tax is having some growing pains and can’t seem to keep current with the times. One of the main arguments for not including bicycling facilities in our transportation system has been the inability of the gas tax to cover the cost of transportation. While the average cost of living has increased over the last 20 years, the gas tax has remained the same.

As of midnight last night, the federal government went into a partial shutdown. What does that mean for transportation? The U.S. Department of Transportation will only experience a partial shutdown.
Many of the programs that fund bicycling and road projects are administered by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and will not be closed.

At the National Bike Summit in March, Secretary Ray LaHood committed U.S. DOT to improving safety for bicycling and reiterated a promise to look at the agency’s design guidelines for building bicycling facilities. Today, Secretary Anthony Foxx assumes LaHood’s mantle in a significant way. I am in Boulder, Colo., at the bi-annual Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals conference where the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) today announces new bikeway design guidance that embraces the “NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide,” as well as the more traditional AASHTO bike guide.

Thanks to the more than 8,600 emails you sent to Congress, Senators heard that message. The amendment never even made it to the Senate floor. If it had, our supporters in the Senate were ready! Thank you to everyone who shared our alert and blog as well — a significant chunk of our alerts were sent not by people who got an alert email from us, but from someone who linked to our blog or facebook page!

House leadership has pulled the Transportation Appropriations bill from the floor. Debate and voting have been postponed until September. Senate Majority Leader Reid has filed for cloture on the the Senate Transportation Appropriations, meaning that the Senate will vote tomorrow to end debate and move on to actual votes on the bill. We will continue to monitor Senate Amendments and update the blog if we see any anti- bike amendments are scheduled for Thursday’s debate and voting.