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The new transportation law, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) creates a new program called Transportation Alternatives program (TA). TA combines several key funding pots from the…

You gotta love a city that boldly professes on the side of its City Hall — “Long Beach: The most bike-friendly city in the U.S.” The industrial town just outside…

In honor of National Bike Month, we brought you the Why I Ride series. This month, in anticipation of the National Women’s Bicycling Summit in Long Beach, Calif., we’re bringing…

The July/August issue of the League’s magazine — American Bicyclist — is now online! Features in this edition include: growing bipartisan support for bicycling, a Spanish-language PSA campaign in Los…

When we kicked off the National Bike Challenge in May, we knew our goal was ambitious: Unite American bicyclists to ride 10 million miles this summer. Well, with three months…

If you attended the National Women Cycling Forum or read the “Women on a Roll” feature in the May-June issue of American Bicyclist, you’ve been inspired by the work of…

Twenty years of experience has shown that bicycling and walking projects generally do better at lower levels of government. Cities and regions often value investments in bicycling and walking projects…

Bicycles are here to stay as part of our transportation system. While MAP-21 reorganizes and reduces funding opportunities, advocates and agency staff will need to look beyond Transportation Alternatives. This…

In the five years from 2007 to 2011, states spent 1.8 billion federal transportation dollars on bicycle and pedestrian projects from sources other than Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails – our “dedicated” sources.There are two things to learn from that statement: 1. STATES spend federal transportation dollars.Therefore, it is state and local advocacy that determines if agencies are using federal funds to develop a balanced transportation system or just build highways, highways, highways. 2. We now expect state DOTs to make full use of the new Transportation Alternatives programs AND make full use of the programs under which bicycling and walking projects are eligible.

The feeling most associated with the new federal transportation, MAP-21, is disappointment – and with good reason. It is a highway-focused bill. Dedicated funding to bicycling and walking projects was…