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If yesterday’s East Coast earthquake and the subsequent scramble to get home taught us anything, it may be that there is no better vehicle in emergency situations than the bicycle. As traffic in downtown…

Last week, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance won the first phase of its campaign to bring a bike share system to Portland, when the Portland City Council voted in support of $2 million in Metropolitan Transportation Improvement Program (MTIP) money for a capital investment in bike sharing.

The BTA also received a $3,000 Advocacy Advance Rapid Response grant to build on this success and prepare for the next phase of the campaign: to build on this success and prepare for the next phase of the campaign.

The cost of asphalt is increasing. As state budgets are tightening, it is a good time to invest in transportation projects — like bicycling projects — that rely less on materials and commit a greater share of their totals costs to labor, putting people to work.

The majority of the Federal Transit Administration’s grant programs allow money to be spent on the design, construction, and maintenance of walking and biking projects that “enhance or are related…

Back in July, we reported on the US DOT seminar How Lessons on how to compete for a US DOT TIGER Grant. Today, the US DOT’s Chief Economist Jack Wells…

The League was just added as a beneficiary of Climate Ride — but there are only 20 spots left. Register for Climate Ride to raise money to support the League…

Cycling and fashion have hit an uptick in America thanks to many fashion designers getting on board with stylish bike commuter pieces and selling them online, including: bags, helmets and…

In line with a goal to double federal funding for biking and walking, Advocacy Advance is awarding $100,000 in direct grants to four advocacy organizations. Using the grants to tap…

We all know how expensive it can be to fly with your bike. We update the airplane bike fees on our Web site for the National Bike Summit every March,…

The following is a white paper written by the League of American Bicyclists and America Bikes, a coalition of national bicycling advocacy groups. Download the PDF of  “Why Eligibility Isn’t Enough.”
Why “Eligibility” Isn’t Enough
The case for dedicated bicycle and pedestrian funding in the federal transportation bill
Representative John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, recently introduced an outline of his proposed transportation bill. The proposal eliminates all dedicated funding for bicycling and walking – programs such as transportation enhancements, recreational trails and safe routes to schools program – and maintains “eligibility” for these activities only if states choose to spend their funds on these kinds of activities and these meet [undetermined] performance measures and are in the national interest.

As supporters of these programs attempt to preserve dedicated funding for bicycling and walking, they may well hear an argument along the lines of “don’t worry, these are still eligible activities, so if States think they are important they will continue”. While it is true that basic eligibility for federal transportation funds is important (it at least removes the argument that “we aren’t allowed to use these funds for bicycling and walking projects”), all the evidence of the past 20 years and beyond suggests that mere eligibility is totally insufficient: most states will simply stop spending any of their Federal transportation funds on anything related to bicycling and walking.

1. It didn’t work before. In 1991, the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA) created the Transportation Enhancement (TE), Recreational Trails (RTP) and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality programs (CMAQ), all of which have become major sources of funding for bicycling and walking projects. Before ISTEA, states had the option of spending up to $4.5 million of their highway funds each year on independent bicycling and walking projects (up to a national cap of $45 million), and the funds required NO state matching funds. In the 18 years before 1991, a total of $40 million was spent by all 50 states combined – approximately $2 million a year. Most states spent nothing between 1988 and 1991.

2. States seem to wait for programs to end. The chart below shows how spending on bicycling and walking projects and programs has increased since 1991. Notice the dips in spending when transportation bill expires. While this lack of planning for bike/ped projects may partly be explained by the general level of uncertainty caused by numerous short-term funding fixes (continuing resolutions), there is also a strong possibility that States are hoping these programs will go away in the new bills – and in 1995-96 and 2003-04 there were active efforts underway to eliminate the Transportation Enhancements program.