Bicycle facility funding often takes verbal punches from some conservative voices who don’t consider it as a valid transportation option as driving.

Here are a couple advocacy approaches that might be more successful when appealing to conservative audiences.

Increasing National Security

William Lind, director of the Center for Cultural Conservatism at the Free Congress Foundation, was recently intereviewed in the Infrastructurist. And though he was talking about public transit, one could easily substitute biking into this same argument.

National Security is always a big interest to conservatives and any time you can talk in those terms, you’re going to have their attention. Virtually every American knows that our greatest single national security vulnerability at the moment, the one that has enmeshed us in the middle east, is our dependence on foreign oil, most of it coming from unstable parts of the world. And this can drag us into unwanted wars, as it has it can result not only in high gas prices, like we had last summer, but in complete cutoffs like we had in ‘73 and ‘79, where events halfway around the world suddenly leave our gas stations without any gas to sell. And at present, if that happens, most Americans have no backup.

Reducing Public Health Costs

The Associated Press recently noted a new report on obesity in the U.S. and its affect on Medicare costs.

Health economists once made the harsh financial calculation that the obese would save money by dying sooner, notes Jeff Levi, executive director of the Trust for America’s Health, a nonprofit public health group. But more recent research instead suggests they live nearly as long but are much sicker for longer, requiring such costly interventions as knee replacements and diabetes care and dialysis. Studies show Medicare spends anywhere from $1,400 to $6,000 more annually on health care for an obese senior than for the non-obese.

“There isn’t a magic bullet. We don’t have a pill for it,” said Levi, whose group is pushing for health reform legislation to include community-level programs that help people make healthier choices like building sidewalks so people can walk their neighborhoods instead of drive, and providing healthier school lunches.

“It’s not going to be solved in the doctor’s office but in the community, where we change norms,” Levi said.

Making our communities more bikeable can play a major role in reducing obesity and reducing public health care costs.

Where does Michigan stand? Here are some health statistics from the report:

• 29% of Michigan adults are obese
• Michigan has the ranked ninth in the percentage of obese adults
• 12% of Michigan high school students are obese
• On average, this obesity costs Michigan residents $291 per person in medical expenses. This is $33 per person above the national average.

Which state is the fattest? Mississippi has the highest obesity rate at nearly 33% — a title they’ve held for the past five years.

Kathy Wendler of the Southwest Detroit Business Association addresses the ribbon cutting crowd

Bagley Bridge in Mexicantown

The ribbon cutting for the I-75 Gateway Project was Monday.

Northbound and southbound I-75 are now open. However, the Bagley bike and pedestrian bridge is not.

MDOT announced that the ramps will be completed in a later construction phase. According to the Detroit News, it won’t open until November.

Metro Detroit Trails

The Detroit News recently published an interactive map showing shared-use trails in Metro Detroit. It really shows how these trails are starting to connect into a larger regionwide network — a process largely led by the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.

Draft Trailway Master Plan

The Spinal Column is reporting the completion of a draft master plan for the Huron Valley Trail extension eastward from Wixom to M-5.

The Commerce, Walled Lake and Wixom Trailway Management Council will hold a public hearing at 7 p.m. on July 30 in the Commerce Township Hall to receive public comment on a proposed master plan for the Michigan Airline Railroad corridor.

The trailway council, made up of representatives of three communities that seek to acquire stretches of the railroad running through their jurisdiction, is expected to adopt the master plan at the July 30 meeting.

This plan was paid for by a $5,250 donation from the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.

Early on some states were saying they may not use the transportation stimulus funding. A mechanism was in place to divide that unused state funding to other states that could use it, like Michigan. It was looking like 15 states might not make the deadline.

As it turns out, all of the states did. Their money will not funnel back to Michigan.

This is unfortunate because some projects were on the list to receive this second round of funding. A second I-275 Metro Trail (formerly known as the I-275 bike path) project was one of them, as was the Conner Creek Greenway in Detroit.

Yesterday, the below letter was sent to the Highland Park Chief of Police, Theodore G. Cadwell II:

Dear Chief Cadwell,

I am writing to express concern that some of the Highland Park police officers may not be familiar with state law and bicycling.

Last night I was riding home from the Detroit Fireworks along Woodward Avenue through Highland Park.

At 11:11pm, I passed a Highland Park squad car at a traffic stop on northbound Woodward near Church. The police officer yelled “Sidewalk” to me. Apparently he expected me to ride on the sidewalk rather than the road. However, under state law, I have the same access to the road as any motorist (though I must stay to the right.)

According to MCL 257.657:

Each person riding a bicycle, electric personal assistive mobility device, or moped or operating a low-speed vehicle upon a roadway has all of the rights and is subject to all of the duties applicable to the driver of a vehicle by this chapter, except as to special regulations in this article and except as to the provisions of this chapter which by their nature do not have application.

I would also note that bicycling on a sidewalk is far more dangerous than bicycling on a road. There have been numerous studies which have come to that conclusion.

Also, last month the Secretary of Transportation posted the article, Bicycling is only healthy when you ride safely. In the article he said, “Motorists should recognize that bicyclists have a right to ride on the roadway” and “bicyclists should ride on the roadway, rather than on sidewalks.”

I will drop off some booklets called “What Every Bicyclists Must Know” at the police station. They were printed in partnership with MDOT and help explain bicycle laws in the state of Michigan.

There’s been a huge flurry of news stories on the next transportation bill during the past couple weeks.

In summary, while Congressman James Oberstar introduced a new transportation bill, the White House announced they wanted to simply extend the existing transportation bill for 18 months. And today Senate leader voiced their support for an extension.

This situation is best summarized by this Infrastructurist article: Transportation Bill Is Dead As A Doornail For 2009 Because Nobody Can Figure Out How To Pay For It

But even the current transportation fund is in the red and may require an additional $20 billion to get through an 18 month extension.

In this economy, no one wants to raise gas taxes. Also, waiting 18 months means the gas tax issue could be dealt with conveniently after the 2010 elections.

What does this mean for cyclists?

We’re good either way. While some of the features in Oberstar’s transportation bill are very welcomed, it’s likely they may also appear in the future transportation bill. That is unless the 2010 elections change the balance of power in Congress.