We aren’t exaggerating when we say this ask has never been more urgent.

Please read more and take action now. We have until 4 p.m. EST today to have our thoughts heard.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 2, the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on our nation’s next multiyear surface transportation bill.

There’s no way to spin this: From the perspective of trails, walking and bicycling, the bill is a total disaster.

Among its worst features are:

• It eliminates dedicated funding for the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program?the nation’s largest funding source for trails, walking and bicycling. (Terrible news, but we expected it.)
• It removes the rail-trail category from TE eligibility.
• It completely eliminates funding for the Safe Routes to School program.
• It eliminates funding for bicycle and pedestrian coordinators at state DOTs.

But there’s still a chance…

Representatives Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) are considering the introduction of an amendment in the committee that would right many of the bill’s wrongs.

But they need to hear from other committee members that their amendment has a fighting chance.

Please: Take two minutes and ask your representatives to defend trails, walking and bicycling. We only have until 4 p.m. EST today, so any additional support you’re able to gather will make an enormous difference!

Thank you,

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

Related Posts

• Bike transportation funding: Avoiding a scare?
• House transportation bill: a disaster for biking and walking
• More on the West Bloomfield Trail extension

This was a very good opportunity to learn what others are doing to making biking and walking more prevalent in urban centers primarily through building trails. Too often trail building discussions focus on the easier-to-implement trails in more rural or suburban environments. This conference looks at trail building in urban areas where greater density and land use creates more challenges.

Also, this pathways summit was an opportunity to present on all our positive efforts in Detroit. There was a Detroit-specific panel while I presented on another regarding stewardship and partnership.

Here are some of the big takeaways.

Building Diversity

The U.S. bicycle advocacy movement is mostly white. Some national organizations talk the talk, but it seems only the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is walking the walk. They are not only sensitive to the lack of diversity, they’re are trying to do something about it – though they admittedly acknowledge that they have much to learn.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) advocates for equitable investment in underserved communities while promoting the health, transportation and environmental benefits of trail use. RTC staff has engaged local partners, focusing on programs and improvements that enhance access and foster community ownership of trails in urban areas.

There was a session on lessons learned in communities of color. It brought forward some interesting perspectives from Compton, Camden, Milwaukee, and more. Much of the discussion was on increasing participation in bicycling and less on diversifying our organizations, which is also critical.

Pedal for Prizes

This was one of the more unique bike-oriented events we heard about. It’s like an alley cat with less mayhem that can build support for local business.

Registration will begin at 11:30am, and riders will be sent off with their maps and stamp cards in tow at 12:30pm sharp.  Ride your bike to as many of our twenty-two destinations as you’d like until 3pm.  Make your way back to Loew Park by 3:30pm to turn in your card for raffle tickets that you can put towards any of seventy-five prizes valued anywhere between $10 and $625 that will be displayed on a table.

There is more information on the Pedal for Prizes web site.

Cleveland, Ohio

In my short stay, Cleveland struck me as a smaller, cleaner, less vacant city with better transit. On the flip side, their Lakefront Bikeway was disappointing. The pavement condition was horrific.

However, they do have tremendous amount of bike parking within their downtown. It was mostly simple, no-nonsense loops that just work.

I also visited their Morgana Run trail, which is quite promising except for their road crossing treatments. It seems Detroit’s traffic engineers are much further ahead when it comes to on-road designs.

Related Posts

• Detroit biking articles all over the local media
• Act now! House transportation bill a “total disaster” for biking, walking and trails
• Red Bike Green: Building a Black bike culture

Michigan currently has 2,478 miles. Minnesota is a close second with 2,309 while Wisconsin sits in third with 1,788.

Not all of these trail miles are as well-developed as the Paint Creek or Dequindre Cut, but they’re open so they count.

It’s good to see Michigan leading the nation in a positive category.

Related Posts

• Urban Pathways to Livable Communities
• A cycling perspective on the Detroit Consent Agreement
• Bicycles are not vehicles in Michigan

The Urban Pathways to Livable Communities conference begins tomorrow in New Orleans. Hosted in part by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, the conference aims to create connections between the fields of transportation, public health and planning on the local, state and national levels. The first day of the conference is hosted by RTC’s Urban Pathways Initiative. It will bring together trail advocates and professionals from across the nation to discuss best practices for building and encouraging use of trails in low-income urban neighborhoods.

There is additional information and a podcast on the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy web site.

– Todd Scott, Detroit Greenways Coordinator, MTGA

Related Posts

• Greenway mini-grants available in Detroit
• Inaugural Detroit Parks and Trails Day is June 4th, 2011
• Detroit Green jobs: Summer crew leaders

This meeting was actually about more than just this new project.

It was hosted by the Brookings Institute and featured Bruce Katz. Katz recently wrote the interesting article, The Detroit Project: A Plan for Solving America’s Greatest Urban Disaster. In DC, Katz spoke of the major upcoming debate on transportation policy. He emphasized the critical importance of advocates continuing to push non-motorized transportation during this period of change.

David Bryne

The next presenter was David Bryne, the front man of the Talking Heads. While he’s been cycling around New York since the 80s, he’s more recently become a bicycle advocate. The League of American Bicyclists summarized Bryne’s presentation.

Byrne began with a photo of Columbia, Md. where his elderly parents now live and are stranded due to the autocentric design of the community. He then went on to highlight some of his favorite books including: Twenty Minutes in Manhattan, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, and The Timeless Way of Building. He continued with a photo diary of memorable scenes – both good and bad – of public spaces from his travels around the world on his beloved folding bike.

Bryne’s book, Bicycle Diaries does briefly recount his ride in Detroit. In a recent National Geographic Adventure article, Bryne’s listed Detroit among his eight favorite biking cities in the “Great rides where you least expect it” category.

So when speaking with him in DC after the event, I invited him to return to Detroit and provided our Detroit Greenways Brochure to spark his interest. We’ll see.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer

Our premier bicycle advocate in Congress spoke next and started with his standard question: How many people are stuck in traffic right now on their way to ride a stationary bike in a health club?

Blumenauer gave a brief timeline on bicycle advocacy. What was once considered “desireable” have become “important” and is transitioning to “urgent” and “critical.”

In conjunction with that transition, introduced his Active Community legislation for the upcoming transportation bill. The original push from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy was for an Active Transportation 2010 program where 40 U.S. cities received $50 million over 6 years to increase biking and walking. Detroit applied for this as did Ann Arbor and Grand Rapids. However, according to the congressman, that program smelled too much like earmarks and didn’t make it in the transportation bill.

His new Active Communities legislation would be a competitive $5 to $15 million grant program with a focus on mode shift — getting more people walking and biking.

Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan

The NYC DOT Commissioner presented next primarily on the Cities for Cycling project, much of which we’ve already covered.

Some additional Cities for Cycling goals we forgot to mention the first time include

• Hosting workshops around the U.S. next year
• Making sure the next MUTCD is designed for 21st century cities and not just highways
• Streamline federal regulations for active transportation projects
• Double active transportation funding

Khan also said that building for bicycles is a matter of customer service and that bikes lanes are a transformative change for cities which benefits more than just cyclsits.

Questions and Answers

A little Q & A followed the three presentations. One person asked if there was still opposition to active transportation.

Blumenauer: Not much, but there are three factors.

1. People are nervous about change
2. The current political process is dysfunctional
3. We need to unleash greater grassroots support for cycling. Cycling advocates are too quiet.

Khan: The fight is one parking space at a time. It’s difficult to reduce the traditional priority on cars and bring a greater balance to transportation.

A bicycle advocate added we’re not outside of the mainstream. We’re undoing mistakes and doing the sensible thing.

Katz: We need to provide the opposite of the Le Corbusier’s urban planning vision.

The question of whether or not cyclists should pay bicycle-specific user fees was raised. Blumenauer spoke about a possible Pittman-Robertson solution, before flipping it around. He said it could be argued that cyclists should be paid to ride. After all, bicycling is the single most cost effective means to free up road space.

Afterwards, we had the opportunity to speak with Ms. Khan on a number of topics, including automated bike rental systems. In her opinion, these systems will transform U.S. cities and get more people on bikes. While we’ve discussed this in Detroit, such a system really makes most sense if it were designed to complement the Woodward Light Rail plans.

Additional Event Coverage

From Bikes Belong:

“The launch of Cities for Cycling shows that big-city mayors and transportation leaders see bicycling as a cost-effective urban transportation solution,” said Tim Blumenthal, Bikes Belong Executive Director. “The group will quickly become a respected voice in the growing movement to make bicycling safer and more convenient coast to coast.”

From Citiwire.net:

Can you imagine several hundred of this capital city’s policy wonks turning out for a two-hour discussion of bicycling?

A decade ago, it would have been unthinkable.

But the new buzz about cycling is clearly a mark of the times. You can credit snarled traffic, ennui with driving, rising oil prices and/or concern about greenhouse gas emissions. Then there’s growing popular desire to revoke the monopoly control cars and trucks have on our streets and public spaces. There’s a clear tie to the Complete Streets movement, advancing the ideas of shared urban turf long espoused by such groups as Partners for Livable Communities and the Project for Public Spaces.

The scene’s also been set, though, with Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood declaring “livable communities” a priority goal of his department. And – important to the policy making set – there’ll be opportunity to enrich the 2010 reauthorization of the federal transportation program with bike-friendly provisions.

The idea’s a sort of watershed – cyclists starting to qualify not just as recreation supplicants but serious players in America’s transportation decisions. It’s about time.

Related Posts

• Cycling for Cities: A Detroit Perspective
• New federal funding source for Active Transportation?
• National Bike Summit Breakfast: Day Three

If you do, please visit the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy web site, fill in their simple form, and tell President-elect Obama that you want funding for trails in the economic stimulus package.

There’s been a mad rush behind the scenes to collect information on “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects.  While road and bridge projects will likely be funded through this package, we’d prefer seeing some greener alternatives.

And biking and walking certainly fit with Obama’s call to reduce our demand for foreign oil.  Studies show that building biking and walking facilities induces more to choose these green modes of transportation.

C’mon.  It’s just 30 seconds.

Related Posts

• Act now! House transportation bill a “total disaster” for biking, walking and trails
• Urban Pathways Initiative in Cleveland
• Michigan is #1 for Rail-Trail miles