I recently took
a train trip I’d never imagined: riding the Washington DC Metro to reach
Capitol Hill for a day of lobbying. As
part of the League of American Bicyclists’ National
Bike Summit, I joined a delegation of
Illinois cyclists who met with several Senators and Representatives to discuss
3 bills currently in Congress: the Bike
and Pedestrian Safety Act, the Safe Streets Act and the New Opportunities
(Equity) Act. We asked each senator or
representative who wasn’t already part of the Congressional Bike Caucus to join,
and discussed other issues that might be of interest to them.
One of my
meetings was with my Representative, Daniel
Lipinski, whose district includes part of the
southwest side and many southwest suburbs, including the western end of the Cal Sag
Trail route.
He is a fellow cyclist who has
historically been an ally on bike and pedestrian funding. I noticed his road bike, pump and related
items in his office during our meeting.
My other
meeting was with Representative Robin Kelly.
Her district includes much of the southeast side and many south suburbs,
as well as the eastern end of the Cal Sag
Trail route.
Prior to
Lobbying Day, attendees interested in lobbying were organized by state, with a
designated coordinator for each state’s meeting. We exchanged emails prior to the Bike Summit
and met at the end of the Bike Summit programming to confirm who would attend
meetings with each representative and senator.
We reviewed the details of each bill that we would be discussing in our
meetings and who would cover various talking points in each meeting.
The Bike and Pedestrian Safety Act is a revision to the highway safety improvement program. It would require the creation of separate goals and statistics for states for non-motorized and motorized fatalities and serious injuries. In recent years, the rate of fatalities for motor vehicle drivers and passengers has decreased, while the rate of non-motorized (bike and pedestrian) fatalities and serious injuries has stayed steady or increased. It’s important to create separate targets for bike and pedestrian traffic so that all states take the problem seriously and actively work to reduce these crashes.
Illinois delegation at #nbs14 |
The Bike and Pedestrian Safety Act is a revision to the highway safety improvement program. It would require the creation of separate goals and statistics for states for non-motorized and motorized fatalities and serious injuries. In recent years, the rate of fatalities for motor vehicle drivers and passengers has decreased, while the rate of non-motorized (bike and pedestrian) fatalities and serious injuries has stayed steady or increased. It’s important to create separate targets for bike and pedestrian traffic so that all states take the problem seriously and actively work to reduce these crashes.
The Safe
Streets Act would require all states to have a law or DOT policy within 2 years
mandating that federally funded transportation projects on roads that allow all types of users to follow Complete Streets policies. It would also require a mechanism for
assuring compliance. If roads are built
to safely accommodate all types of users when they are first constructed or
reconfigured, they don’t need to be rebuilt later to meet Complete Streets
standards. Including appropriate
features during construction usually adds little or no expense to the
construction. Modifying existing
infrastructure at a later date is significantly more expensive. This bill would help improve safety for
bicyclists and pedestrians and get
the most bang for the buck out of available funding.
The New
Opportunities for Bicycle and Pedestrian Infrastructure Financing Act would
create a new source of funding (long-term low interest loans) for biking and walking
networks. 25% of the funding must be
spent in low income communities. It is a
set aside from the $1 billion dollar TIFIA loan program funded in the
MAP-21 transportation bill
(which eliminated dedicated funding for bike and pedestrian infrastructure
projects).
You can use
links attached to each of the bill numbers if you’d like to learn more and
track the progress of these bills in Congress: Safe Streets Act (HR 2468/S
2004), Bike and Pedestrian Safety Act (HR 3494/S
1708) and New Opportunities (Equity) Act (HR 3978/ Senate bill to be introduced).
The Summit is
an annual advocacy event featuring panel discussions, presentations, and
keynote speakers on a wide range of topics and included a Women’s
Bicycling Forum.
Terry O’Neill of the
National Organization for Women was featured as a keynote speaker. She led a discussion on building coalitions to
get diverse groups working together. A
lunchtime keynote included Gabe Klein, former commissioner of the
Chicago Dept. of Transportation, and Anthony Foxx, our new
U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
Each breakout
session offered several choices, such as Overcoming the Scofflaw Perception,
Bike Advocacy as a Political Platform, Quantifying Bike Benefits, Building a
Broad Transportation Coalition, Moving Beyond the Bikelash, the Role of
Enforcement in a Vision Zero Strategy and
Expanding Bicycling Options. I found
myself wishing I had a clone or two, as there were usually 2 or 3 programs in
each time slot that I would have liked to attend. A different mix of pop-up shops appeared each
day in the hallway connecting event locations.
Clarence
Eckerson, the founder of Streetfilms, led a
session on the basics of documentary film making. I hope to put that knowledge to good use. I gained a lot of helpful information from
the event and made several valuable connections that I hope will be beneficial
for future advocacy work.
If you’d to
reinforce our efforts, please send your own message to your members of
Congress. Use this link to ask your Senators and Representative to support the
Bike and Pedestrian Safety Act. Feel free to use the following links to send
messages requesting their support for the Safe Streets Act and the New Opportunities (Equity) Act. If they hear from you on these issues, your
voice can help make a difference.
I highly
recommend the National Bike Summit to those who have a serious interest in
advocacy work. It’s a great opportunity
to take your work to the next level.
-
Anne Alt is president of Chicago Cycling Club, paralegal at Freeman Kevenides Law Firm, board member of the Active Transportation Alliance,
secretary of Friends of the Major Taylor Trail and a member of Women Bike
Chicago.
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