Congressman Earl Blumenauer, full speed ahead
It was only 896 days late, but who’s counting now? While Congress has yet to get a bill to the president’s desk, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan bill yesterday that keeps that dream alive—and showed the House that making our roads safer and getting people to work is more important than playing election-year politics. It’s been 896 days since the last transportation bill expired in 2009. Since then, it’s been coasting along on “extensions”.
The vote yesterday was a resounding 74-22 on this two year, $109 billion bill. We had some serious concerns with the original bill language and the bill as passed is, admittedly, not perfect. But with your help and working with our national partners, we were able to make improvements like:
- Giving local governments and schools better access to funds for making bicycling safer
- Saving the Recreational Trails Program, originally slated for elimination
- Revising the mandatory sidepath law so that bicycles are not banned outright from federal roads (like national parks) with speed limits over 30 mph and with an adjacent paved path
Aside from these improvements, the Senate bill preserves dedicated funding for bicycling—like Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements—now consolidated as “Additional Activities.” I don’t love that name (additional? How about essential!), but I’m glad that we still have dedicated funding. The bill is also a step forward for transit, important for many of us who combine transit with a bicycle to get where we’re going. Both of our Senators voted for the bill.
Speaking of which, remember the “worst transportation bill ever”? I wrote about it here. It’s the House bill, and not only did it run out of gas, it never really had an engine or a steady pair of legs to pedal it.
The House is now tasked with writing something that has more than just the support of Speaker John Boehner. Then the two bills will have to be reconciled before President Obama signs a new transportation bill into law. There’s no clear path forward for the House—the failure of Boehner’s bill to even stand for a vote means that House leadership has to scramble to put something bipartisan together before the clock runs out. As I said, they’re 896 days late.
With the need to actually write and pass a viable House bill and then settle it up with the Senate, another vote to extend the current bill—for the ninth time since 2009—looms. March 31 is the deadline for a new bill or an extension or else transportation programs shut down and workers are laid off.
We favor a new bill modeled after the Senate bill that passed yesterday. An extension would mean more fights to save funding for bicycling and waiting even longer to develop a real long-term vision for transportation in America.
Thanks to those of you who sent literally thousands of letters and emails to your members of Congress. It made a real difference!
Disappointed to see the final Senate transportsation bill continues to prohibit consideration of cyclist safety in its mandatory sidepath rule for Federal lands. The rule now allows consideration of bicycle level of service metrics on a road, but does not allow consideration of the safety of a sidepath.
The language of the bill as it passed the Senate says:
“(d) BICYCLE SAFETY.—The Secretary of the appropriate Federal land management agency shall prohibit the use of bicycles on each federally owned road that has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater and an adjacent paved path for use by bicycles within 100 yards of the road unless the Secretary determines that the bicycle level of service on that roadway is rated B or higher.”
So, if a road is rated Level of Service = C, bicycles are required to use any available sidepath, no matter the safety of the sidepath design, its maintenance condition, etc. That begs the question, what’s so awful about having bikes on a road with LOS=C? Here’s a brief description of LOS C roadways:
“LOS C Scores 14 or below but greater than 11 equal an LOS C rating. These roadways are adequate for most bicyclists. Group C riders will be somewhat less comfortable on these facilities, particularly if unsupervised. Bicyclists can anticipate a moderate level of interaction with motor vehicles. These roadways will typically have an on-street facility (bicycle lane or wide curb lane) dedicated for bicyclists. The roadway will generally be characterized by a combination of low-speed, low-volume motor-vehicle traffic, infrequent conflicts, and good surface conditions, although minor deficiencies in two or more of these areas will be present.”
Notice LOS C includes many roads *with bike lanes* — bicycles would now be banned from those Federally-funded bike lanes if there’s a separate path available, even if that path is obsolete and far more dangerous than a modern bike lane or wide curb lane.
Josh: yes, this was painful and not the outcome we wanted. The League tried hard to push back on this and groups did what they could. Not a done deal yet, but I can’t imagine conferencing with the House on a final bill will actually improve the situation….
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