Well hello, summer!

There’s nothing like strolling around our country’s capital on an early spring day, the cherry blossoms popping and the police motorcades buzzing around with who-knows-what cabinet member inside.

With 75 degrees and sunshine the new normal for spring (and winter!) in D.C., I can’t help but imagine those cabinet members (or the President himself) probably want to be outside.  I don’t blame them.  It’s where the action is.  And it’s where Capital Bikeshare is.

Bikeshare staring down the Capitol on Pennsylvania Ave = awesomeness

Their Bikeshare system alone is enough to lure me back to Washington, D.C.; I wrote about its brilliance last year.  While I managed to truly use Bikeshare on several occasions—like racing to the capital in a suit slightly late for a meeting with one of our Senators—we were really there for the 2012 National Bike Summit.

National Bike Summit was a great few days of idea sharing, lobbying and celebrations and, instead of hashing out all of the details, I’ll reduce it to this: Bikes on The Hill: The Top Ten Highlights from Washington, D.C. Here goes:

10.  The aforementioned cherry blossoms. We certainly have ours here in Washington State right now, but where the heck is our warm weather and sunshine?

9. The Gen Y Guy, Jason Dorsey. Known for his hilarious delivery and big name clientele, his poignant observations about generational differences gave us much to think about in terms of reaching—and motivating—our audience.

Congressman Earl Blumenauer: not gonna give an inch

8. Panel presentations and sessions. I have to admit: I missed a few of these, mainly because I had set up a meetings with our national partners at their offices in D.C.  But I did give one of the presentations, and I think that one went well (or at least I was told.)  Quite the list of presentations.

7. Fun, engaging and informal conversations. As soon as I sat down for the opening dinner, a great guy from Arizona shouted: “You’re from Cascade!  How’s your endorsement process work?  Are you at 15,000 members yet?  What can you tell me about working with the legislature?”  Wow.  Not bad.  I guess people know about us in Arizona!  At breakfasts, at lunches, in presentations, over drinks, I had more inspiring and engaging conversations about bicycling than I can remember.

6. Campaign Wizard Mark McKinnon. A well-known political advisor and media guru, Mark has worked for Lance Armstrong, George W. Bush, Senator John McCain, and U2’s Bono.  He shared some of his magic with us on how to win campaigns.  He really brought down the house and I look forward to employing his insights.

Congressman Adam Smith of Washington's 9th: always well-informed and supportive on our issues

5. Earl Blumenauer and Ray LaHood. Along with Congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Congressmen Tom Petri (R-WI) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Earl and Ray kicked off the summit.  Congressman Blumenauer is a champion for bicycling and is our keynote at our eighth annual Bike to Work Breakfast on May 4^th.  Ray LaHood, the US Transportation Secretary, has truly been an amazing ambassador for bicycling and public safety.  I’ve written adoring words about him previously here.

4. A strong state delegation. Our group of 15 Washington staters was truly remarkable.  We had senior leadership from REI and Raleigh America.  We had bike shop owners.  We had the Transportation Director from the UW.  We had advocates from our friends the Bicycle Alliance of Washington.  And, of course, we had Cascade staff.  Together, we played a great tag-team in our meetings with Congress, drawing on personal stories, making the business case for bicycling and catching the ears of congresspeople and their staff.

3. Face time. Over 800 attendees from 49 states put together nearly 400 meetings with Congress while we were there! Our Washington State group met face-to-face with a majority of our federal delegation and with staff from all offices.  We even were led through the underground tunnels to the floor of the House where we met with Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Buetler in between votes.  Developing stronger relationships and making a strong case for dedicated funding for bicycling was our mission—and from follow up conversations I’ve had with congressional staff, we did well.

The late night monument tour by capital bikeshare

2. Bikeshare. At night.  With national monuments. Getting around D.C. by Capital Bikeshare is about as easy as it gets, even in the dark (the bikes have automatic lights).  Swipe a card, grab a bike, drop it at our destination, grab another one, repeat.  I can’t wait until we have a similar system in Seattle.

1. Killing H.R. 7. Yes, the House Transportation Bill, H.R. 7, was a nightmare for bicycling since it completely gutted funding for bikes.  Along with your help and in collaboration with our national partners, we laid H.R. 7 to rest.  It meant extending the current bill a ninth time and for another three months, but that buys time for the Senate and House to reach a deal that includes funding for bicycle infrastructure.  Our visit to D.C. helped make a lasting impression on Congress.  They heard loudly and clearly that bicycling is a legitimate form of transportation and everyone deserves the right to safely use the roads and trails across our country.

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!

As you might know, cities and towns across Washington rely on federal funding for programs like Safe Routes to School that build local, safe bicycle infrastructure for everyone. You also may know that we take the threat of zeroed out funding by Congress very seriously.  No federal funding would spell certain disaster for safer roads and accessibility to biking and walking.

So this week, we called on many of our supporters to take action on such a threat (that I previously wrote about here).  Thank you to those who contacted your Congressional representative to help us protect funding for bicycling.  We pushed hard but we didn’t get over the top of this vote.

Yes, unfortunately, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted against protecting bicycle funding.  It was a close, bipartisan vote: 27 to 29.

Washington state’s two committee members were split on an amendment introduced by Republican Tom Petri (R-WI) that would have restored Safe Routes to School and Transportation Enhancements programs.  Rick Larsen voted for the amendment.  Jaime Herrera Buetler voted against it. If you live in the 2^nd district, be sure to thank Congressman Larsen.  If you live in the 3^rd, we encourage you to reach out to Congresswoman Herrera Buetler and let her know of your disappointment.

Together, we generated over 900 emails to Congress—and while we didn’t get the result we wanted, we’re still in the fight.

What’s next?

The bill will probably pass a House floor vote void of any funding for bicycling.  But there is a silver lining.  Today’s bipartisan committee vote sends a strong signal to the Senate.  If a transportation bill is going to be worked out between the chambers, the Senate will see that funding for bicycling is supported by Democrats and Republicans across the aisle—and we should end up in a better place in the final compromise bill. That is, when or if we get one this (election) year.

We’ll continue to track this and give you a shout when things heat up again, since the results will directly impact what happens on the ground over the next several years in communities all across our state.

Thanks again to those 900 letter writers!

Anybody who’s been following the federal transportation drama knows that it’s been a saga of anxiety-provoking bill extensions with continued threats to funding for biking.  And then nothing.  And then something.  And then just kidding.

Is this your Congressional rep?

With your help, we’ve fended some of those threats off and have kept bike funding at current levels—still not nearly enough or equitable as I noted on Monday, but at least not as bloody as a Coen brothers movie.

But boy howdy, here we go.  The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is poised to rip everything out of the bill for bicycling (and walking) with a vote tomorrow.  I give you: the “American Energy and Infrastructure Act.”  And it gives you: nothing.

I bet you could have guessed that based on the ‘50s era title page of the summary alone.  Let’s see: transportation = oil pipeline + large concrete highway spans all superimposed on an American flag.  Um, that’s not my country thank you very much.

The details aren’t any better.  The bill looks like it will:

• Kill programs “that do not have a federal interest”—like all bicycling programs. This means eliminating Transportation Enhancements and even Safe Routes to School.  Nothing should unite us in a fight like Congress going after kid safety.  Let me upgrade my piece on Monday from “Not. Fair.”  to “Simply. Disgusting.”
• Reduce city and metro control over funding, giving more of it—“flexibility”—to state DOTs, which, in general, haven’t demonstrated strong support for bicycling
• Gut or eliminate discretionary funds like the very successful TIGER program that Senator Patty Murray helped create
• Squeeze the environmental review process, which will likely mean more impacts to our health and environmental health

So we need your help.  Click here to write your representative again today and ask for support to preserve funding for biking and walking >>

If this makes it out of the committee, what next?  It’ll go to the House floor for debate and likely get passed.  Then the bill would be conferenced with a Senate bill, MAP-21, if MAP-21 is passed by the Senate.  I wrote about MAP-21 when it was released in November; it certainly has its share of serious problems, but it doesn’t rip out all bike funding like the House bill.

Why bother with your representative?  While we’re not expecting a miracle for it to simply be rewritten or go away, a strong bipartisan showing in the House Transportation Committee means a better chance of working something reasonable out with the Senate.  Like something that doesn’t gut bike funding.  Like something that keeps our state, cities and towns building the protected bike lanes, cycle tracks and greenways for all of us to reliably and safely get around by bicycle.

And I’d vote for that.

Click here to write your representative today and ask for support to preserve funding for biking and walking >>