BTA calls for Transportation Enhancement Funds in Stimulus Package

Thanks to calls from bicycle and pedestrian advocates like you, the Senate refused to hear an amendment that would have blocked any Economic Recovery Bill money from being spent on biking and walking infrastructure projects. Now we need EVERYONE'S HELP to make certain that there is strong support for Transportation Enhancements $ for biking and walking in the final bill!

Support Bicycle and Pedestrian Projects in the Economic Recovery Bill

The House and the Senate have each passed their own version of the Economic Recovery Bill, aimed at creating jobs and stimulating the economy. Both bills include billions for transportation infrastructure, but only the House bill includes funding for bicycle and pedestrian projects in the Transportation Enhancements program. The House bill includes approximately $1.35 billion for Transportation Enhancements of which 50-60% is traditionally spent on bicycle and pedestrian projects. The Senate bill does not explicitly include Transportation Enhancements, so it's unclear whether this funding will be in the final bill.

We need to make sure Transportation Enhancement funding is in the final bill.

This week there will be a conference committee where several members of the House and several members of the Senate will work together to reconcile the two bills. Conferees need to hear that Transportation Enhancements are important to stimulating the economy, creating green jobs, and moving us towards a sustainable future.

CALL TODAY!

Please call your senators and representative and ask them to tell the Conferees to support Transportation Enhancements in the Economic Recovery bill. Tell them:

• Bicycle and pedestrian projects create jobs at the same or better rate than highway projects.
• These smaller projects can move quickly to hire local businesses and help local economies.
• Providing safe and convenient bicycle and pedestrian access gives families healthier and cheaper transportation options.
• Improving sidewalks and bike lanes can make a downtown a destination further helping the local economy.
• Better biking and walking options also help ensure greater energy independence, less pollution, and a healthier United States!

Please share this email alert with all bicyclists and pedestrians you can, and encourage them to join you in supporting biking and walking today! Thank you - together we will make a big difference!

Legislative Update - Week 4

In New Business there were just a couple of small housekeeping details:
Senate Bill 420 redefines "electronic assisted bicycle"
House Bill 2554 slightly broadens the definition of "vulnerable roadway user" for operators of farm equipment


In Old Business there was no significant change (for links to the bills see Week 2 update):
Senate Bill 267 - no change
Senate Bill 276 - no change
Senate Bill 291 - Held Public Hearing, February 3
Senate Bill 292 - no change
House Bill 2106 - Work Session scheduled, February 10
House Bill 2120 - no change

Thanks Senior Officer Bob Owings!

On a web article the Statesman reports a sting operation to reduce bike theft!

Salem police made five arrests today during a special project implemented to cut down on bike thefts downtown.

The four-hour, “plainclothes operation” was organized by Senior Officer Bob Owings and was initiated because of a recent increase in complaints of bike thefts in the downtown core, said Sgt. Mike Johnson, lead of the department’s downtown enforcement team.

Statesman web article here.

Why not send a big Thank You to Officer Owings! Here's how.

Take the Go Downtown Survey on Shopping

Go Downtown and Vision 2020 have a survey on downtown shopping. One thing that's missing is a question about how you get downtown! Take the survey, tell them what you want, and find a way to mention "bicycles"! If the merchants know bicyclists are customers and will come downtown with improved bike facilities, they will more readily support bike infrastructure and amenities!

Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC), Autoist and Bike Foe

Over at Bikeportland, Jonathan has the story about an attempt to prohibit stimulus funds for any bicycle infrastructure. The stimulus package represents an opportunity to take bicycle infrastructure up a notch, and to move on weaning ourselves from foreign oil. But DeMint implicitly endorses the old story of bikes as playthings. This would be a disappointing compromise for the Senate to make.

[update - Huffington Post has Rep. Earl Blumenauer's response.]

Vision 2020 Bike & Ped Group

The Salem Downtown Vision 2020 Bicycle and Pedestrian Connections Group meets on the first Wednesday of each month.

At the Bicycle and Pedestrian Connections meeting yesterday we had a wide ranging conversation about Commercial Street through downtown, making room for bikes at the bathrooms on the Capitol Mall, the nature of Urban Renewal Tax Increment Financing, and bike parking and other downtown amenities. We learned that City Council did approve the signage for the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway.

We also talked about bike parking. Wouldn't it be great to see some covered bike parking downtown? Here's bike parking in Salem circa 1909 at Colonel J. Olmstead's Steam Laundry on South Liberty Street.

Here's some contemporary covered bike parking in Portland (photo: Fussganger). Note the See and Be Seen ad for adequate bike lighting! (More on Portland's campaign here.) Wouldn't it be great to see something like this in downtown Salem!

On March 31 from 5:00-7:00 PM there will be a Community Forum, "Celebrating Success," at the Salem Conference Center. Hopefully we'll get to see proposals on several of these things!

City Council Meeting

City Council tonight has several interesting bike items buried in the consent agenda. First is the Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway signage. They also will take up the stimulus package and selection criteria for the just-passed bond measure.

The Stimulus Package Priorities are mostly big road projects. They include:

Union Street Railroad Bridge connection to Glen Creek Road
Completing 12th Street Pedestrian Promenade at Mill

The total is about 1% of perhaps $70 Million worth of projects. It's nice to see two bike projects included in them, but they meet only the minimum spirit of the 1% bike bill requirement (though I don't know whether these would pass through the state highway fund and therefore be subject to that 1% requirement). Projects leveraged with the stimulus package could be a bold move forward! But this is mostly more of the same.

The City is also proposing selection criteria for individual projects in the "safety improvement categories" part of the recent bond measure. According to the summary

staff recommends that City Council approve the selection criteria contained in the report for identifying individual Streets and Bridges General Obligation Bond projects in the following safety improvement categories: Core Area Curb Extensions for Transit and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Access, Pedestrian Crossing and Neighborhood Traffic Calming Measures, Missing Sidewalks and Bicycle Lanes to Schools and Parks, and Railroad Crossing Safety Improvement Projects.

In the "sidewalks and bicycle lanes" section, they identified the following criteria:These look great.

But. The next criterion is to ask whether the project is "already adopted into the unfunded CIP, Salem TSP, Parks Master Plan, associated neighborhood plan, or other adopted study or plan? Is it currently supported by the affected neighborhood association, Salem Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Salem-Keizer School District, or Salem-Keizer Transit District?

While it seems reasonable to ask for public support, the kind of institutionalized and formalized support the criterion cites (TSP, School District, etc) has been backward looking and has generally failed to catch up to bicycle engineering best practices and to the realities of peak oil and climate change.

We think the City should lead, not follow! This document represents progress, but isn't bold as we would like, and enforces a stance of following.