Overview

America Bikes is a 501(c)4 (lobbying) non-profit organization which is comprised of representatives from the nation’s major bicycling advocacy organizations. Approximately every six years, America Bikes gears up to lobby for bicycling interests in the omnibus federal transportation bill. Most of the funding for America Bikes comes from the retail bicycling industry group known as Bikes Belong.

During past debates over transportation funding, America Bikes has arranged for bicycling advocates to formulate a unified position on bicycling provisions, has helped them campaign for these, and has maintained a presence on Capitol Hill during pivotal debates and hearings. America Bikes also has assisted America Walks and other groups to educate congressional representatives on important provisions regarding pedestrian safety.

The board of directors of America Bikes includes employees or board members from the Adventure Cycling Association, the Alliance for Biking and Walking, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals , the Bikes Belong Coalition, the International Mountain Bicycling Association, League of American Bicyclists, the National Center for Bicycling & Walking, and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. (These organizations are necessarily officially affiliated with America Bikes.)

Endorse the 2009 Bicycling Agenda

For the 2009 transportation bill, America Bikes asks advocates and agencies around the country to endorse the following agenda, by visiting its website, AmericaBikes.org:

Complete the Streets

Enact a National Complete Streets policy that ensures all new and reconstructed roads are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and transit users, of all ages and abilities. America Bikes urges Congress to:

• Establish a Complete Streets policy requiring that all road projects that utilize federal funds shall include appropriate provisions to accommodate bicyclists, pedestrians, and disabled travelers.
• Build Complete Transit Systems. Require all projects involving the construction or reconstruction of transit stations to include appropriate provisions to accommodate bicycles, bicyclists and pedestrians (including persons with disabilities) to ensure a seamless connection between the different modes.
• Incentivize the adoption of state, MPO and local complete streets policies.
• Enact an FHWA Complete Streets standard that sets a minimum accommodation requirement as well as guidelines for target levels of bicycle and pedestrian accommodations. Incentivize performance based on this new standard.
  

Build Active Transportation Systems

Focus significantly increased investment on completing seamless networks of sidewalks, bike lanes, and trails, especially in cities, towns and suburban areas. These networks should be accessible and safe for all users, and connect pedestrians and bicyclists to improved public transportation services to enable many more short trips to be made by foot and bicycle. Therefore, America Bikes urges Congress to:

• Create a new Active Transportation Investment Fund to support concentrated investment in completing active transportation systems in urban and metropolitan areas with the goal of shifting driving trips to walking and bicycling. Building on the success of the non-motorized pilot program in SAFETEA-LU (sec. 1807), the fund should give large grants and flexible decision-making to local governments with the expectation that they will achieve measurable mode shift.
• Support the recognition and implementation of an official United States Bicycle Route System (USBRS), based on the national corridor plan adopted by AASHTO, to connect urban, suburban and rural areas in America by inter-state and intercity routes on roads and trails.
• Maintain and enhance funding for existing programs to encourage investment and extend or complete bicycle, trail and pedestrian networks:
• Transportation Enhancements: If the Surface Transportation Program (STP) is maintained, TE shall continue as a 10 percent set-aside with the existing funding categories and without funds being transferable to other programs. If STP is not maintained, new and explicit funding for bicycle and pedestrians in every state, similar to those funded under the current TE program shall be maintained.
• Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality: If the CMAQ program is maintained, ensure that funds authorized for the CMAQ program are increased relative to the number of metropolitan areas made eligible by the new stricter air quality standards. Require programming processes where bicycle and pedestrian projects are fairly considered. If the CMAQ program is not maintained, it must be replaced with a larger
  environmental, air quality or climate program where at least 10% of funding would go to bicycle and pedestrian projects.
• Recreational Trails Program: Increase funding for the Recreational Trails Program (RTP) to $550 million over five years, increasing from $90 million in the first year to $130 million in year five. Improve trail production and delivery by: exempting dirt trails from some highway and bridge planning processes, working more with youth and conservation corps, bolstering the educational component and how trail projects maximize the use of volunteer labor, and tracking the non-highway recreational fuel use regularly for funding accountability.
  
• Parks: Increase funding to Paul S. Sarbanes Alternative Transit in the Parks Program (PSSATPP), and ensure funds are eligible for bicycling infrastructure including but not limited to: bicycle lanes, paths and trails, bike parking, bike racks on busses, and signage. Expand authorities to ensure that road bridge and pathway maintenance can be funded through the Parks, Roads and Parkway Program of the Federal Lands Highway Program.
• Bicycle and pedestrian projects should be expedited to maximize benefits and avoid rescissions of funding. Any rescissions of transportation funds should not disproportionately reduce funding for bicycle and pedestrian programs.
  
• Align Transportation and Climate Policy:  Federal transportation policies have inadvertently fueled growth of greenhouse gas emissions by facilitating long-term growth in vehicle miles traveled.  The transportation bill should support the nation’s need to reduce CO2 by prioritizing transportation projects that will reduce these emissions.  It should set CO2 reduction goals for the sector and in-
  corporate performance-based reduction targets and accountability mechanisms into transportation planning and project selection processes.  Further, climate change legislation should direct substantial cap and trade revenues to supplement funding for low- and no-carbon modes of transportation as a necessary means to meet the climate challenge. 
• Establish an ACtive Transportation InnoVative and Experimental (ACTIVE) Design program to enhance the ability of communities to develop solutions to increase non-motorized travel, and to evaluate the relative effectiveness of design features funded by the program. The ACTIVE Design program would be a competitive fund, administered through a University Transportation Center with expertise in bicycling and walking innovation focused on developing new roadway, intersection, and trail designs, and applying international experience in the U.S. context.
  
  

Fair Share for Safety

Require highway safety funds to be spent in proportion to fatalities. Currently, bicyclists and pedestrians account nationally for 13 percent of the fatalities on our roadways, but less than one percent of safety funding is spent on improvements to make roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians. America Bikes Urges Congress to:

• Include explicit funding in both the Highway Safety Improvement Program and Section 402 Highway Safety Funds for bicycle and pedestrian improvements. The amount set aside should be proportional to the percentage of fatalities by state. Because serious and fatal pedestrian and bicycle crashes are often dispersed throughout an area as opposed to being concentrated at a specific location, the HSIP or its replacement must have the ability to evaluate and select community-wide projects.
• Reauthorize the Safe Routes to School (SRTS) Program at a substantially higher level to reflect the extraordinary demand for the SAFETEA-LU SRTS program. Retain current goals and split between infrastructure and non- infrastructure, but improve the program by: Including high schools, simplifying project delivery and funding mechanisms, and ensuring a fair balance of funding to all types of communities including urban, rural and suburban schools districts. 

Promote Bicycling and Walking

Elevate the role of bicycling and walking within the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). Ensure accountability in transportation funding by including tools and research to measure progress in increasing the share of trips taken by bicycling and walking. America Bikes urges Congress to:

• Create an entity in the Department of Transportation (DOT) that has the authority and adequate resources to effectively administer DOT bicycling and walking programs and policies, and to coordinate with other Federal agencies.
• Require data collection of comparable frequency and scope for all modes of transportation. Direct the Secretary to address the need for bicycle and pedestrian data by funding a national data collection program. This program would:  (1) establish a consistent national bicycle and pedestrian count and survey methodology to assess levels, trends and safety of bicycling and walking; (2) establish a national database of bicycle and pedestrian information generated by these consistent methods and practices; (3) provide funding to communities to conduct data collection; and (4) analyze the collected data to inform planning and policy. 
• Codify bicycling and walking as modes of transportation; define a bicyclists’ right to the road; and ensure adequate legal protection extends to pedestrians and bicyclists in the event of crashes.
• Simplify and expedite the review process for smaller bicycle and pedestrian projects. Develop a streamlined project development process that reflects the substantial positive environmental and social impacts of bicycling and pedestrian projects and the negligible negative impacts of these projects. 
• Require proponents of federally funded transportation projects greater than $50 million to assess: (1) Public health impacts and evaluate whether there are alternatives that better balance mobility needs and health outcomes; (2) Climate impacts and evaluate whether there are alternatives that could reduce CO2 emissions; and (3) Impacts on bicycling and walking since many projects (such as road and intersection widening) add hazards for these users. Require complete streets mitigation where negative impacts are predicted.
• Require that not less than $35 million a year be spent on education and encouragement activities to increase levels of bicycling and walking and improve safety.
• Remove confusing language in 23 U.S.C. Section 217 that bicycle projects must be “principally for transportation, rather than recreation, purposes.” This distinction does not exist for any other mode of travel, and ignores that social, recreational and family-related travel accounts for the majority of all trips, regardless of mode.
  
• Promote bicycling and walking expertise at the state and local level, by: (1) requiring each state to have at least, but not limited to, one full–time bicycle and pedestrian coordinator; and (2) Recommending that cities hire a local bicycle/pedestrian coordinator and convene a strong bicycle/pedestrian advisory committee.
  

ALSO ON THE LIVABLE STREETS NETWORK

• STREETSBLOG: Wiki Wednesday: Complete Streets
  

• STREETSBLOG: Federal Complete Streets Legislation Gains Momentum
  

REFERENCES

Each source is referred to by the same number every time it is cited. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1]

[2]

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PICTURE REFERENCES

Pictures are cited in the order they appear above. Please keep citation style consistent.

[1] Courtesy of Pedestrian Bicycle Information Center Image Library

[2]

FURTHER READING

• www.smartgrowthamerica.org
  
• Surface Transportation Policy Project, Mean Streets 2002: Pedestrian Safety, Health and Federal Transportation Spending.