Senators McCain and Coburn have introduced two amendments to the FY10 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill which, if passed, would eliminate the majority of available federal funds for trails, walking and bicycling. I just received an email alert from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy asking those who are concerned about preserving opportunities for walking and bicycling to call your Senators TOMORROW MORNING to ask them to oppose these amendments, since it appears that the Senate may vote on them as early as tomorrow.
Amendment 2370 would prohibit the use of federal funds for pedestrian or bicycle facilities, efforts to reduce vehicle collisions with wildlife, or other specified Transportation Enhancement (TE) projects if the Highway Trust Fund cannot cover unfunded highway authorizations.
Amendment 2371 would allow states to eliminate spending on TE, the nation’s largest funding source for trails, walking and bicycling. Congress currently sets aside a portion of federal funds for TE to support these projects in all states.
Only a tiny fraction of transportation trust fund money goes to projects designed to make walking and bicycling more available and safer, and those projects pay dividends far out of proportion to their costs. The LAST way it would seem that a nation facing an epidemic of obesity and exploding health care costs contributed to by sedentary lifestyles should try to save a few bucks would be by cutting funds designed to encourage (and indeed ENABLE) safe walking and bicycling.
You can get more information on this at this link, including a link to the office phone numbers of all Senators. (The area code is 202.) I got the email too late to call this afternoon, but I'm definitely doing it the first thing tomorrow morning. Let's tell our Senators, loud and clear, that we want them to preserve and expand opportunities for safe walking and bicycling by voting against Amendments 2370 and 2371 to HR 3288.