The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy is shifting their efforts into high gear with the planned October 20th release of their new report, Active Transportation for America: The Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking.
The report will try to make it clear to policy makers, advocates, the media and the public that an increased federal investment in bicycling and walking is long overdue in America.
Since March of 2007, the RTC has been working with cities across the U.S. to help them prepare individual “case statements” to coordinate with the national launch of the report.
The goal is to heighten the profile of walking and biking as a cost-effective solution to many problems facing our country and to ultimately persuade Congress to expand the Non-motorized Transportation Pilot Project (funded in 2005) to include more money and more cities. Initial estimates are that they’ll ask for $2 billion in funding for 40 cities (the initial pilot project gave four cities $25 million each).
a meeting at the 2008 National Bike
Summit. Metro President David Bragdon
and PDOT’s Roger Geller are sitting
on the right.
(Photo J. Maus)
Portland has been at the table on this effort since day one. Back in April of 2007, at a presentation to Portland-area transportation policy makers, RTC’s western region director Laura Cohen said,
“We brainstormed years ago and identified some communities we felt could really lead the way. Portland is one of the cities were talking to very early on in this process.”
The City of Portland’s Office of Transportation, in partnership with Metro, has completed their case statement. Bike coordinator for PDOT, Roger Geller, says he thinks Portland can be a model for the rest of the country; “We’re a good example of what can be accomplished with modest investments”.
Modest is right. In the last ten years, bikes have gotten just 0.7% of the city’s capital transportation infrastructure budget. Geller points out that that’s just $1 per capita compared to $30-40 per capita on bicycle infrastructure that’s spent in Amsterdam.
I listened in on a telebriefing about RTC’s “Active Transportation for America” campaign this morning and got a sneak peak at the report. I can’t share specifics (it’s under strict embargo until the 20th), but I can say that they’ve used a lot of stats and graphs from Portland.
Rails-to-Trails is a respected and influential organization that is well-positioned to have a real impact on the upcoming reauthorization of the transportation bill. Stay tuned for more reports on their efforts.
— For more information, check out the RTC’s 2010 Campaign for Active Transportation website.