On Capitol Hill the Attacks on Bicycling and Walking Continue

Photo: Thisisbossy on Flickr

Three months after the Senate passed the Cardin-Cochran amendment, House transportation bill negotiators continue to attack the Senate’s bipartisan plan to give local communities guaranteed access to money for making streets safer for walking and biking.

House  members want to give states sole power over whether local communities can fix dangerous conditions for kids on the way to school, for elderly pedestrians, or anyone who walks or uses a bicycle.

Join the League of American Bicyclists's call -
Tell your elected leaders in Congress to preserve and defend the Cardin-Cochran amendment.

House negotiators want states to be able to “opt out” of a program that would let communities make it safer to walk to public transportation, revitalize a Main Street, or turn a defunct rail line into a safe route for families on bikes. They would eliminate the small amount of money going directly to metropolitan areas and let states decide whether communities ever see a dime — a direct slap in the face of the city councils, mayors, and county leaders from every part of the country and the ideological spectrum who have written Congress imploring them for this important provision.

Many of you have helped us support and fight for this provision for months now. But the House has made it clear: they want to kill it, and we need to fight for it once more.

If the House gets its way, your local governments won’t have access to funds to build the sidewalks, bike lanes and bikeways that make streets safer for all of us. We can’t let Congress eliminate local control. We need the Senate conferees to stand strong behind their bi-partisan, bike-friendly agreement, and the House to stand down from their attempt to eliminate local access to these federal funds. So please contact your Senators and Representatives.