Bicycle advocates to gather in DC to ‘save cycling’

{mosads}”Two months ago, the Senate bill would have gutted critical funding for local bicycle projects, eliminated programs like Safe Routes to School and eroded the rights of all American cyclists,” LAB President Andy Clarke said in a news release. “But tens of thousands of people called and wrote their members of Congress and their voices were heard. Now more than ever, cyclists have become a powerful, organized constituency that is redefining our streets as safe, public spaces for people, not just speeding automobiles.”

The House has yet to decide whether it will take up the Senate’s bill or proceed with a stalled measure of its own, but the LAB said that “in the midst of deep political divides, bicycling also represents a rare, truly bipartisan issue.” 

The original proposal from the House for five-year, $260 billion transportation bill eliminated funding for bike paths and other items that are usually referred to as “transportation enhancements.” An effort to add the funding back via an amendment while the transportation bill was in committee was defeated last month.

The momentum for the transportation bill has since stalled amid complaints from both Democrats and Republicans.