With this latest attempt to strip bike funding from the recovery bill, Republicans have once again demonstrated how out of touch they are with their pathologically short-sighted attacks on bicycles. To their detriment, they are continuing their trend from last Congress of using the most economical, energy-efficient, and healthy forms of transportation as their whipping post. Investment in bike paths will not only improve our economy, and take our country in the right direction for the future; it is exactly the kind of investment the American people want.
Moreover, bicycle and pedestrian paths are precisely the kind of infrastructure projects our country needs. These projects tend to the most "shovel-ready" and are more labor-intensive than other projects-- therefore putting more people to work per dollar spent.
We might have understood these attacks a decade ago, but today they ignore the explosion of bicycling in this country in recent years that has been nothing short of phenomenal. There are tens of millions of American cyclists and even more who want their children to be able to bike and walk to school safely and therefore support bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure projects.
American families have indicated time and again in the passage of bond measures across the country that they favor spending on alternative transportation, such as bicycles and mass transit, over spending on mere highway capacity. Americans want real solutions to the economic crisis, not just a band-aid fix. These investments will stimulate our economy now - when it counts and point our nation toward the economic and environmental realities of the future.
Recent transportation surveys indicate that 52% of Americans want to bike more than they do now - but don't, because of the lack of safe and connected bicycle facilities.
Think about it: More than 50% of working Americans live less than 5 miles from work, an easy bicycle commute. Already more than 490,000 Americans bike to work; in Portland, 8% of downtown workers are bicycle commuters. Individually, they are saving $1,825 in auto-related costs, reducing their carbon emissions by 128 pounds per year, saving 145 gallons of gasoline, avoiding 50 hours of being stuck in traffic, burning 9,000 calories, reducing their risk of heart attack and stroke by 50%, and enjoying 14% fewer claims on their health insurance.
Nationally, if we doubled the current 1% of all trips by bike to 2%, we would collectively save more 693 million gallons of gasoline - that's more than $5 billion dollars - each year. From 2007 - 2008, bicyclists reduced the amount Americans drive by 100 million miles.
Bicycling also has immediate and direct benefits for communities that invest in bicycle paths, bike lanes, trails, and secure bicycle parking. For each $1 million invested in an FHWA-approved paved bicycle or multi-use trail, the local economy gains 65 jobs and between $50 and $100 million in local economic benefits. Some communities are already showing the results of these investments. After investing less than 1% of their total transportation budget in bicycle facilities in the past eight years, the City of Portland has seen a 144% increase in bicycle use - and the growth of a $90 million bicycle industry that has added nearly 50 new businesses in just the past two years.
I can think of no other transportation investment that provides more benefits to American communities who so desperately need: more jobs, reduced transportation costs, increased personal health, a cleaner environment, reduced carbon footprint, and greater community livability. It's time the Republicans got the point about what Americans want. Investments in bike and pedestrian infrastructure will help us create jobs and build healthier more livable communities for the future - these projects are the gifts that keep on giving.
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Let's not confuse bicycle use for transporta
We are a very big walking/pu
I literally cannot count how many times I've heard fellow Bostonians say "I really wish I could just bike to work, but it's not safe."
I used to live in Amsterdam, and ALL main roads (obviously not side streets and alleyways) are equipped with: a car path, a bike path, a walking path, and a tram path. It was just fantastic, everyone rides bikes and saves a ton of money, and traffic congestion was not 1/10th as bad as what you'd see in a similarly cramped, geographic
In all my time there, I saw only a handful of fat Dutch people, and NO obese people.
Think of all the money in healthcare saved, and increased worker productivi
What's not to love? I don't see cycling improvemen
Full disclaimer
If we got more people substituti
Nobody is suggesting that bike paths are an economic silver bullet, but they can be a very important part of the solution with very few negatives. Why is that so hard to understand
Maybe take a bike ride. That Hummer ain't doin' it.
This is the kind of thing that keeps me voting for you.
Cheers!
While I appreciate the positive comments about cyclists, your post is pretty short on details. Can we get some names or quotes from the republican
Maybe it's silly to expect informatio
Thanks, and keep up the good fight. :-)
do they not realize that ART and ENTERTAINM
It happens to be on of the few American industries actually still producing product -- and exporting, to boot.
No, they don't get it. Never Will! Time for the Elephant to go the way of the WoolyMammo
Evolve or Extinction
Is this the democrat version of "the mexicans do the jobs americans refuse to do"?
And Princess Nancy wants condoms for american women and abortions for everyone else. And how much of my tax money is going to "community reinvestme
The other question that arrises from this article is: WTF do bike trails have to do with "economic stimulus"? FDR did "make work" jobs for about 6 years and all it did was extend the depression
Why are republican
The sad thing - that's a pretty accurate analysis.
The benefits totally outweight all the negativity the Republican