Work on the
economic stimulus package in Congress continues this week, with the Senate proposing versions of the bill that will likely be passed by late next week.
The stimulus package includes a good chunk of funding for transportation--about $30 billion for roads and highways and about $12 billion for transit.
President Obama's campaign included promises to work for a greener transportation system, reduce sprawl, make cities more walkable, bicycleable, and accessible by transit.
So the stimulus package provides a first test--will it go to building more roads and highways as in the past or will we take a more balanced approach?
With the stimulus package moving forward under a tight deadline, there is little time for innovation. Support for bicycling and walking transportation in the bill basically comes down to whether current funding programs that encourage bicycling and walking infrastructure will be included in the stimulus bill or not.
With the vote on the bill in the Senate coming up in the next week, we are asking MoBikeFed members and supporters to contact Missouri Senator Clair McCaskill to show her there is broad support in Missouri for bicycling and walking transportation. McCaskill is playing a key role in the new administration and gaining her support for building better bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure will be crucial.Here is a rundown on recent developments that may affect the amount available for creating a better, more effective, and safer bicycling and walking:
- The House version of the stimulus bill recently passed includes about $30 billion dollars for road and highway funding. About 55% of that will be passed directly to state DOTs but the remaining 45% will be given to metro areas & states according to the normal federal highway funding formulas. This includes a 10% setaside for "Transportation Enhancements". The result would be about $1.2 billion for Enhancements project nationwide.
- Enhancements are the primary way bicycle and pedestrian projects are funded in the U.S. There are 12 categories eligible for funding but in most states the vast majority goes for bicycle and pedestrian transportation projects--everything from sidewalk retrofits to bicycle lanes to creating and implementing bicycle plans and pedestrians plans to bicycle education and encouragement.
- In Missouri about 2/3 of Enhancements funds go towards bicycle or pedestrian related projects.
- The House version of the bill including funding for Enhancements projects but the current Senate version (as of 30 Jan 2009) appears to include no funding for Enhancements projects.
- The Senate version of the bill, however, specifies that minimum 5% of the funding will be used for Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality (CMAQ) projects. CMAQ is an existing program that funds things like transit projects, diesel exhaust retrofits, traffic signal synchronization, bicycle and pedestrian transportation projects, programs to encourage carpooling, and other similar programs that have demonstrable benefits in reducing emissions, smog, and pollution.
- CMAQ funding would be a positive step towards implementing the administration's stated goal of moving towards a more efficient, less polluting transportation system. CMAQ is the one federal transportation program designed specifically to reduce the type of emissions that cause smog and improve air quality. However in general CMAQ funds are only spent in large metropolitan areas with existing air quality problems. In Missouri, only Kansas City and St. Louis have had CMAQ funding.
- Ideally the final bill will include funding for both CMAQ and Enhancements projects.
- Without these setasides state DOTS are likely to spend most or even all of the money on big highway projects, including lots of new construction (see MoBikeFed's analysis of MoDOT's stimulus project list). This is a sure-fire way to encourage more sprawl and more driving--which is the opposite of the direction President Obama campaigned on, when he indicated these would be his transportation policies:
Strengthen Metropolitan Planning to Cut Down Traffic Congestion: Our communities will better serve all of their residents if we are able to leave our cars, to walk, bicycle and have access other transportation alternatives. As president, Barack Obama will re-evaluate the transportation funding process to ensure that smart growth considerations are taken into account. Obama will build upon his efforts in the Senate to ensure that more Metropolitan Planning Organizations create policies to incentivize greater bicycle and pedestrian usage of roads and sidewalks. As president, Obama will work to provide states and local governments with the resources they need to address sprawl and create more livable communities.
Require States to Plan for Energy Conservation: Obama and Biden will also reform current law which simply asks governors and their state Departments of Transportation to “consider” energy conservation as a condition of receiving federal transportation dollars. As president, Obama will require governors and local leaders in our metropolitan areas to make “energy conservation” a required part of their planning for the expenditure of federal transportation funds. (p. 3)
- With the accelerated timetable of the Stimulus Proposal, there simply is not time to create new programs--or even refine old ones--to reach these goals. However giving a reasonable proportion of transportation funding to existing Transportation Enhancements and Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality programs will be an effective way of reaching these same goals.
Again--please contact Sen. McCaskill's office to ask her to support these goals.
- Related:
- News: Federal Complete Streets Amendment offered--your support needed
- News: MBF campaign for bike/ped awareness in new MoDOT leaders hits the KCStar
- News: Local planning organizations make bike/ped-friendly streets better than state DOTs
- News: MoDOT & Complete Streets--what we really want
- News: How to fix the (upcoming) federal transportation bill
One more reason why we need to stop thinking of bicycle and pedestrian issues as a "liberal" issue. There are just as many democrats as republicans who simply do not get it. As voters we need to figure who will have the courage to ACTUALLY be for bicycle and pedestrian facilities rather than those with the good sense to say they are for it when asked by people like Brent.
Saudi Arabia will be very pleased to hear that very little of this bill will go towards actually lessening our dependence on foreign sources of oil.
And, I would add, just as many Republicans as Democrats who *do* get it.
Some of our best legislative sponsors have come from both sides of the aisle. And when we did an online poll a while back that asked political leaning of people visiting mobikefed.org, the democrat/republican/independent breakdown was amazingly close to the breakdown for the state of Missouri as a whole.
The main difference: more bicyclists consider themselves independents.
So (as I like to say), bicycling is a non-partisan issue.
So is your take that the entire stimulus bill is pork and unconstitutional or just any parts that are bicycle related.
In other words.....if the stimulus bill was used to expand a highway that was at automobile capacity would you still think it was pork and unconstitutional?
Do you feel that all roads should be funded by states and cities or just bicycle infrastructure?
Dear Friends,
Email Your Senator Today!
I am concerned about the high percentage of our oil that comes from foreign countries. Even in December, as the economy was contracting, we imported nearly 70 percent of the oil we used and paid over $19 billion for it.
I am very interested in the aspects of The American Renewal and Reinvestment Act (H.R. 1) that include the promotion of alternative energy – wind and solar; the building out of a 21st century electrical transmission grid; and incenting trucking companies to upgrade from trucks running on foreign diesel to those running on domestic natural gas.
A Department of Energy study showed that developing our capacity to produce wind energy would not only replace 20 percent of the electricity we now produce using coal-burning plants, but would add 138,000 jobs in the first year and more than 3.4 million over a ten-year span.
Also, if we switch just 350,000 of the 6.5 million heavy trucks running on the nation’s Interstate Highways to domestic natural gas from imported diesel, we could cut our oil imports by over five percent. In December alone that would have kept nearly $1 billion from being shipped off shore.
I hope you will join me in supporting these components of the Pickens Plan as H.R. 1 moves toward final passage in the Senate.
I need you to contact your U.S. Senators to tell them to support the Pickens Plan. Click here to send an email today.
Read the full text of the bill H.R 1>>>
P.S. Savings bonds could be help in economic crisis.
While Washington tries to “fix” the banking and Wall Street mess created by subprime “gotcha” adjustable rate mortgages defaulting en masse, many of us are looking for a safer place to put at least some of our retirement, college funds, etc.
And we also want our country to become more energy-independent and our crumbling infrastructure repaired. But with things as they are, how can we accomplish these three objectives? A new form of U.S. Treasury savings bonds could be the answer.
Without U.S. saving bonds, we wouldn’t have been able to supply our troops and allies like we did in World War II. If the U.S. Treasury issued energy independence and infrastructure savings bonds that paid an interest rate about 3 percent greater than the annualized FED rate adjusted for inflation, only be redeemable on their anniversary date(s), and what they pay is not taxed when they are redeemed at maturity, all three of these objectives can be achieved without any increase in taxes, especially if these funds were only employed as 1-to-2 matching funds.
Such bonds could increase employment enough to even reduce our taxes. Pass this idea on to your friends and then the politicians.
Discussion link: Funding Energy Independence?
Mike Kendall is a Electronic Technician Chief in the US Navy with 27 years service stationed overseas. I’m outlying an idea to assist and work with current plans for achieving energy independence. I urge you, as speaker of the house and the driving force to form the select committee on energy independence and global warming, consider for discussion and introduction into the house US Treasury Savings Bonds for Energy Independance.
Mike created this video and started the Energy Independence US Treasury Savings Bonds Blog at Pickens Plan.
Enjoy this video of Sailor Seymore, the dancing and singing hamster, performs anchors away while we discuss “Energy Independence US Treasury Savings Bonds” as well as discussing discussion points of President Obama’s inaugural address and his campaign speech.
Be sure to join Mike and the many supporters of his Energy Independence US Treasury Savings Bonds Group and my discussion Funding Energy Independence.
ETC Mike Kendall USN Mailing address: PSC 476, Box 879, FPO AP, 96322 USA Telephone (803) 265-4756, Email: ke6cvh@yahoo.com
Stay tuned for more information on green jobs following the Middle Class Task Force’s, first meeting on February 27, 2009 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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Web link: http://push.pickensplan.com/profile/JamesEveritt