Missouri Bicycle News Archives

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: MoDOT & Complete Streets--what we really want

News: New federal transportation bill released--what's in, what's not

AdvocacyAlerts: 30 JAN 2009: Ask Senator McCaskill to support bike/ped in stimulus bill

A couple of other states now are pushing to introduce legislation similar to that proposed and supported by the Missouri Bicycle Federation.

The bill in Maryland, similar to proposals MoBikeFed has supported (PDF), is designed to fill the “big gaping hole” between felony manslaughter and a minor traffic ticket:

Del. Luiz R.S. Simmons, D-Montgomery, the bill’s chief sponsor, called it “cosmically absurd” that a driver can speed, run a red light and kill someone and not face criminal prosecution because his actions did not meet the high standard required to prove vehicular manslaughter. He said his measure would not criminalize “ordinary negligence,” such as taking your eyes off the road momentarily, but would be targeted at more serious deviations from reasonable care.

The legislation will create “a culture of accountability on our roads,” Simmons said.

A similar bill has been introduced in Washington State:

A bill to be introduced in the state legislature would make it a crime to kill or seriously injure a person with a car while violating a traffic law—a response to the killing of City Council aide Tatsuo Nakata by driver Ephraim Schwartz, who struck Nakata in a crosswalk while talking on his cell phone.

“The problem we’re trying to address is that there’s a big gap between a civil infraction”—a traffic ticket—”and a felony,” says City Attorney Tom Carr, who’s pushing for the legislation. “It’s my view that if you speed regularly through school zones and 99 percent of the time nothing happens, but one percent of the time you seriously injure somebody, that should be more serious” than a mere traffic violation, Carr says.

Via HowWeDrive.com and thanks to Jack for forwarding the link!

Related:

News: Farmington area cyclists push for safer roads; Bicycle Safety Bill helps

News: "Big" bicycle bill moves forward in MO Senate

News: Bill introduced to allow Missouri counties to fund bicycle/pedestrian facilities

News: Fatal rear-end collision with bicyclist results in traffic tickets only

Tips&Stories: Sunday Parkways: Success stories in Kentucky

The Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission is a group appointed by the governor to oversee MoDOT.

The Commission is the only group that has operational control over MoDOT and its policies--the governor doesn't (except insofar as he can appoint Commissioners) and the legislator doesn't.

Two Commission spots are opening up in March.

So MoBikeFed's question to you is: Who, in your opinion, would make a great Commissioner--someone who might understand and support bicycling, walking, and transit and well as all the other issues MoDOT is facing, and also would represent Missouri well?

The Commission maintains a balance between Republicans & Democrats; a seat from each party is open. Generally members are community leaders, well respected in their community.

It is usual for the Commission to maintain geographical balance--you can see the distribution of the remaining members after the terms end in March:

Jefferson City (R) - Mike Kehoe (Central)
St. Joseph (D) - David Gach (NW)
Neosho (R) - Rudy Farber (SW corner)
St. Charles (D) - Judge Grace Nichols (St. Louis metro area)

Please leave any and all ideas for great Commission members in the comments below!

Related:

News: MoBikeFed Editorial: Amendment 3 will affect Missouri's transportation future

News: Safe Routes: MoDOT funds speed reduction measures near schools

News: Fixing MoDOT: What we learned about Missouri's "broken system"

AdvocacyAlerts: 14 Oct 2009: Ask Governor Nixon to support the 2010 Tour of Missouri

News: St. Louis name bronze-level Bicycle Friendly Community

A recent exchange with Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill as well as MoBikeFed's response to MoDOT's proposal to re-align Route 63 between Jefferson City and Rolla has led us to dig into facts and figures about bicycling and walking in rural Missouri.

Interestingly enough, the census data shows that there are slightly more no-car households in small-town Missouri than in the state as a whole.

And rural Missourians depend on walking to get to work as much or more than Missourians as a whole.

Small town Missourians seem to depend on bicycles somewhat less than Missourians as a whole--not surprising given the abysmal state of roads for bicycling in rural towns.

The comparison with small towns in Kansas is interesting: Kansas has fewer no-car households yet more no-car commutes than Missouri.

Here is the data, compiled from U.S. Census sources:

	Missouri (state overall)	Missouri (cities with less than 2000 population)	Kansas (cities with less than 2000 population)
No-car households	8.3%	8.9%	5.5%
Commute by bicycle	0.4% (?)	0.12%	0.19%
Commute by walking	2.1%	2.9%	4.7%
Commute by transit	1.5%	0.6%	0.17%
Total of non-car commute	4.0% (?)	3.6%	5.0%
Total population	5,595,211	363,637	244,073

Sources

Statewide: U.S. Census 2000

Cities: U.S. Census 2000 data on commute mode and number of motor vehicles per household broken down by cities, particularly the data for Missouri communities with population under 2000.

Numbers with question marks are unsourced and may be incorrect or from a different/incomparable data set. I'll try to correct these if I can find the original source for these numbers.

Related:

News: MBF campaign for bike/ped awareness in new MoDOT leaders hits the KCStar

AdvocacyAlerts-20 FEB 2008: Ask your legislator to support two key bills for Missouri Bicycle Day at the Capitol, February 26th

News: Bring national bicycle & pedestrian benchmarking to your city

News: Meeting about MoDOT's future funding, with MoBikeFed in Kansas City

News: Jobs bill passed by House includes transportation funding

MoBikeFed is looking for a few good volunteers . . . if YOU are interested in doing any of these jobs, please email director [at] mobikefed.org:

Online Calendar Editor: Help create a single unified bicycle/walking/running/trails events calendar for Missouri. The calendar currently receives some 10s of thousands of pageviews monthly during the summer season so you have a large and attentive audience! Your duties include approving events that are submitted to the calendar; adding events that organizations may email us; searching calendars around Missouri for events to add to the centralized calendar.

MoDOT Project Monitor: MoDOT has dozens of projects across the state that need public comment regarding bicycling and walking. You will spend a couple of hours each week checking on projects and comment deadlines, maintaining a list of projects and deadlines, and help MoBikeFed write comments and contact our members in the project area to help them submit comments.

BikeMO Chair: Spearhead the effort to run MoBikeFed's one annual fundraising event: BikeMO, our annual fall ride. We already have a fundraising chair so what we need now is a person to oversee the practical aspects of running the ride. This is a great event and we have a good crew already on board to help you make the event a big success!

Website Editor/Updater: Several of the most popular areas of the MoBikeFed web site need to be periodically checked and updated: The list of Missouri trails; lists of bicycle routes and maps, list of bicycle clubs, etc. You would check the links to make sure they are still good; remove or replace them if they are not; and find new similar links as needed for the page. This job requires a basic knowledge of HTML programming.

MoBikeFed Vision Support Coordinator: We want to get 100 organizations, businesses, and clubs to sign on in support of MoBikeFed's Vision for Missouri. You will contact Missouri bicycle, pedestrian, and walking clubs to ask for their support of the Vision and then track supporters and followup with those who have not responded.

Advocacy Network Organizer: On the advice of our lobbyist in Jefferson City, we plan to develop an network of two designated representatives in each Missouri senate and house district who will act as lead MoBikeFed contacts for that Senator or Representative. Your job will be to help promote and organize this program, keep track of our designated representatives (nearly 400 of them!) using an online tool, fill empty slots, and so on.

Related:

News: Trail between Columbia and Centralia in central Missouri proposed

News: Join us for Bicycle Day in Jefferson City February 26th, 2008

News: Brief wrapup of this year's Missouri legislative session

Newsletter: Press Release: MoBikeFed's Report Card on Walking and Bicycling in Missouri (5/2008)

News: Candidate contact information for state and federal elections in Missouri

Missouri bicyclists, walkers, runners, & trail users,

You're invited!

MoBikeFed Board Meeting
Feb 1st, 2009, 10AM-3PM
134 Research Park Drive
Columbia, MO 65211

If you'd like to join us for all or part of the meeting, please feel free to do so.

If you'd like to discuss a particular item, please email me (director [at] mobikefed.org) and you can have 5 minutes or so on the agenda to bring your issue before the board.

I try to keep my cell phone on during the meeting (816-695-6736), so if you are having trouble finding the location, please give me a call.

MEETING DIRECTIONS
From I-63 take the Stadium Blvd exit. Turn left (south) on Providence.

From I-70, take the Providence exit and go south past Stadium Blvd.

Once you are heading south on Providence past Stadium, turn RIGHT ON
CARRIE FRANCKE DRIVE, which is just BEFORE the stop light at the bottom
of the hill.

Turn LEFT AT THE STOP SIGN.

Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center is on the left. The conference room is the first room on your right. I will be watching to let you in.

Rachel Ruhlen is organizing the meeting; you can reach her at (573) 268-8770

Related:

News: Adriana Giraldo awarded "Distinguished Service to Missouri Bicycling" honors

News: Federal Complete Streets Amendment offered--your support needed

News: Columbia's Bike, Walk, and Wheel Week starts May 6th

News: Cycling Summit in Wentzville a success

News: MoBikeFed Board Meeting, Feb 3rd, Columbia

A recent discussion with Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill revolved around rural and small-town Missouri. Do Missourians who live outside the major metropolitan areas support better bicycling and walking? Do they need better bicycling and walking facilities?

This document provides some concrete answers and research data to inform our discussion of these questions.

This document is also available in printable PDF format.

Bicycling, Walking, Health, and Obesity in Rural Communities in Missouri

State and federal highways in rural communities discourage walking and bicycling, leading to serious public health consequences

Summary: Because of scarce resources in smaller towns, bicycling and walking facilities are typically poor. State and federal roads often serve as commercial and city centers, carrying the highest amount of traffic, yet have the lowest accommodation for bicycling and walking. Because of the poor walking and bicycling facilities and lack of connectivity, people in small towns and rural areas walk and bicycle less than average This has serious consequences for public health, physical fitness, and obesity rates in rural parts of Missouri.

• Rural residents experience higher rates of obesity and overweight than people living in urban areas, even after correcting for age, education, income level, and other factors.¹

• Rural children are more likely to be overweight or obese than urban children and are less likely to participate in physical activity. Rural children in the Midwest are less physically active than any other region of the U.S.²

• The popular image of active rural lifestyle is no longer accurate. Rural
  residents tend to be less physically active than urban residents.³
  

• The built environment in small towns is far more likely to lack proper facilities for bicycling and walking, including sidewalks, crosswalks, bicycle accommodations, and trails. In this situation, exercise as a part of daily activity and outdoor exercise to go places is much more difficult. This has a measurable impact in reducing resident level of fitness, increasing obesity, and impacting community health.⁴

• Even in rural and small-town Missouri, the vast majority of the population lives or works in areas where bicycle, pedestrian, and transit programs are capable of making a significant impact. 70% of Missourians live in cities or towns; an additional 15% live in the immediate area of a city or town.⁵ Making rural towns and their immediate surroundings walkable and bicycleable is a problem that can be solved.

• Increasing the amount of walking and bicycling has a dramatic effect on increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing health care costs.⁶

• Increasing the amount of walking and bicycling facilities increases the amount of bicycling and walking. More facilities and more complete bicycle/pedestrian networks mean more bicycling and walking; fewer, less connected facilities lead to less bicycling and walking.^{7, 8, 9}

• State and federal roads are the biggest part of the problem. Local neighborhood streets in rural towns are usually low-traffic and quite friendly for walking and bicycling. The main streets--usually state or federal highways--are the biggest problem. These highways--which carry the heaviest, fastest traffic-- almost always lack sidewalks, bicycle lanes, crosswalks, and pedestrian signals. These "big bad roads" typically divide small towns right down the middle.
  

• State and federal roads in small towns are usually the town's commercial center. To make bicycling and walking truly viable transportation modes, we need to provide access to destinations.¹⁰ The most appealing destinations in most small towns are typically on or near main highways--just the place where bicycle and pedestrian access is lowest.


• MoDOT usually expects local funding of sidewalks, bicycle lanes and other bicycle/pedestrian accommodations on MoDOT roads. This puts small towns at a disadvantage because of their limited budgets.

Conclusion: Small rural towns have less walking and bicycling than larger cities; impact on health and fitness is serious; lack of bicycling and walking accommodation on state and federal highways through these rural towns is among the largest contributors to the problem.

Federal standards and guidelines that provide funding for roads and highways through rural towns but do not require proper bicycle and pedestrian accommodations on these roads are a major cause to this problem.

References

1 "Obesity and Physical Activity in Rural America," by Patterson, Moore, Probst & Shinogle,
Journal of Rural Health, Spring 2004, pp. 151-159

2 "Overweight and Physical Inactivity among Rural Children Aged 10-17: A National and State
Portrait," South Carolina Rural Health Research Center,
http://rhr.sph.sc.edu/report/SCRHRC_KF_ObesityChartbook.pdf

3 "Obesity and Weight Control Frequently Asked Questions," Rural Assistance Center, http://www.raconline.org/info_guides/obesity/obesityfaq.php; Obesity and Physical Inactivity in Rural America, The Journal of Rural Health, Volume 20 Issue 2, Pages 151 - 159.

4 "Obesity and Weight Control Frequently Asked Questions, "Rural Assistance Center,
http://www.raconline.org/info_guides/obesity/obesityfaq.php

5 "Ten Things to Know about Urban Vs. Rural," Missouri Census Data Center,
http://mcdc2.missouri.edu/TenThings/urbanrural.shtml

6 "Urban-Rural Differences in Mobility and Mode Choice: Evidence from the 2001 NHTS," by John Pucher and John L. Renne, p. 14, http://www.theinsightworks.com/blog/UrbanRural.pdf

7 "Bridging the Gaps: How the Quality and Quantity of a Connected Bikeway Network Correlates with Increasing Bicycle Use," by Mia Birk and Roger Geller, http://www.altaplanning.com/App_Content/files/Bridging_Gaps_TRB_2005.pdf

8 "Obesity and the Built Environment," by K. Booth, M. Pinkston, and W. Poston, Journal of the
American Dietetic Association, Volume 105, Issue 5, Pages 110-117.

9 "Community Design and Physical Activity: What Do We Know? – and what DON’T we know?" Susan Handy, University of California Davis, http://www.des.ucdavis.edu/faculty/handy/Handy_NIEHS_revised.pdf

10 "What Constitutes an Obesogenic Environment in Rural Communities?" by Tegan K. Boehmer, Sarah L. Lovegreen, Debra Haire-Joshu, and Ross C. Brown, American Journal of Health Promotion, Volume 20, Issue 6 (July 2006), p 411-421, http://jessica.slu.edu/~ebph/Documents/Boehmer_ruralEnvironsObesity_AJHP_2006.pdf.

Related:

Tips&Stories: St. Louis University study links poor community environment and obesity

News: Bike/Walk to School Day in the KCStar

News: Dreadful state of pedestrian accommodations in U.S. documented in 50-mile walk

Tips&Stories: Even 15 minutes vigorous daily exercise helps kids

News: Rural community health suffers from lack of bicycling & walking facilities

StreetsBlog is taking the proposed stimulus bill to task:

It's stimulus package logic: Lay off a bus driver now and hire a construction worker in a couple of months or a year.

Congress and purported urbanist Barack Obama are fiddling with a 1950s-era stimulus package while America's transit systems burn. You name the city, and its transit system is falling off a financial cliff. In Denver, Minneapolis, New York, and dozens of other large and small cities, revenue is plunging from the sales and real estate taxes that transit depends on. So despite big increases in transit ridership, many transit providers are cutting service and even laying off drivers. Yet not one cent from the $825 billion stimulus package would protect America's bus and subway riders from massive service cuts and fare hikes.

To transit riders, environmentalists and anyone concerned with social justice, the stimulus package is political cognitive dissonance on an epic scale. . . .

It will take time for the economy and local government to digest and contract out billions in infrastructure spending. In contrast, local transit agencies can spend billions in stimulus aid quickly just by keeping existing bus and subway service operating.

MoBikeFed's analysis of MoDOT's initial list of proposed stimulus projects showed a similar bias--a huge amount for new or expanded highways and little to nothing for transit, bicycling, or walking.

(To MoDOT's credit around 50% of the road projects were for routine maintenance--maintenance that is too often deferred and neglected. But how about spending 90% of the money there rather than a mere 50%?)

Is it really in the national interest to spend a huge amount on new, bigger, faster highways--at a time when the number of miles driven is leveling off and even decreasing, and citizens everywhere are looking for real alternatives to more driving?

Agree? Disagree? Let us know by leaving a comment . . .

Related:

News: MoBikeFed Editorial: Amendment 3 will affect Missouri's transportation future

News: Harkin "Complete Streets" Amendment fails; MO Sen. Bond speaks against

News: Safe Routes: MoDOT funds speed reduction measures near schools

AdvocacyAlerts-20 FEB 2008: Ask your legislator to support two key bills for Missouri Bicycle Day at the Capitol, February 26th

News: Closing some streets in a city decreases travel time

With a very large economic stimulus package under discussion in Congress, congressional leaders promising a large portion of that to go towards transportation, and President Obama promising a new direction in his administration to tackles problems of global warming and dependence on foreign sources of fuel, here is our question:

Do any of the stimulus proposals include anything that might change the game for bicycling and walking in the U.S.?

Why?
We know that bicycling and walking make up less than 5% of trips in Missouri, 10% of trips in the U.S. and up to 20-30% of trips in industrialized countries where a real effort has been made to make bicycling and walking safe, easy, and convenient.

In short, bicycling and walking could be a much larger portion of the transportation picture in the United States.

If it were, we would have lower emissions, lower pollution, lower congestion, lower reliance on foreign sources of energy, and better health.

Our goal in Missouri is to double the amount of bicycling and walking, bringing us up to the national average. The Federal Highway Administration has a goal to reach 15% of trips by bicycling and walking in the U.S.

We also know that building bicycling and walking facilities is one of the most cost-effective ways of tackling the transportation problem. For instance, Portland has spent about 1.5% of its budget on bicycling since 1990, and now has over 6% of trips by bicycling. This is a typical result when municipalities, metro areas, cities, and even countries decide to put more emphasis on bicycling and walking.

What's in the proposed stimulus bills?
According to a report by the Legislative Services Group's Transportation Weekly, about 4.5% of the amount set aside for transportation in both drafts of the legislation released from house committees so far, will be distributed as transportation enhancements (TE) grants.

That comes out to about $1.3 billion nationwide and about $30 million for Missouri. In round numbers, that's about equal to getting two extra years of TE funding for Missouri all at once.

In most states, most of the transportation enhancements money is used for bicycle and pedestrian projects--in Missouri, about 2/3 of Enhancements funding is used for bicycle or pedestrian related projects.

What's next?
Assuming the transportation and Enhancements funding goes through Congress as is, the next issue will be, how will the Missouri portion of the Transportation Enhancements funding be spent?

The good news is that there are already Transportation Enhancements committees in MoDOT Districts and metropolitan areas across Missouri. These committees have experience and expertise in awarding Transportation Enhancements grants in their parts of the state.

They have good connections with cities and agencies who may be interested in building these projects and they also typically have a backlog of projects from previous rounds of funding that are good projects but were simply below the cutoff line of available funds in previous funding rounds.

If MoDOT uses this existing structure of Enhancements committees around the state to distribute the funds, then it is likely the funds will be spend reasonably well in Missouri.

(One of MoBikeFed's goals is to gradually work for better, more efficient, effective, and strategic spending of Transportation Enhancement and other similar funds. Nevertheless there is no question that working to gradually improve the existing system, rather than discarding it and going with a new ad-hoc system, is by far the better strategy.)

What do you think about including funding for bicycling, walking, and other transportation alternatives in the economic stimulus bill? Is it a good idea or a bad one? Is the amount they are proposing to spend too high or too low?

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below . . .

Related:

News: MoBikeFed Editorial: Amendment 3 will affect Missouri's transportation future

News: Harkin "Complete Streets" Amendment fails; MO Sen. Bond speaks against

News: Columbia MO bike-ped pilot program in the news

News: MoDOT's opposition to Complete Streets--another response

AdvocacyAlerts: 14 OCT 2009: Ask Sen McCaskill to support bicycle/pedestrian funding

Support from members and supporters like you allowed MoBikeFed to make progress like this over the past year:

• VISION: Synthesized years of input from bicyclists, pedestrians, organizations, and businesses from around the state to create MoBikeFed's Vision of Bicycling and Walking in Missouri, summarizing where Missouri stands, where we need to go, and the action plan to get us there. See MoBikeFed.org/vision
  
• REPORT CARD: First annual Report Card on Bicycling and Walking in Missouri, detailing exactly where we stand in 47 areas. See MoBikeFed.org/2008ReportCard
  
• LEGISLATION: Moved two major pieces of legislation in the General Assembly, Safe Streets and Complete Streets (neither passed this year, but each had good movement, committee hearings, and built support and momentum for passage in a future year).
  
• BICYCLE DAY AT THE CAPITOL: Bicycle Day at the Capitol in Jefferson City--now in its second successful year, it is very successful in providing a way for bicyclists and pedestrians to talk directly with legislators about issues that are important to us. The 3rd Annual Bicycle Day will be February 24th, 2009.
  
• NATIONAL BIKE SUMMIT: The largest Missouri contingent ever at the 2008 National Bike Summit was crucial in bringing that national support for the issues you support in your local area, and our best chance to get real policy change (like Complete Streets policies) adopted across our entire region. National Bike Summit 2009 will be March 10-12.
  
• TENS OF MILLIONS IN COMMITTEE SPENDING--SPENT BETTER: MoBikeFed representatives sit on committees spending some tens of millions of federal bicycle/pedestrian grant money annually across the state; we cooperate with other organizations on those committees and work hard to make sure that money is spent as well and effectively as possible.
  
• PROMOTING MORE BICYCLING AND WALKING: MoBikeFed worked to promote Bike Month, Bike to Work Week, and Walk/Bike to School Day activities as truly statewide events--an effort that will increase in 2009.
  
• QUAD STATES TRAIL: MoBikeFed has worked to support the idea of a truly multi-state, interconnected trails system--reaching millions of Missourians, rather than the mere 200,000 currently within walking/bicycling distance of the Katy Trail network.
  
• NEW KS STATEWIDE ADVOCACY GROUP: A year ago at the Kansas Trails Summit MOBikeFed Executive Director Brent Hugh gave a presentation in which we started to organize the much-needed Kansas statewide advocacy group--KanBikeWalk. Our strategy is to get powerful advocacy groups going in ALL states in our region, so that the change you want to see in making Missouri better and safer for bicycling sweeps across the entire multi-state region.
  
• VOTER GUIDE: This Fall MoBikeFed created and distributed the first "Voter Guide for Bicycling and Walking" for the November elections. This was a valuable resource for voters, but even more important it helped us develop a relationship with candidates (future elected officials!), helped us identify which candidates will be willing to work on the issues we all care about, and helped us educate these candidates about these issues.

Recent years
Over the past several years, here is what we have been able to accomplish--with your help:

• LEGISLATION:
  A number of important bicycle laws and resolutions have passed in Missouri, including bike lane regulations, safe passing of bicyclists, improved regulations about bicycling on the shoulder, support for bicycle trails in state parks, and resolutions in favor of bicycle month, walk/bike to school day, and the Tour of Missouri. Each one of those has required coordinating support from citizens and groups from around the state--without that support, legislators won't move a bill.
  
• PREVENTION:
  We have been able to nip several anti-bicycling or proposed bad bicycle or pedestrian laws in the bud--proposals for wrong-way bicycling, changing passing regulations in a way that would be more dangerous for bicyclists, laws discouraging trails, etc.
  
• PROPOSED LEGISLATION:
  We have several more important pieces of legislation in the pipeline, including Safe Streets, Complete Streets, and a Missouri "Share the Road" license plate.
  
• KATY TRAIL EXTENSIONS:
  Katy Trail Connection to Kansas City--Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Director Doyle Childers said that without the citizen advocacy effort led by MoBikeFed that sent thousands of emails, letters, and phone calls in support of the connection, the DNR would not have been able to stick its neck out to include the Katy Trail connection in the Ameren settlement. This same citizen support help prod DNR to complete the last 11 miles of the Katy east of St. Charles and work to create the Katy Connection across the Missouri River to Jefferson City (construction starting soon). Thousands of citizens from organizations like yours have poured favorable comments into DNR--and that has really made a difference.
  
• TOUR OF MISSOURI:
  Many of the connections and bicycling supporters we were able to activate due to your support of our lobbyist and advocacy efforts in Jefferson City, played a key role in turning the Tour of Missouri from a gleam in the eye of Gov Blunt to an actual, successful, internationally recognized event. In particular, when the Governor's office called MoDOT's bike/ped coordinator (who was in place due to MoBikeFed lobbying) she was able to include MoBikeFed Board member Mike Weiss & MoBikeFed Executive Director Brent Hugh on the initial committee. Mike is the one who connected this committee with UCI and Medalist Sports--the two connections that turned the Tour from an idea to reality.

We'd like to year your input--what of the above do you consider the most important? What other issues would like like to see MoBikeFed address? Leave your thoughts in the comments, below.

Related:

AdvocacyAlerts-12 JUL 2005: BLAST DNR Director Childers' email box in support of Complete Katy Trail

News: Missouri Trails Summit, Nov 2-4, 2006, in Kansas City

AdvocacyAlerts-3 DEC 2007: Katy Trail Connection Public Comment Period

News: What has MoBikeFed been doing for YOU lately?

News: 2008 Missouri legislative roundup for bicycling and walking

The 2009 Missouri Conference on Transportation brings together a variety of viewpoints to consider as Missouri policymakers work to best meet our state's transportation challenges, especially as funding shortages loom on the horizon.

Agenda items include legislative reports from the Senate and House Transportation Committees, the vision of the Missouri Transportation Alliance - a citizen-led effort to address the state's infrastructure needs, an update from the director of MoDOT, the latest developments in bringing air cargo hubs to Missouri and much, much more!

Learn about "Transportation for Tomorrow" from Tom Skancke, one of the nation's premier speakers on federal transportation policy. He is a member of the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission.

Cost:
Members $129 (now) $149 (after Jan. 15)
Non-members $159 (now) $179 (after Jan. 15)

Location:
Capitol Plaza Hotel
415 W. McCarty St.
Jefferson City, Mo. 65101
To make overnight hotel arrangements, call 1-800-338-8088.
Ask for the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry rate of $92.

More info or register.

Related:

News: MBF campaign for bike/ped awareness in new MoDOT leaders hits the KCStar

News: MoDOT State of Transportation address, Transportation Day Jan 28th in Jefferson City

News: MoDOT hints at new direction for bicycle/pedestrian coordinator

News: Job Opening: MoDOT bicycle/pedestrian coordinator position

News: Who would you nominate to the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission?

Lawyer and bicyclist Benjamin Sansone blogged about a recent case he was involved with that exposed some problems in Missouri's bicycle law:

[W]e secured a Plaintiff's verdict in favor of a bicyclist who was hit at an intersection when a driver of a pick up truck made a right turn and crossed the shoulder the cyclist was in, causing her to hit the side of his truck, get thrown from her bike, and break her elbow. The driver claimed he saw her, made and extra wide turn, and that she panicked and lost control of her bike all by herself. Additionally, the police officer, who did not witness the accident, testified against the cyclist essentially claiming the bike accident and injury was her own fault. . . .

The simple fact of the matter is, despite some good statutes in Missouri protecting bicyclists, there are still many laws that could be passed to protect cyclists. For example, Missouri statutes require a safe distance be maintained when passing a bicyclist, however, there is no state statute regarding the duty of a motorist to yield to a bicyclist traveling in the shoulder when making a right turn. As in the case above, the entire case had to be tried on a "failure to keep a careful lookout" legal theory as the judge would not allow me to argue failure to yield, claiming that there is no specific law creating that duty. A point that we are appealing along with a few others in an attempt to clarify Missouri bicycling law and the legal responsibility in Missouri of drivers towards bicyclists.

What do you think about this case? What, if anything, should MoBikeFed do to address the issues it raises? Let us know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.

Related:

News: MoBikeFed Editorial: Amendment 3 will affect Missouri's transportation future

News: Bicyclist harassment ordinance introduced in Columbia

News: Missouri Safe Passing law results in settlement in bicyclist injury case

News: Bicycle Friendly State program--new from the League of American Bicyclists

News: Anti-texting, 3-foot passing of bicycles bills introduced in Missouri legislature

Among the rather ordinary and common-sense improvements undertaken by GetAbout Columbia is more bicycle parking downtown--when school is in session, available downtown bicycle parking is often overrun.

The Columbia Missourian recently featured a detailed analysis of the progress with Columbia's non-motorized pilot project, known as GetAbout Columbia:

This is where the city finds itself with GetAbout Columbia less than two years before the city presents its final report to Congress: No trails constructed, intersection construction beginning and officials worried a major change in the way Columbia travels might not be visible by 2010. As a result, officials are trying to conjure up new ways to measure evidence of progress.

“You’re always optimistic about how much you can get done,” GetAbout Columbia manager Ted Curtis said. “I think we’ve been going as quickly as we can, even though it seems like it’s taking forever.” . . .

The staff have also learned how to navigate through the bureaucracies at a quicker pace. Each project has to go through the same steps to be approved and takes about the same amount of time to be approved, Hindman said, regardless of its size. So the staff has started packaging smaller items as a large project rather than each small trail on an individual basis, Hindman said.

In total, $1.6 million is budgeted for planning, management and in-house design, including the planning and designing of bike lanes, bike routes and bike parking.

Along with the lessons learned, recent progress includes the beginning of construction on several intersections to make them more bicycle and pedestrian friendly, along with council approval of plans for at least three biking and walking trails. About a third of the on-street markings have also been finished.

Curtis said the project is heading to stage three of the experiment — getting more people riding bicycles or walking instead of filling the gas tank.

I'll be interested to hear what MoBikeFed News readers think about the progress of the GetAbout Columbia project, but here's what I think:

Schedule
Although you can poke holes in the implementation of any large, new project like this, part of the problem really is unrealistic expectations. Even if federal funds and guidelines were not involved, planning and building a project on the scope of GetAbout Columbia would take years at best.

It's not like getting 10 bucks and going down to pick up a few pairs of tube socks at WalMart. Spending a lot of money fast without a pre-existing structure and knowledge base (ie, a whole team of people who really know their stuff and have been working together for years) is not any easy task.

Add in the complexities of dealing with MoDOT and the federal government funding and guidelines, and delay of a few years is really just to be expected before complicated projects requiring planning, coordination, and public input can hit the ground.

In short, GetAbout is just about on the schedule I would have predicted 3 years ago when the funding was approved. There is just no way complex trail, intersection, or street improvements could have happened much faster than they are happening.

Realistic time frame for change
Cities around the U.S. and the world have found that they can shift travel modes towards more bicycling and walking--and the cost is fairly low in proportional terms. But it takes years and some real long-term thinking to really change a city's design and people's travel habits.

European cities started re-tooling themselves in the 1970s and change occurred on the scale of decades, not years. But now it's common for European cities to have twice the walking and bicycling of U.S. cities (and that makes it 4 times or more what we have here in Missouri).

The changes Portland made starting in the early 1990s led to moderate change in the first 5-10 years but it is only now (more than 15 years out) that the really large shifts are becoming apparent--for instance, Portland now has six to ten times the amount of bicycle trips it did in the early 1990s.

The cost in context
And let's face it--$22 million over the course of 6 years seems like a lot if you're thinking of the average household budget, but in terms of transportation budget it's pretty much peanuts.

To put it in context, MoDOT's annual budget is about $2.7 billion, or $466 per year per Missouri citizen. (And keep in mind that cities and counties spend a lot of money on transportation projects as well--MoDOT's spending is just a portion of total transportation spending in Missouri.)

GetAbout Columbia is spending about $41 per year per Columbia citizen.

Putting that in perspective--nationally bicycling and walking amount to 9.5% of trips.

So spending 9.5% of transportation budgets on bicycling and walking seems completely justified. So spending the proportion of the transportation budget on bicycling and walking that GetAbout Columbia is, shouldn't be a special, one-time event.

It should be the norm.

Radical change vs the gradualist approach--which is GetAbout?
If you really wanted to radically change the environment for bicycling and walking, for just a few years you would spend an equal amount on bicycle and pedestrian connectivity to what we spend on highways--in other words 10 times what the GetAbout project is spending.

You wouldn't need to do that forever, but doing it for 5 or 6 years would go a long way to erase the neglect of bicycling and walking infrastructure in our nation's transportation budgets for the past 75 years or so.

And if you want to take the gradualist approach, you could do what Portland has done for the past 15 years: spent just under 1% of the city's transportation infrastructure budget on bicycling.

At the start of the period the bicycle mode share was just below 1%; now it is about 6%.

Spending less than 1% of the budget to handle 6% of the trips--that's not a bad payoff.

Results?
So what Columbia is doing is really just the start. And it will take another year or two before we can really tell if they are off to a good start or not.

And in terms of budget, GetAbout is positioned somewhere between the gradualist approach like Portland and a real radical approach.

That means we we won't see radical, fast change. That would take radical amounts of money.

But we should expect modest changes in the amount of walking and bicycling--perhaps an unmistakeable if small change by 5 years from now and then larger changes 10, 15, and 20 years out if the city keeps moving the plan forward through that entire time frame.

We're interested in hearing what you think about the GetAbout project--is the money being spent well or should priorities be different?

Related:

News: Transportation Enhancements comes to House vote Thurs, September 4th

News: SAFETEA proposal moves through Congress

News: Kansas City, MO, adopts climate protection plan

News: Post-Dispatch Letter: MoDOT should do far more for bicycling and walking

News: MoDOT's opposition to Complete Streets--another response

Thomas Friedman writes in a New York Times editorial:

How many times do we have to see this play before we admit that it always ends the same way?

Which play? The one where gasoline prices go up, pressure rises for more fuel-efficient cars, then gasoline prices fall and the pressure for low-mileage vehicles vanishes, consumers stop buying those cars, the oil producers celebrate, we remain addicted to oil and prices gradually go up again, petro-dictators get rich, we lose. . . .

The two most important rules about energy innovation are: 1) Price matters — when prices go up people change their habits. 2) You need a systemic approach. . .

There has to be a system that permanently changes consumer demand, which would permanently change what Detroit makes . . .

The same is true in geopolitics. A gas tax reduces gasoline demand and keeps dollars in America, dries up funding for terrorists and reduces the clout of Iran and Russia . . .

Which one of these things wouldn’t we want? A gasoline tax “is not just win-win; it’s win, win, win, win, win,” says the Johns Hopkins author and foreign policy specialist Michael Mandelbaum. “A gasoline tax would do more for American prosperity and strength than any other measure Obama could propose.”

At the same time, a national commission appointed to tackle the problem of fuel taxes and the shortfall in the national transportation budget reached the conclusion that raising gas taxes now, while gas prices are low, is the best solution to the nation's shortfall in transportation funding:

The National Commission on Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing, a 15-member panel, wants to raise the federal gasoline tax from the current 18.4 cents per gallon to 28.4 cents per gallon. Diesel fuel would see a raise of between 12 and 15 cents per gallon.

At the same time, the commission will recommend tying the fuel tax rates to inflation. . . .

“I’m not excited about a gas tax increase, but the reality is our current gas tax doesn’t pay for upkeep of the system we have now,” Adrian Moore, vice president of the Reason Foundation, a libertarian think tank in Los Angeles, and a member of the highway revenue commission told the AP. “We can either let the roads go to hell or we can pay more.” . . .

The estimated annual gap between revenues and the investment needed to improve highway and transit systems was about $105 billion in 2007, according to a study by the Transportation Research Board of the National Academies. Their research also projected that the gap will increase to $134 billion in 2017 under current trends.

Related:

News: MoBikeFed Editorial: Amendment 3 will affect Missouri's transportation future

News: Federal Complete Streets Amendment offered--your support needed

News: Most transportation stimulus funding going to rural areas

News: Americans drive yet less

News: AARP: People are looking for options to driving; finding facilities lacking

Mark your calendars now for March 10-13 in Washington DC for the 2009 National Bike Summit. We need to keep the momentum rising as the debate on the future of federal transportation funding really starts to heat up. Make sure you are part of the 2009 Summit.

If you are interested in attending the summit from Missouri, please email director@mobikefed.org - we are keeping a list of those interested in attending so as to coordinate planning, or Missouri-specific agenda, housing and travel.

Visiting the Summit is very, very effective advocacy and plus it is just a blast!

We get to meet our senators and representatives (or in some cases their designated representatives), make the case for our issues (nationwide, statewide, and local), make great connections, and also do things like take a bicycle ride with bicycle advocates from around the country, see the DC area's transit and bicycle systems, see how their river bridges accommodate walking and bicycling, take a ride down the Mt Vernon Trail to see historical sites, and more.

Right now airline rates are low and we are planning to again do a common housing arrangement that makes housing quite inexpensive (around $200 for the entire Summit, vs. usual hotel rates of about $200/night).

Many states have delegations of 20-30 who visit the National Bike Summit every year. Last year we had an even dozen from Missouri--our most ever.

For 2009 we'd like to improve on that.

We'd like to increase that and (just as important) increase the representation from Missouri from these various groups:

- ALL 9 Missouri congressional districts (I believe only 6 were represented in 2008)
- Missouri bicycle business community
- Missouri bicycle clubs, mountain biking, road biking, transportational biking, racing, etc etc
- health & wellness community
- Safe Routes to Schools
- trails groups
- pedestrian groups
- large cities, medium cities, small cities, rural areas
- cities, counties, MPOs, state government--all levels of government

If you are (even slightly) interested in attending the summit this year as part of the Missouri delegation, please email me (director@mobikefed.org) and I'll keep you in the information loop.

Related:

News: Report on Blue River Greenway meeting

News: Transportation Enhancements comes to House vote Thurs, September 4th

News: SAFETEA proposal moves through Congress

News: DOTs move to make better communities, not just faster roads

News: Adriana Giraldo awarded "Distinguished Service to Missouri Bicycling" honors

The Kirksville Daily Express has an article about a group of students working to make the city a better place to bicycle:

A group of Truman State University students are taking an unconventional approach to improving the City’s willingness to incorporate bicycles on local roads. . . .

“We are trying to bring the community together to form a collaborative effort between other bikers,” Hall said. “We want to see more seminars and other ideas (to push biking) in the area.”

More than 20 people attended the meeting that included Mayor Martha Rowe with the idea of making bicycles a more popular means of transportation in the community. . . .

The meeting also featured two speakers adamant about biking in Kirksville. The first was Truman professor Alex Tetlak who focused on what riders can do to be safe on the road. . . .

The night’s second speaker was Dan Martin of A.T. Still University, who spoke of how Kirksville can be tailored to bicycle usage.

“We are so functional to make this a biking town.” Martin said.

Martin lived in Mesa, Ariz. before he moved to Kirksville and noted that bikes were scarce, especially with the six-lane roads and highways.

The audience discussed possible ways to expand biking in Kirksville, including ideas to create more bike paths along City roads.

Related:

News: "Sharing the road" in Press Journal

MoDOT: MoDOT "Share the Road" Sign Policy

Tips&Stories: MBF leader/supporter Laurie Chipman receives Environmental Excellence Award

News: Five ways a bicycle-friendly city pays off

News: Children's Ride supports Put People on Paseo effort