Congress to bikers: Get a Car

Yesterday Salon published an article about the recently proposed Transportation Enhancement cuts, entitled Congress to bikers: Get a Car:

For every bike commuter who proudly pedals to work under the mantra "one less car," Congress has a message for you: Get back on the highway where you belong, burning fossil fuel like a real American. That goes for you, too, you traffic-hazard pedestrians.

Fresh out of subcommittee, a new congressional transportation appropriations bill will entirely eliminate some $600 million worth of annual federal funding for bike paths, walkways and other such transportation niceties in fiscal year 2004.

Never mind the political fallout of U.S. oil dependency on the Middle East, or the fact that the average mileage per gallon for new cars and trucks in the U.S. is at its lowest level in 20 years. Members of the House's appropriations subcommittee on Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies know that what America needs now is fewer bike paths and walkways -- but more highways.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Visit our article on the Advocacy Alerts page to find out what you can do.

This issue is really catching the attention of the American public--the Salon article has shown up on the Popdex, which measures website popularity, and where bike/ped issues have only rarely appeared before. You can see various weblogs that have referenced the original story here.

An Associated Press talks about efforts of the Appropriations Committee to re-work the bill and re-instate the Enhancements funding.