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ALERT: Contact your state rep about the $8 billion MO Transportation funding proposal

Submitted by Brent Hugh on Mon, 05/13/2013 - 1:14pm

The proposal for $8 billion in funding for MoDOT and Missouri cities over the next ten years--to replace declining fuel tax dollars, which were last adjusted for inflation in the 1990s--has been passed by the Senate and is most likely to come to a vote of the Missouri House in the next couple of days.

This is the most important new initiative for Missouri transportation funding--and for bicycling and walking in Missouri--in the past decade. 
 
Can you take a minute to call or email your Missouri Representative to let him or her know that biking and walking is an important part of any Missouri transportation funding solution?
POINTS YOU CAN MAKE IN YOUR MESSAGE TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
Dear Representative X,
 
I live in your district in (NAME YOUR CITY) and I am writing you today about SJR 16, the Missouri transportation funding proposal.
It's best if you can make your message brief but personal--restate any of the following points you would like to make in your own words:
  • Please ensure that any Missouri transportation funding solution includes full support for bicycling, walking, and transit options--as SJR 16 does.
     
  • Please support Rep. Rick Stream's amendment to SJR 16, which will require MoDOT to spend a portion of the new funds on the multimodal transportation options like transit, walking, and bicycling.
     
  • Please help us work with MoDOT to ensure that important transportation options like transit, bicycling, and walking are given serious consideration and priority in this new funding.
Add a sentence or two, if you'd like, about why bicycling and walking is important to you and your community.
 
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION AND POINTS YOU MIGHT MAKE
 
Comprehensive transportation solutions like SJR 16--which for the first time will allow funding of Missouri's considerable walking and bicycling needs from transportation funds--are by far the most effective and cost-effective way for the state to meet that obligation to provide for the safety of all road users. 
 
Right now Missouri spending 0% of its state transportation dollars on walking and bicycling, and it shows:
  • Pedestrians represent 10.2% of Missouri traffic fatalities (Missouri Highway Patrol data)
  • Bicyclists represent 11.0% of Missouri traffic injuries (Missouri DHSS data)
  • Missouri has recently been named as the most obese state in the nation (U. of Alabama/Birmingham study)
A comprehensive transportation funding solution--that includes funding for all types of transportation, including bicycling and walking--is the best and most economical way to address these serious problems.
 
SJR 16 is the first serious Missouri transportation funding proposal to be debated in the Missouri General Assembly in over a decade.  We are very pleased that it is also the first EVER to completely integrate funding for walking, bicycling, and transit.  
 
We urge the Missouri House and Senate to continue moving Missouri transportation planning and funding in this positive direction.
 
Thanks for your help--your personal message to your own state representative makes a HUGE difference in moving forward our agency of better, safer bicycling and walking in Missouri.
 
Don't forget that every membership and donation through Friday, May 19th, is listed as a Legislative Platform Sponsorship for the 2013 session. Click here to join/renew or click here to make a special donation.
 
Related:

 

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  • Submit YOUR local or statewide bicycle and pedestrian needs for consideration for MoDOT's $8 billion funding plan

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  • All our coverage of the $8 billion transportation funding proposal

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  • All coverage of the 2013 Missouri legislative session

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    Image credits:

    1. Missouri delegation at the National Bike Summit, MoBikeFed.

    2. Waiting for MoDOT by Zaskem, FlickR. License: Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0

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