Cross-party Poll Finds Voters Want Bike/Ped Investments; 4-to-1 support for federal bike/ped funding | Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

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The poll found that four times as many voters favor increasing or maintaining current levels of federal investment in walking and biking paths as decreasing them (74 percent – 19 percent). Strong majorities supported this funding regardless of party affiliation.

Despite constituting only 1.5 percent of the federal surface transportation budget, in recent years, biking and walking infrastructure has become a popular target for some federal lawmakers looking to gain political points by highlighting their fiscal conservatism. Recent efforts to reduce or eliminate support for active transportation include proposals by Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), Senator Pat Toomey (R-PA), and a House Transportation Appropriations Bill which sought to eliminate biking and walking eligibility in TIGER grants.

RTC Senior Vice President of Policy and Trail Development, Kevin Mills, says that these findings demonstrate that congressional opponents of active transportation are out of step with their own constituents.

“This proves that there is no real constituency for decreasing federal investment in biking and walking,” Mills says. “Ahead of an expected transportation bill reauthorization battle next year, this is an important message for those who would seek to attack active transportation: ‘Your constituents aren’t impressed. This will not win you votes.’”

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Cross-party Poll Finds Voters Want Bike/Ped Investments; 4-to-1 support for federal bike/ped funding | Rails-to-Trails Conservancy

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