Congress Moves to Eliminate Popular Transportation Program

Advocates call move Œshort-sighted¹

A popular federal program that creates safe places to bike and walk has been eliminated from the 2004 budget in a surprise attack by a House of Representatives subcommittee. The move jeopardizes the completion of hundreds of bicycle and pedestrian projects across the country. The measure eliminates the Transportation Enhancements program, the primary source of federal dollars for bicycle and pedestrian projects, and moves the money into highway construction.

³Transportation Enhancements funds build the bicycle lanes, multi-use paths and trails that communities are proud of, where community leaders and residents come out to enjoy² says Jesse Day of the New York Bicycling Coalition. ³Eliminating this small but valuable program in order boost highway spending isn¹t even penny-wise: it is just plain foolish² says Martha Roskowski of America Bikes

On July 11, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation passed a fiscal year 2004 transportation budget that redirects the $600 million slated for Transportation Enhancements to highway construction. The budget also slashes funding for new transit projects, Amtrak and smart growth initiatives. While cutting alternative transportation projects, the bill increases overall transportation funding for 2004 to $34.1 billion, up $2.5 billion over 2003 levels.

Report language submitted by the subcommittee claims the Transportation Enhancement program is an ineffective use of transportation funding, saying ³It is essential to focus the nation's limited transportation funding on critical transportation projects and not divert funds for projects that are "nice to have," but do not contribute in a meaningful way to solving our highway congestion problems.²

The full House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on the proposal as soon as Tuesday, July 22^ndor 23^rd.

Recent polls show that a majority of Americans -- 84 percent -- support spending transportation dollars on creating safe places to walk. Sixty-eight percent would like to see more federal funds spent on walking facilities, even if it means less money would go toward roads. The Enhancements program enjoys wide public support, and is included in the Bush Administration¹s recent proposal for reauthorization of the federal transportation law.

Transportation Enhancements funds have created hundreds of miles of safe walking and bicycling paths, trails, sidewalks, and lanes in New York State. The enhancements funding is helping to address the high traffic death rate among adults and children on foot or bicycle.

³Transportation Enhancements is the most important Federal program available to increase physical activity choices. Enhancement funds provide low cost alternatives to automobile transportation.² says Jesse Day of the New York Bicycling Coalition. ³It is vitally important if we are to stem the tide of the obesity epidemic,² he continues.

Since 1992, 329 bicycle and pedestrian projects in New York received Enhancements funding, totaling over $100 million. Nationwide Transportation Enhancements has provided $5.97 billion to states to support 16,699 community-based projects. More information can be found at www.enhancements.org.

The New York Bicycling Coalition is affiliated with America Bikes, a national coalition of organizations representing more than 50 million Americans who bicycle. America Bikes has issued an action alert through its members and is generating letters and phone calls to key committee members.

For more information, contact Jesse Day at (518) 436-0889 or visit www.nybc.net.

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