Obama and Big Pedal

There's been some talk about how Obama could be the first urban (literally, not euphemistically) President since Kennedy. Kennedy, according to the Great Society Subway, was a big,early supporter of Metro in part because he grew up riding the subway in Boston. So an urban president, the argument goes would support urban issues - like transportational cycling. Especially if they themselves ride.

And a big piece of evidence to support this is that Obama has said he would. More than once.

Barack Obama, in a private 20-minute meeting with members of the Bikes Belong board of directors, told them if he were elected president he would increase funding for cycling and pedestrian projects. And the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also said he would support Safe Routes to Schools programs.

Stan Day, SRAM’s president, said that Obama "gets it." He pointed out that Obama understands that bicycles can be part of a solution to issues as diverse as health care, obesity, energy and environmental policy. "He does his homework and he can connect the dots," he said.

The NY Times covered it too and he claims the biking he did was not an attempt to pander to America's Transportational Cyclists.

One man, clearly a bicycling enthusiast, yelled out, “Thanks for wearing a helmet!” Mr. Obama confessed that before putting it on for the bike ride, he wasn’t sure he wanted to wear it.

“I had an internal debate,” Mr. Obama said. “Because I knew that the A.P. was going to take a picture, and they were trying to portray it like Dukakis wearing that tank helmet. But I wanted to make sure that the children who saw that picture knew that even the Democratic nominee for president wears a helmet when he goes biking.” (The crowd applauded enthusiastically.)

Then he admitted to being wounded from some critiques of his bike-riding outfit, which included sneakers, jeans and a tucked-in polo shirt.

“Now, obviously the rest of my apparel was apparently not up to snuff, because I got a hard time from all sorts of blogs,” he said, “Who said I looked like Urkel.”

As cycling becomes more prevalent some will keep an eye on Big Pedal. I have a friend who claims that if Obama picks Oberstar, Blumenauer or Mayor Bloomberg for Veep her "pants will fly off." That would be something to see (the Veep choice, not the pants).

Of course, the campaign for pro-cycling legislation doesn't end at the White House. Here's an extensive article about the Bicycle Campaign this year.

Next year, Congress is slated to write a new highway bill, which is already being touted as embodying the greatest overhaul of federal transportation policy since President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act into law half a century ago. Bicycling advocates are hoping to build on a significant set of wins in the current highway law, written in 2005 — including new initiatives to fund “complete streets,” the term for new road projects outfitted with dedicated bike lanes — and arguing to step up federal funding to encourage bike commuting.

Democrat  Earl Blumenauer — he cycles to work from his Capitol Hill apartment and often sports a bicycle pin on his lapel — has managed to get bike-friendly language into a quartet of measures that have moved through the House this year. The energy tax incentives package passed in February includes his provision to give bicycle commuters a $20 monthly transportation subsidy. A “green” schools bill passed this month includes language supporting construction projects that better accommodate bicyclists. The Amtrak reauthorization passed three weeks ago would set aside intercity passenger rail grant money to pay for bicycle racks on trains. And a resolution of his, adopted in May, affirmed support for federal cycling programs and for re-establishing a federal interagency Bicycle Task Force to promote coordination on bike issues.

Oohh! Bikes on Amtrak! Hello 5 Boros ride

Their wish list for the [Highway] bill includes incentives for states and local governments to build more roads with dedicated bike lanes, more money for programs that support non-motorized transit and tighter coordination of the nation’s interstate bicycle routes. While there is no dollar figure on their request, they are hoping for significantly more than the $4.5 billion from last time — 1 percent of the total in the current, six-year law.

Chicago, Boston, Washington and New York are among the giant cities on the bike path. But the growth in two-wheel commuting has also come to smaller municipalities in regions generally deemed less hospitable to mass-transit experimentation. Louisville, Ky., for example, has the largest bike club in the country, and the group has lobbied the city to expand bike facilities to make travel safer and more accessible. In response, Mayor Jerry E. Abramson formed a task force in 2005 — ensuring, among other things, that all road projects in the city produce dedicated bike lanes and that all city schools host bike safety programs. All city buses are outfitted with bike racks, which were used by 120,000 riders last year.

Such local successes might shore up the case for a greater federal role in bike commuting, advocates say. They add that even incremental measures can produce appreciable fuel savings and environmental benefits; Bikes Belong’s Blumenthal said that 40 percent of all trips that Americans make are two miles or less and so are easily made on a bicycle. And if the number of bike commuters grows by just one-half of 1 percent, he said, that would save 460 million gallons of gasoline a year.

Here's a list of legislation LAB is pursuing.

Comments

[Ren]

Two weeks ago, I left my bicycle in my fiance's trunk. He had car problems and had to temporarily leave his car in Manassas. He could have ridden my bicycle to the VRE and taken that home (reverse rush-hour), but no bikes on VRE even though there was enough space on his train to waltz. Why can't the bikes on trains/metro rules at least be sensible?

[washcycle]

I hear you. SF and NY are more flexible.

I've asked the question of Metro and they claimed it's unsafe to have bikes on crowded platforms - though they had no basis beyond "common sense" for this claim.

They've also said that cyclists are too untrustworthy to follow the rules and their employees too deficient to enforce more nuanced rules. They actually said that about their own employees - unbelievable.