The Rails-to-Trails Conservancy and Bikes Belong presented their report on Active Transportation for America to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman James Oberstar at the National Press Club last month.
The report quantifies the national benefits of bicycling and walking and public demand for an investment in varied transportation choices. It reports that more funding for bicycling and walking can save Americans billions of dollars not only in traditional transportation and health benefits, but in the economic, energy and climate benefits of Active Transportation.
You can watch it on C-SPAN here (if you didn't already Tivo it). You can read the report here.
The amount the government spent to build a single highway interchange in Virginia is comparable to one and half years of national spending on biking and walking and trails
Oberstar starts talking around 22 minutes in. At about 30 minutes in he talks about the "Fifth Transformational Era of Transportation in America." (Right after he teases Secretary Peters for blaming the Minneapolis Bridge collapse on bike trails). The first is in the 1890's when cyclists lobby for a grant to study a system of paved roadways to get the horseless carriages off their trails (irony). Next was when we established the interstate highway system in 1959. Then in 1970's when the first trillion miles in a year were driven. Fourth was in 1991 with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, when we began to use our highway transportation fund for things other than roads (including transit, inner-city rail, bike facilities etc...)
The fifth era, he promises, will reduce carbon emissions, save fuel and fight obesity.
Photo by BikePortland.org
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