Archive for February, 2010

Today the U.S. Department of Transportation announced $1.5 billion in Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery grants, known as TIGER grants. The money was intended to go to important and innovation projects that are difficult to fund through traditional channels. They received 1,400 applications for $60 billion worth of projects. Knowing that, the $1.5 billion that was awarded looks small and inevitably disappoints the strong applicants that were not funded. Bicycling advocates, in particular, had high expectations, thus there is a certain let down accompanying the announced projects — even though 16 projects explicitly include bicycling components.

The grant’s four criteria were 1. Long-term outcomes (helping achieve a state of good repair; stimulating economic competitiveness; improving safety; enhancing livability; developing sustainability), 2. Job creation and economic stimulus, 3. Innovation, and 4. Partnerships. You can see the breakdown of application categories here.

A few themes emerged among funded applications. The funding for bicycling projects frequently included:

• Multi-modal transportation facilities – access and storage
• Bridge crossings
• Completing bike/ped networks, and
• Lanes along main corridors

The first bullet reinforces a recommendation we also make regarding CMAQ applications, that proposals connect bicycling to transit to extend transit catchment areas and increase the length of the car trips that can be replaced by bicycling to mitigate congestion and emissions.

Some disappointments:

Portland, OR applied for 21 different grants and had big ambitions for bicycling projects, but only one got funded – it will add a streetcar line and bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Kansas City, MO/KS put together an excellent application. You can see how they calculated the miles, trips, benefits, and cost in the appendices using resources on the economic impacts of investing in bicycling. They calculated a ten to one return on investment for their proposed project. Kansas City received badly needed funds for sidewalk access to bus stop in what they call a Green Impact Zone. Unfortunately, the bicycling component was stripped out. Brent Hugh from Missouri Bicycle & Pedestrian Federation believes Kansas City’s focus on recreational riding hurt their application’s chances.

The good news is there are now dozens of strong projects conceived of and proposals written that can be worked on in the future. (UPDATE: The other good news, which I may have not sufficiently trumpeted earlier, is that there are now 16 projects that include bicycling components and another nine that fund pedestrian projects that would not have been funded without this grant. This is a brand new infusion of funding that we would not have seen without the stimulus. That is a very good thing.)

Here is the complete project list from the DOT. America Bikes has a press release and a list that include pedestrian projects. Read more below to see the successful applications that include bicycling components. It is well worth a look at the following list.

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Come work at the best job in bicycling!

Title: Membership Director

Salary: Negotiable, dependent on qualifications and experience

Date: February 16, 2010

Reports to: Executive Director

The League of American Bicyclists is hiring a membership manager. This is a hands-on job in a small organization that requires great attention to detail, a strong emphasis on customer service; and a love of bicycling. The job includes: prospect-to-member research, new and renewal member engagement, managing membership categories, implementation of campaigns and other various responsibilities that work to support the goals and objectives of League’s membership. We are at the beginning of an exciting (and long-awaited!) database transition, and this person would work closely with the transition team. The manager supervises a membership assistant. We are seeking a person with 2-5 years experience in membership, a college degree and the creativity to build an effective and engaged membership for the future. Salary is competitive and commensurate with experience. We offer competitive benefits, a fun working environment, and the opportunity to work for a cause in which you believe. Apply to Elizabeth Kiker at elizabeth@bikeleague.org or fax your resume to 202-822-1334.

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.

BikePortland reports on an upcoming study on injuries to bicycle commuters. The study finds that road conditions contributed to 20 percent of “traumatic events.” Great to see some data on this intuitive point.

Here’s an excerpt, but read the whole post:

The study found that, “There were no differences in age, gender, safety practices and experience levels between commuters who experienced a TE [traumatic event] and those who did not.”

“One finding I thought was interesting,” said Hoffman, “is that poor roadway surface conditions played a role in 20 percent of the traumatic events — gravel on the road, rail tracks on the road, steel plates in the road, and so on… led to these events.”

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

According to the U.S. Surgeon General, two-thirds of adults and nearly one in three children are overweight or obese.  In the past few decades obesity rates have tripled among children – at a time when walking and biking to school levels have fallen dramatically – and doubled among adults. An obese teenager has more than a 70 percent greater risk of becoming an obese adult. This has major consequences on health. Obesity contributes to about 112,000 preventable deaths every year.

In a call to action to reverse this trend, the Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, released The Surgeon General’s Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation, 2010. In her opening letter she makes the connection between the way we build our communities and fitness:

As a nation, we must create neighborhood communities that are focused on healthy nutrition and regular physical activity, where the healthiest choices are accessible for all citizens. Children should be having fun and playing in environments that provide parks, recreational facilities, community centers, and walking and bike paths.

The report includes this line:

Similarly, the car-dependent design of our communities has made it much harder for our children to walk to school—and much harder for us to shop and do other errands entirely on foot or by bicycle.

Recommendations include:

• Build or enhance infrastructures to support more walking and bicycling.
• Support locating schools within easy walking distance of residential areas.

Update: Also see this New York Times article on the health risks of pre-diabetes.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.

Wouldn’t it be great to be paid to ride your bike!? Well, hop in the saddle because that is what many businesses across the nation are doing – paying their employees to commute by bicycle.  Your two wheels are now recognized by the IRS as a “qualified transportation fringe benefit” which means that the costs (up to $20/month, $240/year) associated with riding your bike are eligible for reimbursement.  Things like spare tubes, bar tape, riding gloves, eye wear, cycling clothes, commuter bags, rain gear, lights, gloves, helmet, cost of maintenance, even the cost of a new commuter bike, basically anything you can purchase at a bike shop qualifies for reimbursement.

The Bicycle Commuter Benefit has been on the books since January 1, 2009, and more and more businesses are starting to use it! Through our Bicycle Friendly Business program we have compiled a list of businesses – big, small, east coast, west coast, and everywhere in between – that are encouraging pedaling through this benefit. Take a look at the list of BFB applicants who offer the benefit. This list is just a sample of participating businesses. There are a lot more out there. If you are aware of any we didn’t include, let us know. We’ll add them to the list. To learn more about how your business can implement the benefit visit our Commuter Benefit FAQs page.

~Ailson Dewey
Program Specialist, Bicycle Friendly America

On Monday, February 1, the Obama Administration Released its budget for 2011. Highlights from the Transportation section include:

• Transportation gets slight increase in spending
• $527 million for livability partnership (with HUD giving $150 million and EPA contributing $10 million)
  • for capacity building and transportation projects
  • “local quality of life is a universal challenge”
• $4 Billion dollar infrastructure bank (New York Times Energy and Environment)
• $30 million would establish a federal transit safety oversight program
• $ 1 billion a year for high speed rail funding
• Commits to develop long term solutions to financing and performance
  • Administration seeks to integrate economic analysis and performance measurement in transportation planning to ensure tax dollars better targeted and spent.
  • Needs a program that “increases options, promotes s sustainable environment, and makes our economy more productive.”
  • States funding transportation with gas tax is unsustainable. Does not suggest alternative.

View the Department of Transportation Funding Highlights here.

The full USDOT Budget can be viewed at www.dot.gov/budget/2010/2011budgethighlights.pdf.

Visit the Federal Budget Fact Sheet and the Federal Budget Department of Transportation Fact Sheet for further information.

Meghan Cahill
League Director of Communications

Cahill joined the League in December 2008 and has a BA in Media Communications with a concentration in Italian Studies from the College of Charleston.

The 2010 National Bike Summit kicks off in Washington, DC on March 9-11, 2010. So why should YOU be there?

We can think of a few good reasons: Do you care about having transportation choices? Do you want more bike lanes in your neighborhood? Are you a parent who wishes your kid could ride to school? Do you want to get out of your car and have a viable alternative for your commute?  Or do you dream of a more livable community?

If these didn’t get you, consider that the Summit is an opportunity for advocates, industry suppliers and dealers, transportation planners, government officials, and bicycling enthusiasts to come together and make our voices heard on Capitol Hill. In the ten years that we’ve been advocating for cycling on Capitol Hill, bicycling has come a long way. The number of people riding is growing in almost every community in the US, and the time to talk to your representatives in Congress about what you’d like to see happen in your community is now. Come celebrate ten years of progress and register for the Summit now.

Don’t miss our Early Bird Deadline – Thursday, February 4, 2010 – to receive $100 off your registration!

~Lisa Reitz
League Membership and Events

Ever want to know how your city and state stack up compared to others in levels of bicycling and walking? Or which state has the lowest rate of bicycle and pedestrian fatalities? Or how your state’s laws treat bicyclists compared to others? If so, you don’t want to miss Bicycling and Walking in the United States: 2010 Benchmarking Report from the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking (formerly Thunderhead Alliance). There’s a ton of useful information here for state and local advocates, researchers, and numbers-oriented cyclists. It is an ambitious project – gathering existing data on bicycling and walking – and adding original survey data. It is also a beautiful product. The PDF download is free, but get your hands on a hardcopy if you can.

The Benchmarking report provides information on programs and statistics for the 50 states, as such it is good companion to the League’s state ranking – see the Bicycle Friendly State Rankings by category. It also includes some graphs that illustrate some key correlations.

Let’s start with the obvious. The share of bicycling and walking to work in a state is strongly correlated with the share of the adult population that gets at least 30 minutes of physical activity a day. The percent of people that walk and bike to work is still small compared to the populations that meet these minimums, so rather than concluding causation, it appears that the factors that impact bicycling levels – policies, infrastructure, land use, culture – also impact overall physical activity. The commuters who are walking and biking to work probably help the physical activity numbers as well.

Speaking of land use, on average, cities with higher densities have higher levels of bicycling and walking. New Orleans is a notable outlier on the right side of the graph with a high bike/walk mode share and (currently) low density. You could spend a day thinking about the individual cases, but the overall pattern holds up well statistically (r=0.67).

Now it is excuse-busting time. Notice that when I listed the factors that influence bicycling and walking levels above, I didn’t mention weather. That’s because weather doesn’t appear to matter as much as people would often like to believe. You may already know that the hardy folks in Canada bicycle more than those of in the county immediately to their south.  The Benchmarking researchers compared bicycling levels to average summer and winter temperatures and didn’t find any statistically significant results. Alaska, for example, posts a significantly higher bicycling mode share than states like Arkansas, North Carolina, Delaware, and Missouri. Cold states such as Minnesota, Idaho, Montana and Maine also manage relatively high mode shares.

Finally, the report includes another safety in numbers-style graph. Often you see these graphs for one city with an increasing bicycling rate and decreasing crash rate over time, or they will compare European cities. This graph presents a cross-sectional look at the fifty U.S. states and fatalities per 10,000 cyclists. Again, you can see that, on average, states with higher rates of cycling have lower fatality rates.

These are just a few examples of the topics covered in the report. I’ve been thinking of the proper analogy to describe the benchmarking report. The Farmer’s Almanac comes to mind. But a book of baseball statistics may be a better analogy. If you were to start a bike-friendly fantasy league, like the baseball and football fantasy leagues out there, this would be your go-to resource. Consider it, you and your friends draft cities that you think will most improve on their bike-to-work mode share in the next year. Is Portland, Ore. going to continue its growth? Is Nashville, Tenn. set to have a breakout year? The Benchmarking report offers a complete look at the state of bicycling in each of the United States and could hold that statistical nugget that will lead your fantasy bicycle-friendly community team to victory. But I digress…Be one of the hundreds who have downloaded the full Benchmarking Report.

Thank you to Kristen Steele of the Alliance for Bicycling and Walking for the Jpegs.

Darren Flusche
League Policy Director

Flusche joined the League in April 2009 and has a B.A. in history from Syracuse University and a Masters of Public Administration with a concentration in public policy analysis from New York University.