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Friends and Neighbors:
This pertains to the Safe Routes to School program. Please read the
bullet points below and contact legislators. As you know we’ve
just applied for a SRTS grant. We won’t know until later this year
if we’re successful, but if the program is cut entirely, I guess
we may know sooner. Please make some calls. They need to hear from constituents.
Pamela J. Polk,
MAS, ACPFIM -- (Jan. 31, 2012)
Collinsville City Manager
106 N. 12th Street, Collinsville, OK 74021
----Original Message-----
From: Deb Hubsmith <Deb_Hubsmith@mail.vresp.com>
To: kmussett <kmussett@aol.com>
Sent: Tue, Jan 31, 2012 9:55 am
Subject: House Bill Eliminates Safe Routes
to School—Act Now to Save It
It’s so much worse than we thought. Today, the House releases its
transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act.
We expected the bill to be bad news for bicycling and walking, but we
didn’t think it would go so far as to reverse all progress we have
made in the past twenty years.
The House Transportation Committee will vote Thursday, February 2, on
whether to approve this bill or amend it to include bicycling and walking
programs. Take action now—tell your representative to restore bicycling
and walking in the Transportation Committee.
Why the urgency? House leaders are exerting pressure to completely cut
bicycling and walking out of transportation. Lawmakers seem to have
gone through line-by-line to gut programs that make streets safer. Some
of the more devastating provisions in the bill include:
Destroys Transportation
Enhancements by removing the dedicated funding;
Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, leaving communities without
basic tools and funding to protect kids on the trip to school; Allows
states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles;
and Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian and Safe Routes to School coordinators
in state DOTs.
But there’s still a chance to save federal bicycling and walking
funding. This week, Representative Petri (R-WI) plans to offer an amendment
that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and
Safe Routes to School. Rep. Petri can only be successful if you and
everyone else with a stake in safe sidewalks, crosswalks and bikeways
contact their Representatives today.
This is as urgent as it gets. If members of the Transportation Committee
are going to stand up to House leadership by supporting biking and walking,
they will need to know their constituents are behind them. Please contact
Congress today and ask them to preserve dedicated funding for biking
and walking.
Please pass this
along to all your local contacts—particularly high-level contacts
like mayors, school board members and business leaders—and ask
them to weigh in too. Thank you so much for your quick action, and we’ll
keep you posted.
Safe Routes to School
National Partnership
PO Box 2359
Boulder, Colorado 80306, US
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