Grassroots bicycle advocacy - update

Monday, 2/16/09 pm The subcommittee meeting substituted the term "nonvehicular" with "nonmotorized" in order to include bicycle transportation projects. This is a small, but potentially important change. Read more to get up to speed on House and Senate transportation funding bills.

Monday, 2/16/09: Transportation alternative advocates including ABC and PEDS spoke up at a House subcommittee meeting last week to consider transportation bills HB 206 and 277 (the Georgia 20/20 Transportation Act). ABC submitted suggested changes we believe would strengthen the bill's approach to bicycle and pedestrian funding. It remains to be seen what will be incorporated, but House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. Vance Smith appeared favorable to our requests. The subcommittee is scheduled to meet again on Monday, February 16th, from 3:00 to 5:00 pm in room 606 of the Coverdale Legislative Office Building.

ABC sent the following message to the Chairman:

Dear Representative Smith,

Thank you for taking the initiative to create legislation to fund transportation improvements all across our great state! We are pleased to see transportation in Georgia receiving the attention it deserves. I'd like to raise a few points that I believe could enhance the existing legislation.

Regarding line (23) "On a program to provide for improved nonvehicular access to destinations served by transportation facilities," technically, bicycles are vehicles, so the term "nonvehicular" excludes bicycles. Even if nothing else changes, we recommend at least replacing "nonvehicular" with "nonmotorized."

If the intent of the phrase "to destinations served by transportation facilities," is to ensure that purely recreational projects are not built with sales tax funds, it should probably be further clarified.

The Transportation Enhancements program has that same intent - it states that bicycle and pedestrian facilities are eligible, but projects must be "related to the surface transportation system." In that light, we plan the following substitution (nearly verbatim from TE): "On a program for the provision of facilities for bicycles and pedestrians related to the surface transportation system."

We also would like to see some kind of safety consideration added to the section "Such recommendations shall take into account..." This would be in keeping with the Governor's Strategic Highway Safety Plan that has made wonderful progress in drawing attention to the need to improve the safety of our roadways.

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The Senate's TSPLOST bill, favored by most transit and transportation alternative advocates, is also sitting in the House Transportation Committee but is not really being considered at this point. If the House bill gets out of committee, one of the two chambers will have to take up the other's bill in order to move legislation to the next step - a conference committee between the two chambers. Some observers are concerned that both houses will get behind their bills and be reluctant to move forward on the other, stalling the much-needed funding for yet another year. Don't let that happen! Contact your legislators today to let them know Georgia needs to invest in bicycle transportation projects.

(Previous updates below):
The Special Subcommittee on Transportation Funding will meet Thursday, 2/12 at 3:30 p.m. in Room 606 of the Coverdell Legislative Office Building, located at 244 Washington Street next to the former GDOT building. If you are able to attend, contact Rebecca at the ABC office phone. We have a number of concerns about the House transportation bill under consideration (HB 277), but our primary issue is that there is only one single mention of anything even resembling bicycle facilities: priority # (23), "On a program to provide for improved nonvehicular access to destinations served by transportation facilities." Please contact your representatives today to let them know Georgia needs to invest in bicycle transportation projects. We are way behind most other states (all but two, in fact) in bicycle investments and this session's focus on transportation represents an opportunity to catch up. Votesmart.org is a good site for finding and contacting your elected officials.

Please note that a sales tax is the only funding mechanism being proposed in either legislative body. That means, regardless of the content of the final bill, you will be paying for it!

Bicycle transportation has been ignored for too long in the state of Georgia, and our current bicycle infrastructure is greatly lacking. It's time to make your voice heard.

On a side note, Get Georgia Moving's website has a wonderful tool called MegaVote you can use to track your representative's voting!