Have you ever walked the halls of the State House? Or met your state representative or senator? Do you want to?

We are in the very early stages of planning a state advocacy summit at the State House in May. A critical part to a state summit, though, is having people from around the state participate! (Democracy doesn’t work without citizen involvement, ya know?) This includes not only knocking on your legislators’ doors, but also potentially having an information table about local bike advocacy going on in your part of the state.

To that end, we are trying to get a sense of whether those in the bike community (that means you) would be willing to come to Boston for a weekday, morning time event on Thursday, May 17. A rough sketch of the event is as follows:

• You would set up a meeting with your representative or senator ahead of time.
• The event would start around 10 AM, at which point you would pick up an information packet for yourself and your legislators.
• We would give talking points and other tips on specific pieces of legislation (like our Vulnerable Road Users Bill) before your meeting.
• Come back to the main room, let us know how things went and eat some lunch.

So our questions for you are:

(1 = not at all, 10 = count me in)

1. On a scale of 1 – 10, are you interested in participating?
2. On a scale of 1 – 10, are you interested in having an information table for your local bike group?

Please send responses to annie@massbike.org. Thanks so much for the interest!

The good news is that because the vote was so close and had bipartisan support, there is a chance that we will be able to get the funding put back in later in the legislative process. However, this is by no means a certainty. We are almost definitely going to be calling on you again soon to voice your support to your member of Congress. In the meantime, we will be working hard with our national partners to form a strategy to continue funding for biking and walking.

We got an overwhelming response from our supporters in Mr. Capuano’s district, many of whom reported that they had contacted his office. This highlights how much we depend on our members and stakeholders to be effective in our advocacy. We need your help to continue the fight for biking, so please consider joining or making a donation to MassBike. (Our online store is undergoing maintenance, so please give us a call at 617-542-2453.)

Thanks so much for your support, and stay tuned!

MBTA riders gathered outside the State House for a rally.

We have been hard at work with MassDOT’s Transportation Advisory Committee, Transportation for Massachusetts, and our fellow advocacy groups to try to find a better solution. In a recent meeting, the choice was framed in the following way:

1. Massive service cuts, substantial fare increase; or
2. Massive fare increase, fewer service cuts

But this is a false choice, because neither option will solve the MBTA’s underlying financial problems, and both will have unacceptable impacts on transit riders and everyone else. Without a more comprehensive solution, within a year we will be back discussing further fare increases and service cuts.

The public meetings so far have been totally packed, and also full of anger directed toward the MBTA. The reality, however, is that the T’s options are limited; it can only raise fares or cut service to balance its budget. If you don’t like either proposal, the real audience is the Legislature, because they are the only ones who can allocate more funding to the T.

What You Can Do To Help

1. Contact your state representative and senator and let them know that you want them to find a permanent solution for the MBTA and transportation funding.

2. Go to one of the ongoing MBTA public meetings to demonstrate to the T and to legislators that there is a widespread call for a real solution to this problem.

With the current threats to federal bike funding it is more important than ever to show your support for bicycling. On March 20 – 22, the 12th annual National Bike Summit will take place in Washington D.C. and bring together advocates and government official from across the country to talk about biking in America. This is a critical year for the National Bike Summit as it comes in the midst of a major vote regarding federal bike funding.

We’ve coordinated the Massachusetts delegation to the Summit for many years, and we’re looking forward to doing so again in this critical year. We typically have good representation from the Boston Metro area, but need widespread support from around the state. We hope local advocates, particularly from outside the Metro Boston area, will join us in DC to meet with their Representatives. Be sure to register before the early bird discount ends on February 3! Please follow the link to sign up for this important event.

We reported last week that the House of Representatives was moving to eliminate critical federal funding for biking and walking. The situation in the House is even more dire than we thought.

Today, the House releases its transportation bill, the American Energy and Infrastructure Act. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will vote on the bill this Thursday. Last week, we knew the bill would be bad news for biking and walking. But we didn’t think it would go so far as to completely cut bicycling and walking out of federal transportation policy.

We now know that the bill would do much more damage than initially thought, including:

• Destroys Transportation Enhancements by making the program optional
• Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, reversing years of progress in creating safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school
• Allows states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles
• Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs
• Eliminates language requiring that rumble strips “do not adversely affect the safety or mobility of bicyclists, pedestrians or the disabled”

But there is still hope. Representative Petri (R-WI) will stand up for bicycling and walking by offering an amendment that restores dedicated funding for Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School, and hopefully goes even further to address the other problems. One of our own Representatives, Michael Capuano, is a leading member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and we have already directly contacted those of you who live in his district to take action now. (If you are a Capuano constituent and did not receive our direct Action Alert, please ask him to support the Petri amendment right now – his number is (202) 225-5111, or you can email him by clicking here.)

In a couple of weeks, when the bill reaches the floor of the House, we will be asking all bicyclists in Massachusetts to contact their representatives.

This is as urgent as it gets. Even if we do win this amendment, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress.

We know we are asking a lot of you and we thank you for all you’re doing to preserve biking and walking.

You could win this vintage t-shirt!

A couple of weeks ago we posted about a really important survey that we would like our organization’s stakeholders to fill out. As we plan for 2012 and beyond, we are looking for your input about our advocacy priorities and some information on who you are. To make the deal even sweeter, we increased the number of t-shirts we’re giving away to 25! Please take five minutes and fill out the survey for a chance to win one of 25 awesome 30th anniversary MassBike T-shirts (pictured left). In order to be eligible for the drawing, you need to take the survey by Tuesday, February 14th.

Thanks so much for your input!

Last Fall, you helped us defeat Senate attacks on biking and walking. But now the House of Representatives is launching its own attack. Next Thursday, February 2nd, we can expect the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to vote on its version of the surface transportation bill, called “The American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act.” Alarms went off when we learned that the two primary sources of federal bike funding, Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School, will be eliminated.

The legislation will be open for amendments for only a short time in the T&I Committee. If you live in Representative Michael Capuano’s district, a high-ranking member of the committee, we need your help. During Thursday’s vote, he could be the key to making sure that a pro-biking amendment passes. Will you ask him today to vote to preserve funding for biking and walking in the transportation bill?

Let him know that in his district alone:

• Nearly $2 million in Safe Routes to School funding has gone to making the streets safer for children trying to walk or bike to school;
• Transportation Enhancements has supported over $34 million in bike and pedestrian infrastructure, improving the experience for all users of the road;
• Biking and walking make up 12 percent of all trips, but only 1.5 percent of federal funding.

Representative Capuano’s office phone number is (202) 225-5111, or you can email him by clicking here. Please take action today:

1. Call and/or email Representative Capuano TODAY, tell him why bicycling is important to you, and ask him to do two things:

• OPPOSE any move to eliminate the Transportation Enhancements or Safe Routes to School Program
• SUPPORT an amendment to maintain the funding to bike and pedestrian programs

2. Email action@massbike.org and let us know you contacted him!

If you don’t have time to call or email, then you can fill out an automated form here, though personalized messages are always preferable. Don’t know who your representative is?  Find out here.

Even if you don’t live in District 8, feel free to contact your representative. While he won’t be able to act on this legislation until it hits the floor in February, it can’t hurt to let him know that biking is important to you. Thanks for your support, and for helping us work toward a better state (and country) for biking.

The first major challenge faced by T4MA is the recently announced MBTA proposal to both increase fares and cut service. The MBTA projects that its revenues this year cannot support service at its current levels. T4MA opposes the proposal, and MassBike agrees that the MBTA’s proposal would not be good for bicyclists. In our view, the T’s proposal would significantly reduce existing opportunities for bicyclists to use bicycles in combination with public transportation, creating a barrier to biking.

You only need to look at the hundreds of bicycles parked at MBTA stations, even on frigid days like today, to see that many bicyclists are transit users and many people use bicycles to access the T. Some bicyclists, like other transit users, may simply be unable to afford a fare increase. Others will be affected if the trains, buses, or boats they rely on are eliminated. For example, we have analyzed the two bus service cut scenarios put forth by the T, the second of which would impact over 70% of bus routes that are currently equipped with bicycle racks. The MBTA has been a strong partner in improving bike access on its system, and MassBike has been working with them for many years to fully equip the bus fleet with bike racks. This project was expected to be completed this year, and the elimination of so many routes that are already accessible to bicyclists is an unacceptable leap backward.

Public meetings on the proposed fare increases and service cuts begin tonight in Newton and Worcester, tomorrow in Chelsea, and Thursday in Roxbury. More meetings continue in the following weeks all over the MBTA service region – see the calendar on our homepage for details. If you are a bicyclist whose mobility would be affected by MBTA fare increases or service cuts, please attend a public meeting or send your written comments to fareproposal@mbta.com. Make your voice heard! MassBike will continue to work with T4MA and the MBTA to find an acceptable way forward.

The Complete Streets Workshops kicked off in Worcester on November 17th and have taken place around the state since then. Executive Director David Watson and I have attended workshops, and are happy to see a high level of local interest in this important topic.

MassDOT’s predecessor MassHighway adopted a Complete Streets-style approach to road design back in 2006 with the release of the Project Development and Design Guide. But many local officials and consultants have not changed their approach to road design in response to the new guidelines. At the urging of MassBike and other advocates, MassDOT has created this great new education program. We have been working with MassDOT to provide feedback both prior to the launch of the workshops and after the sessions we attended. We encourage anyone interested in learning more about Complete Streets and creating a more bikable, walkable, livable community to attend a free workshop.

Check here for the schedule, or just look at the calendar on our homepage. The workshops take three hours and are free and open to the public. You will get course materials to help you implement Complete Streets. Start making your community more livable by ensuring that roads work for everyone.