The Boom in Biking Benefits Everyone, Not Just Bicyclists [Shareable]

A protected bike lane on Dunsmuir St. in Vancouver shows the street of the  future.  (Credit:  Photo by Paul Kruger under a Creative Commons license from flickr.com)

For the past year powerful voices around Washington have singled outprograms to improve biking and walking as flagrant examples of wasteful government spending. 

Since last summer, proposals have flown around the Capitol to strip away all designated transportation funds for biking and walking—even though biking and walking account for 12 percent of all trip across America but receive only 1.6 percent of federal funding. 

But yesterday (March 29) the U.S. House of Representatives—the hotbed of opposition to bike and walking as well as transit programs—voted to extend the current surface transportation bill for another three months, saving the funding of bike and ped programs. The Senate followed two hours later.  (This marks the 9th extension of the existing transportation bill since 2009 and another victory for the growing movement to ensure federal support for biking and walking projects.)

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