The Bike Fed received our last update about the Petri (R-WI)/Johnson (R-IL) amendment to the House Transportation Bill around 8:30 last night. The news is mixed as Petri has only two solid Republican votes in support of his amendment on the 59 member committee. Rep. Reid Ribble, (R-WI) who represents the 8th district (click to see map), is the only other Wisconsin member of Congress on the committee. If you, or any of your friends, know someone who lives or works in Rep. Ribble’s 8th district, please ask them to call or email their Congressman from Neenah TODAY and ask him to vote in favor of the Petri/Johnson amendment to save federal funding for bicycle programs.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog post, chances are you have already received an email action alert from some other national bicycle organization as advocates across the country have tried to rally their members and friends to save cycling. The Bike Fed has sent targeted emails to our members who live in both Petri’s and Ribble’s districts asking them to call or email their Congressman and voice support for this amendment. Rep. Ribble presented the Bike Fed with an award last year, so we called his chief of staff and made our case in support of the amendment. We also provided Ribble’s office with supporting evidence detailing how the small federal investments in cycling have paid big dividends for his district in particular, and Wisconsin in general.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee meets at 9am this morning to mark up the bill and you can watch the fight to save cycling live here. Be forewarned that there are more than 100 amendments to this bill, so you might want to have a comfy chair and some popcorn. In the meantime, the Bike Fed would like to thank our friends and supporters who have been reaching out to Washington from Wisconsin. In particular, we would like to thank our bicycle industry leaders for their help.
John Burke, president of Trek, sent emails to 350 Trek Dealers across the country and asked each dealer to contact their congressional representative and to email all their customers and ask them to do the same. If you frequent a bike shop that sells Trek bicycles, you probably got such an email and we hope you have made that call. Chris Fortune from Saris Cycling Group is a well-connected business leader, and he has made personal appeals to everyone in his network in Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. to support the Petri/Johnson amendment. Chris Kegel, owner of Wheel & Sprocket stores, and one of the best known and well liked bicycle advocacy leaders in the nation, has been working every connection he has.
At the bottom of this email is a long list of national organizations that support the Petri/Johnson amendment. Immediately below, you can see some of the supporting documents we sent to Rep. Ribble’s office that clearly illustrate the tremendous return on investment those relatively few federal dollars have had in Wisconsin.
- Bicycling in Wisconsin Congressional District 8: breaks out the economic impact of cycling in Rep. Ribble’s district.
- Bicycling is Good For Wisconsin: This document provides an overview of the many positive economic and cultural impacts bicycling has on our state.
- Valuing Bicycling’s Economic and Health Impacts in Wisconsin: study details the overall $1.5 billion economic impact of bicycling in Wisconsin.
- Economic Impact of Bicycling in Wisconsin: study details the over $550 million value of the Wisconsin Bicycle Industry. Link to report on WisDOT site.
You may also find the following media links insightful:
Lakeland Times on TE funded expansion of the trails in Boulder Junction
Bicycling Boulder Junction: Boulder Junction is becoming as well know for trails as for Muskie fishing
Door County Lodging News: Impact of loosing TE funding for trail hits Door County
Kimberly-Clark venerable Neenah corporation supports cycling in Wisconsin
National Organizations
Adventure Cycling Association
Alliance for Biking & Walking
Alliance of National Heritage Areas
America Bikes
America Walks
American Cultural Resources Association
American Heart Association
American Hiking Society
American Planning Association
American Public Health Association
American Trails
Americans for the Arts
America’s State Parks
Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals
City Parks Alliance
International Mountain Bicycling Association
League of American Bicyclists
National Association of Counties
National Association of Realtors
National Association of Regional Councils
National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services
National Complete Streets Coalition
National Conference of State Historic Preservation Officers
National Parent Teacher Association
National Preservation Institute
National Recreation and Park Association
National Trust Community Investment Corporation
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Partnership for Prevention
PolicyLink
Preservation Action
Public Health Law & Policy
Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
Ride America for Safe Routes
Safe Kids Worldwide
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Society for Historical Archaeology
Transportation for America
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
YMCA of the USA
State and Regional Organizations
Mississippi River Trail, Inc. (AR)
Arkansas Historic Preservation Program (AR)
Bike Walk Connecticut (CT)
California Bicycle Coalition (CA)
Colorado Office of Archaeology and Historic Preservation (CO)
Delaware Council on Greenways & Trails (DE)
Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation (FL)
Idaho Pedestrian and Bicycle Alliance (ID)
Iowa Bicycle Coalition (IA)
MassBike (MA)
Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (MA)
Maryland Historical Trust (MD)
Michigan Historic Preservation Network (MI)
Missouri Tourism Director (MO)
Mississippi Main Street Association (MS)
State Historic Preservation Officer, Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MS)
Preservation New Jersey (NJ)
North Carolina Rail-Trails (NC)
North Dakota State Historic Preservation Officer (ND)
Heritage Ohio (OH)
Ohio Historic Preservation Office (OH)
Bike Texas (TX)
Preservation Trust of Vermont (VT)
State of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation (VT)
Virginia Bicycling Federation (VA)
Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VA)
West Virginia Cycling Foundation (WV)
West Virginia Wilderness Coalition (WV
Any Republican with an amendment like this knew – KNEW! – it would not go through. He/she would have a reason for such an attempt, anyway. I wonder what that reason is. Hmmmm.