Help MassBike With Their Virtual Lobby Day

Taken from MassBike here.

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Read on for information on how you can be part of our virtual lobby day!

This week is the National Bike Summit in Washington, DC. MassBike is leading the largest-ever group of Massachusetts advocates on a mission to protect funding for bicycling in MA from the federal budget-cutting frenzy. Federal dollars pay for a wide range of things you care about: roads with bike lanes, rail trails, Safe Routes to School, and more!

This year, we’re encouraging everyone in our group to tweet updates from Tuesday to Thursday throughout the Summit, using the hash tag #nbsma.

On Thursday, March 10th, while we are visiting Congress in person, we need you to call your own U.S. Representative and both Senators and ask them continue to support federal funding for bicycling. When you call, you can use these talking points:

• Funding For Bicycling And Walking Is At Risk We are concerned there will be efforts to strip federal funding for biking and walking in Congress either by eliminating the funding for programs such as Transportation Enhancements or Safe Routes to School, or by making funding these programs optional for states.
• We Already Underinvest In Biking And Walking Just 1.5 percent of federal transportation dollars currently support bicycling and walking, although these two modes represent 12 percent of all trips in the United States. Bicycling and walking are growing in significance to our transportation system and yet only a tiny fraction of transportation funding is allocated to these essential and affordable modes.
• Bicyclists And Pedestrians Make Up A Disproportionate Number Of Roadway Fatalities 14 percent of roadway fatalities are bicyclists or pedestrians. Small investments in improving roadway safety not only make our roads safer for bicyclists and pedestrians but also make drivers feel more comfortable and reduce conflicts among all road users.
• Biking And Walking Are Great Investments Bicycling and walking improvements are relatively inexpensive, highly cost-effective investments that create significantly more jobs per dollar than road repair and upgrades; they also boost local small businesses and increase real estate values.
• Biking And Walking Help Solve Many Problems In these tough economic times, we must invest in solutions that solve multiple problems: biking and walking are low-cost transportation options that improve safety, health and air quality; they reduce dependence on foreign oil.

Here are the phone numbers for all the U.S. Representatives for Massachusetts:

Don’t know who your U.S. Representative is? Click here and enter your address to find out.

And our two U.S. Senators:

Please don’t forget to call on Thursday, March 10th, to be part of MassBike’s National Bike Summit Virtual Lobby Day. And then leave a comment here to let us know you called!

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