Action Alert: Bike Safety Bill Needs Your Help

From MassBike:

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In January, we filed two bills with the Massachusetts State Legislature, and we just found out that the bills are going to be heard in committee next Wednesday. We need your help to get these bills moving! The bills are:

•  The Act To Protect Vulnerable Road Users (S 1639) adds protections to bicyclists, pedestrians, wheelchair users, and other vulnerable users of the road. It gives law enforcement more flexibility to impose more severe penalties for dangerous driving. (Click here for the full text of the bill.)
• The Act To Protect Bicyclists In Bicycle Lanes (S 1640) prohibits motor vehicles from parking in bike lanes. (Click here for the full text of the bill.)

The first hearing on these bills before the Committee on Transportation is scheduled for Wednesday, June 26 at 10:00 AM, in State House Room B-1.

We hope you are able to join MassBike at the hearing to tell your story, and to urge the Joint Committee on Transportation to report favorably on these two bills. This is the second legislative session for the Vulnerable Road Users Bill, and the first hearing ever for the Bike Lane Bill. For more information on the bills, please see our Legislative Fact Sheet.

If you are unable to attend next week’s hearing, we ask you to do the following:

1. Send an email or write a letter to the Chairs of the Joint Committee on Transportation – Senator McGee (Email) and Representative Straus (Email) – and ask that they act favorably on these bills.
2. Call or email your State Senator and State Representative and ask that they recommend to the Joint Committee on Transportation Chairs to act favorably on these bills.
3. Cc [email protected] on all your emails, or send us a message telling us who you contacted.

Don’t know who your legislators are? Find out here.

We were able to educate a lot of legislators about this legislation at the Bike/Walk Summit, so we think we are in a good position to move this legislation forward. We need your help again to get this legislation rolling.  As always, we couldn’t do it without you.

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Action Alert: Call For Vulnerable Road User Bill Today

From MassBike

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Call Your Senator Today!

Things are heating up, this is not a drill people.

From MassBike

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We told you late last week that the crisis in federal transportation funding was only getting worse, and to stay tuned for an Action Alert. This is it. The consensus among advocacy groups, like the Alliance for Biking and Walking, Transportation for America and MassBike, is that there is no chance for salvaging the House transportation bill. MassBike is in close touch with the Massachusetts delegation and is confident that we will have their unanimous opposition to this horrible transportation bill. (Which is why we are not asking you to contact your House Representatives about killing H.R. 7 – but you can if you want.)

Hope, then, lies in the Senate. Over the past few days, two amendments have been proposed to the Senate’s transportation bill (MAP-21, or S. 1813) that would fix many of the problems relating to bike funding. Without these amendments, the three key sources of funding for biking and walking (Transportation Enhancements, Safe Routes to School, and Recreational Trails Program) will no longer receive dedicated funding and will instead be forced to compete with many other programs for a smaller pot of money.

Today, we need you to contact Senator Kerry and Senator Brown to ask them to support the Cardin-Cochran Amendment and the Klobuchar Amendment.

Senators Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) are co-sponsoring an amendment which would give local communities more access to Transportation Enhancements and Safe Routes to School. In Massachusetts, this amendment would likely make it easier for towns and cities to access this funding.

Senator Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) amendment would restore dedicated funding to the Recreational Trails Program, a key resource for off-road trails.

In Massachusetts, these programs have been leveraged into hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in off-road trails, paved multi-use paths, and improved signage, drainage, and crossings that remove barriers to biking. Just a few examples of worthwhile projects that received funding were:

• The Independence Greenway in Peabody for path construction;
• The Ashuwillticook Rail Trail in North Adams for trail construction;
• The New England Mountain Bike Association for maintenance and improvement of numerous off-road facilities around the state.
• The Jamaica Pond Trail in Boston for both construction and land acquisition.

We are asking you to do two things:

1. Call and/or email your Senators TODAY, tell them why bicycling is important to you, and ask them to SUPPORT the Cardin-Cochran Amendment and the Klobuchar Amendment to MAP-21 (S. 1813).

Senator John Kerry: (202) 224-2742, Email (select “Transportation” as Topic)
Senator Scott Brown: (202) 224-4543, Email (select “Transportation” as Topic)

Don’t have time to write your own email? Click here to send a pre-written email message.  
2. Email [email protected] and let us know you contacted them!

We know that we have been sending out a lot of Action Alerts on federal issues, but we want you to know that it’s only because the situation has grown that dire. Thanks so much for adding your voice to this crisis – and stay tuned for more developments!

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Help A Fellow Cyclist: Looking For Witness To Crash

A couple days ago I wrote about a cyclist struck by a truck in Cambridge. The investigator working for her really needs to talk to anyone who saw the accident, if you saw it please help. See below.

Looking for witnesses to an accident involving a cyclist (Emily) who was struck by a truck on Fri. 10/21 @ approx. 4:15pm at the intersection of Main & Windsor St. Cambridge. Emily was seriously injured. I am an investigator working on her behalf. Please call Richard @ cell 617-212-3069 or email [email protected]. Thank you

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Bikes Not Bombs: Girls In Action

GIRLS IN ACTION! bike program
May 18th – June 22nd
Monday through Friday, 3:30 – 6:30pm each day

Girls ages 12-18 have the opportunity to engage in an interactive bicycle mechanics, bicycle riding safety, and gender equity social justice curriculum. This course is an excellent way for girls to gain skills and make friends in the rich community of female cyclists and mechanics at Bikes Not Bombs. Program graduates ride away on their very own refurbished bicycles! Just like Earn-A-Bike, graduates of this class may eventually qualify for a part-time teaching and leadership job in our youth programs. For girls only. Classes run Mon-Thurs, 3:30 – 6:30. Program cost is $25-$50 sliding scale for the whole session (scholarships available).

To download flyers and applications, see http://www.bikesnotbombs.org/node/472

Contact Elijah Evans at 617-522-0222 or [email protected].

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