Bicycle advocates to gather in DC to 'save cycling'

The lobbying group for bicyclists will hold a summit in Washington, D.C. this week to urge Congress to include funding for their preferred transportation method in a new appropriations bill.

The Washington-based League of American Bicyclists will hold its 2012 National Bike Summit from Tuesday to Thursday. Organizers said the event will include Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Reps. Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)

The event, which comes as the Senate has passed its version of a $109 billion measure that would fund road and bridge projects for the next two years, will make the case that the final version of a new transportation bill should include funding for cyclists that is preserved in the Senate version of the measure. 

"Two months ago, the Senate bill would have gutted critical funding for local bicycle projects, eliminated programs like Safe Routes to School and eroded the rights of all American cyclists," LAB President Andy Clarke said in a news release. "But tens of thousands of people called and wrote their members of Congress and their voices were heard. Now more than ever, cyclists have become a powerful, organized constituency that is redefining our streets as safe, public spaces for people, not just speeding automobiles."



The House has yet to decide whether it will take up the Senate's bill or proceed with a stalled measure of its own, but the LAB said that "in the midst of deep political divides, bicycling also represents a rare, truly bipartisan issue." 

The original proposal from the House for five-year, $260 billion transportation bill eliminated funding for bike paths and other items that are usually referred to as "transportation enhancements." An effort to add the funding back via an amendment while the transportation bill was in committee was defeated last month.

The momentum for the transportation bill has since stalled amid complaints from both Democrats and Republicans.

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