Rich, Thank you for this great post, and for all you do for cycling.
You make great points. The Bike Fed is uniquely positioned to advocate at the state level. Its advocacy is currently focused on three priorities: - Restoring Wisconsin’s successful Complete Streets law, which is repealed in the governor's proposed budget. The law requires that bicyclists and pedestrians be taken into account whenever a road is built or reconstructed with state or federal funds. This would mean many fewer safe places to bike. - Restoring state funding to the Transportation Alternatives Program. The governor would eliminate all $2 million of state support for this program. TAP is used for a variety of pro-biking initiatives, including bike plans and facilities. - Restoring state funding for the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Fund. This fund works to purchase and protect land for future generations. Funds for state trail purchases are included in the program. The governor would stop all purchases for over a decade. Friends, if you haven't contacted your legislators and the governor in support of these priorities, please click here <http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2015/02/04/governors-budget-hits-biking/> to do it: http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2015/02/04/governors-budget-hits-biking/ On an ongoing basis, the Bike Fed goes to bat for local advocates facing bike <http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2014/09/30/watertown-to-oconomowoc-interurban-trail-only-a-matter-of-time/> advocacy <http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2014/02/18/iowa-county-ordinance-passes-improved-but-still-problematic/> crises <http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2014/10/23/urgent-vilas-county-trails-threatened-by-atvs/> around <http://wisconsinbikefed.org/2014/10/22/open-pit-mine-approved-near-elroy-sparta-trail/> the state; and encourages and helps communities pursue the League of American Bicyclists' Bicycle Friendly Community <http://bikeleague.org/community> status. To gain this LAB ranking, local advocates need to mobilize and municipalities need to prioritize investment in bicycle infrastructure, among many other things. Thanks Rich. I think of you every time I bike through the intersection of Old Middleton and Eau Claire. Peter On Wed, Mar 4, 2015 at 12:47 PM, Matthew Logan <[email protected]> wrote: > The Joint Committee on Finance just wrapped up on a presentation from > WISDOT Secretary Mark Gottlieb on Transportation. > > > > Points of interest: > > > > Gottlieb contends that eliminating complete streets will not eliminate > bicycle projects on state roads – it will provide them “more flexibility”. > He claims local communities have complained to him about being forced to > investigate adding bicycle projects. According to Gottlieb, the cuts to > transportation alternatives were justified by saying it is just not a > priority now – what is the priority is the backbone routes of the state > highway system. > > > Co-Chair Nygren requested that Gottlieb present him with a list of bicycle > revenue generation tools used by other states. > > > > Our own Representative Chris Taylor fired a few questions off at Gottlieb, > mostly along the lines of the WISPIRG/Sierra Club materials on unneeded > highway projects they published recently. Gottlieb countered most of her > provocative lines of questioning by citing data used to meet WISDOT > objectives, and suggesting that projects are scaled back to meet the > minimum requirements outlined in their objectives. > > > > On a personal note, I was disappointed that Rep Taylor chose not to delve > into the problems with the objectives themselves. Engineers are great at > gathering data, and often weak at looking at the big picture (take it from > a software engineer), so it makes little sense to attack the work of an > engineering department on the data gathering. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > >
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