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This little press release was just sent over to DC world headquarters and I thought it might be of interest to a majority of us here:
United States House of Representatives FOR immediate release:
November 14, 2013
MEDIA CONTACT Patrick Malone (Blumenauer) 202-225-4811Ed McDonald (Coble)202-225-3065
Blumenauer, Coble, McCaul Introduce Bipartisan Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act
Washington, DC – Today, Representatives Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Howard Coble (NC-06), and Mike McCaul (TX-10) introduced the bipartisan Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Act, which would require the US Department of Transportation to set separate measures for motorized and non-motorized safety. States would be able to set their own safety targets and have the flexibility to choose the best methods to meet them. The legislation encourages states to make their roadways safer without diverting funding from other safety needs.
In 2012, more than 34,000 people died due to traffic accidents – and almost 16 percent of these deaths were pedestrians and bicyclists. Yet, less than 1 percent of safety funding goes to infrastructure to protect those on foot or on bicycle.
“Everyone is a pedestrian at some point in their trip,” said Blumenauer, “and the number of individuals commuting by bike has increased by more than 60% over the last decade. As transportation systems adjust to handle different type of road users, the federal government must encourage appropriate standards to ensure road user safety.”
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration recently reported a 2 percent drop in roadway fatalities, and a 4.6 percent drop for occupants of cars and light trucks between 2010 and 2011. These safety improvements, however, have not helped all road users. Even as driver and passenger deaths have decreased, the percentage of bicyclist and pedestrian roadway deaths has increased in recent years.
“While overall traffic deaths are down, the number of bicyclists dying on our roadways has increased by nine percent and pedestrian deaths have gone up by three percent recently,” said Coble. “This bipartisan legislation strives to reduce the number of bicyclists and pedestrians killed and injured on our roadways. It will help protect all users of our transportation system, while giving states flexibility to enact measures that make sense for them.
It looks like us cyclist have some friends in high places these days with Representative Earl Blumenauer leading the charge. Take a minute and hit up his CONTACT FORM (outside of OR send it to his press guy Patrick.Malone@mail.house.gov) and show your support. A couple thousand virtual high fives probably can’t hurt.
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Plus the man wears a sharp bow tie – very cool!
Dude is riding a Trek Portland— I have essentially the identical machine, branded as a LeMond Poprad. It’s a bit heavy and the Shimano 105 bits are less inspiring than, say, D-A, but it fits me perfectly and I love the cable-actuated disc brakes for wet conditions.
Fantastic! Oregon (Portland in particular) can be leading the way in micro-brews, strip clubs and fucking smart bike policy.
Earl is a bad@$$. He has been sportin’ the bow tie for years. Now if he could bring some singletrack to Portland too. Gladly trade 7 strip clubs for 21 miles of trail. Window shopping is worthless.
Funny how it takes legislation to change how people drive. I’d say here in Denver 99% of drivers are fairly safe, especially around bicycles on the road, but it’s the 1% that really drive what Earl is trying to accomplish. Take your garden-variety stop sign or traffic light and watch how the 1% really rises to the occasion to be a bright shining example of douchebaggery behind the wheel.
BTW, got smacked by the right side-view mirror of an a-hole in a pickup truck this morning on my way to work (riding westbound 17th if you know Denver near City Park). This post is somewhat timely.
If anybody knows Earl, be sure to buy that a man a beer.
Is it even possible to fail a driving test in the US?
Hey Dan, looks like we live near each other. I think a beer or ten is in order.
Dan,
I used to ride that road every day. Take the lane on 17th. Ride that fucker right down the middle. That way you’ll keep the cagers a little off guard and miss the nasty fucking potholes that show up every winter thanks to RTDs fat fucking busses.
Since there’s some D-town folk on the line: anyone eye the Douglas Cunty E-W Trail? 19 miles of crusher fine path that links 3 areas of single track. Just sayin’ it’s itching for a fat-skinny tire/drop bar sort of ride with plenty of options for 100+ miles on mostly dirt. Gobble the gravel on the FR soon, before it’s gone.
Conversely by giving the states the power to enforce their own safety standards would it not be easier and cheaper for them to say ban cycling on state roads?
Sure it wouldn’t make sense to us but if you were a bean counter sitting behind a desk and were given the option of eliminating cycling deaths by banning bikes and it bas cheaper than constructing bike lanes or even just improving the conditions of state roads would it not be an attractive option?
Good point, Matt. I’m afraid in this era of ‘austerity’ that bicycles will get the shaft in spite of the efforts of these noble statesmen.
A good college friend of mine is a professional engineer for the City of Portland and played an instrumental part in the cutting edge infrastructure. The design and execution was so solid, she had folks from all over the country calling up for advice on how to implement similar infrastructure. Good on my friend Nicki for the effort; plus she has a hell of a rack even after two kids!
I tip my hat to the fellows in the fed-gubmint who did this, hopefully we’ll see some of the positive impact in Michigan, we really need it!