Save Bicycle and Pedestrian Funding!

This is from the Rails to Trails Conservancy. Congress is looking at removing all the Transportation Enhancement money related to Bicycles and Pedestrians from the latest Transportation bill. We need to have everyone contact them at let them know that using money to support all modes of transportation is better for everyone. It costs less, it saves more, it makes the US more independent, it is better for our health, ... Don't let congress kill the progress that is being made around this country.

Locally we have a lot of projects that can not be funded any other way; like the Ashley Crossing projects on the Legare Bridge and James Island Connector. With out funding, there is little hope of making the updates needed for a safe and connected community.

Please follow the links below, or contact your representatives on your own. We only have a few more hours before the vote, so do it now.

Thank you!

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We aren't exaggerating when we say this ask has never been more urgent.

Please read more and take action now. We have until 4 p.m. EST today to have our thoughts heard.

Tomorrow, Thursday, February 2, the Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives will be voting on our nation's next multiyear surface transportation bill.

There's no way to spin this: From the perspective of trails, walking and bicycling, the bill is a total disaster.

Among its worst features are:

• It eliminates dedicated funding for the Transportation Enhancements (TE) program—the nation's largest funding source for trails, walking and bicycling. (Terrible news, but we expected it.)
• It removes the rail-trail category from TE eligibility.
• It completely eliminates funding for the Safe Routes to School program.
• It eliminates funding for bicycle and pedestrian coordinators at state DOTs.

But there's still a chance...

Representatives Tom Petri (R-Wis.) and Tim Johnson (R-Ill.) are considering the introduction of an amendment in the committee that would right many of the bill's wrongs.

But they need to hear from other committee members that their amendment has a fighting chance.

Please: Take two minutes and ask your representatives to defend trails, walking and bicycling. We only have until 4 p.m. EST today, so any additional support you're able to gather will make an enormous difference!

Thank you,

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy