We need your help - TODAY! Transportation Enhancements funding is critical to trail building in our region! The TART Trail was built utilizing TE funds combined with local match funds. Several area trail projects currently in development will greatly suffer if TE funding is eliminated.

 

Senator Coburn (R-OK) is offering two amendments to the FY10 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) appropriations bill that will strike funding for transportation enhancements. The two amendments are S. Amendment 2370 and S. Amendment 2371.

The Transportation Enhancement program has provided between one-half and three-quarters of all Federal funding invested in bicycling and walking improvements in the last 20 years. More than $250 million is at stake in fiscal year 2010 - if Coburn's amendment is successful it will affect hundreds of trail projects, sidewalks, bicyclist education programs, bike rack on bus programs, and roadway improvements for bicyclists.

 

S. Amendment 2370 prohibits funding for transportation enhancements if the Highway Trust Fund does not contain amounts sufficient to cover unfunded highway authorizations. S. Amendment 2371 allows states to opt out of the 10 percent set aside rule that require states to spend at least 10 percent of their surface transportation funding on transportation enhancements.

 

We expect the amendments to be offered and voted on during Senate floor debate today, Wednesday, September 16. Please call your Senator immediately and urge them to vote NO on S. Amendment 2370 and S. Amendment 2371 to the FY10 transportation appropriations bill.

 

If you know who your senators are, their phone numbers are listed here (in the format 202-224-xxxx). To look up your senators by state and find their phone numbers, go here. Next, please call your senators with the following message:

I am calling from (city, state) to urge that Senator ______ vote against Amendments 2370 and 2371 to H.R. 3288. These amendments would jeopardize essential Transportation Enhancements projects such as trails and other walking and bicycling infrastructure. These projects are highly valued in my community, and we need more safe and convenient opportunities to walk and bike. How does Senator _____ plan to vote on these amendments?

 

It is best to use your own words. If you personalize your comments, please be sure to end your call by asking how the senator plans to vote. This is critical information for us to have, and puts the office on notice that they will be accountable. Let us know who you called and what their response was, so we can relay this information to League of Michigan Bicyclists and the Michigan Trails and Greenways Alliance.

 

THANK YOU!

Missy

 

P.S. For more information on this subject, please check the Rails to Trails Conservancy’s web site.

 

Missy Luyk, Trail Program Specialist

TART Trails, Inc.

Office: 415 S Union St (2nd Flr) in Old Town Traverse City

Mail: PO Box 252 Traverse City MI 49685

231.941.4300

www.traversetrails.org