Current federal transportation law says:

• Bicycle and pedestrian improvements are an eligible activity in all the major funding programs.
• State and local transportation plans are required to include consideration of bicycle and pedestrian projects and programs.
• Bicycle and pedestrian facilities shall be considered in all new construction and reconstruction projects.
• Bridges being replaced or rebuilt with federal funds shall be replaced so as to provide safe accommodations for bicyclists (where bicyclists are permitted at each end of the bridge).
• No project or regulatory action shall be approved that severs an existing major route or has a significant adverse safety impact on bicyclists or pedestrians unless a reasonable alternative exists or is to be provided.

The Federal Highway Administration program guidance on TEA-21 concludes that:

“Congress clearly intends for bicyclists and pedestrians to have safe, convenient access to the transportation system and sees every transportation improvement as an opportunity to enhance the safety and convenience of the two modes.”

Thus FHWA wrote:

“In the planning, design, and operation of transportation facilities bicyclists and pedestrians should be included as a matter of routine and the decision not to accommodate them should be the exception rather than the rule. There must be exceptional circumstances for denying bicycle and pedestrian access either by prohibition or by designing highways that are incompatible with safe, convenient walking and bicycling.”

This approach was confirmed one year later (February 2000) in a policy statement from FHWA saying “bicycling and walking facilities will be incorporated into all transportation projects unless exceptional circumstances exist.”

Today, with a few exceptions, state and local transportation agencies typically plan, design and operate the transportation system in much the same way they have been doing for the past 50 years: without routinely including provisions for bicycling and walking. As a consequence, most people in the United States are effectively denied the choice of bicycling or walking for most trips.

Despite Congressional intent and the encouragement of the US Department of Transportation, streets and highways are still routinely built without sidewalks or crosswalks for pedestrians, without space for bicyclists, without signals that detect bicycles, and without adequate maintenance to keep surfaces safe to ride on. Most highway “improvements” add capacity, increase vehicle speeds, and do nothing to mitigate the negative impact this usually has on bicycling and walking.

At a time when we should be doing everything possible to promote bicycling and walking as healthy, cost-effective, clean, sustainable, efficient modes of travel, we are instead effectively designing bicycling and walking out of the transportation system by making these modes less safe and convenient.

Policy Recommendations
America Bikes requests that Congress establish a series of performance measures for state and local agencies to ensure that bicycling and walking become safe and convenient options throughout the transportation system.

1. As an element of good roadway design, all projects involving new construction or reconstruction of roadways shall include appropriate provisions to accommodate bicyclists and pedestrians. This principle shall apply to all federal, state and local recipients of funds authorized under Titles 23 and 49, including federal land management agencies.

• Exceptions to this requirement would be possible where:
• Bicyclists and/or pedestrians are not permitted to operate (e.g. on limited access highways).
• There is a demonstrable lack of need (e.g. in cul-de-sacs )
• Provisions would exceed a reasonable percentage of the overall costs of the project (e.g. 20 percent).

This would effectively codify the FHWA guidance document of February 2000.

2. As an element of good transit service, all new transit vehicles and new and rebuilt access to transit stations and stops shall accommodate bicycles, bicyclists, and pedestrians to ensure a seamless connection between the different modes. Bicyclists should be able to get to transit stations and stops and either park their bikes securely or take them on the vehicle with them with a minimum of delay or inconvenience.

3. Agencies making provision for bicyclists and pedestrians as a part of larger projects shall be eligible to receive federal funds for the bicycle and pedestrian portions of the project at a matching ratio of at least 90 percent federal and ten percent state funds.

• Congress should adopt the goals of the National Bicycling and Walking Study and encourage state and local transportation planning documents to include specific steps to achieve the goals. Long range transportation planning documents shall establish a performance measure of doubling the percentage of trips made by foot and bicycle, and must identify the implementation steps necessary to achieve this measure.
• Transportation Improvement Programs shall identify those projects which will be undertaken to achieve the bicycling and walking goal in the long range plan.
• Further, Congress should establish the expectation that all transportation-related programs fully consider the potential impacts on, and opportunities to improve conditions for, bicycling and walking.

4. Create a Bicycle and Pedestrian Transition Plan to identify how agencies will integrate bicycling and walking into their standard practices.

• Ask each agency that receives funds under Titles 23 and 49 CFR to submit a bicycle and pedestrian transition plan to identify the steps they will take to ensure that the safety, accessibility and mobility needs of bicyclists and pedestrians are integrated into the transportation system as a matter of routine.
• The transition plan shall identify those steps that will be taken to ensure bicyclist and pedestrian travel needs and opportunities are addressed in all transportation-related programs such as research, operations, intelligent transportation systems, training, and professional development.
• The transition plan shall also identify the steps necessary for each transportation agency to become a leader in promoting bicycling and walking among its own employees and visitors.
• States shall be required to report to FHWA every two years on their implementation of the transition plan, and FHWA shall, in turn, submit a report to Congress on progress towards integrating bicycling and walking into standards procedures.
• These transition plans are needed to provide accountability and transparency to a process of change in transportation agencies. Few agencies have shown the willingness to do this on their own despite encouragement from Congress and US Department of Transportation.

America Bikes believes this performance-based approach strikes an appropriate balance between the need to provide states and local transportation agencies with flexibility and the need to achieve certain desirable outcomes that Congress and USDOT requested in ISTEA and TEA-21 but which have not yet been delivered.

March 2003