Transportation's bicycle policy hits potholes
By JOAN LOWY
Associated
Press Writer
The Associated Press
updated 5:18
a.m.
PT, Wed., April 14, 2010
WASHINGTON - Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a
weekend bicyclist, might consider keeping his head down and his helmet
on. A
backlash is brewing over his new bicycling policy.
LaHood says the government is going to give
bicycling —
and walking, too — the same importance as automobiles in transportation planning
and the selection of projects for federal money. The former Republican
congressman quietly announced the "sea change" in transportation policy
last
month.
"This is the end of favoring motorized
transportation at
the expense of non-motorized," he wrote in his government blog.
Not so fast, say some conservatives and
industries
dependent on trucking. A manufacturers' blog called the policy
"nonsensical."
One congressman suggested LaHood was on drugs.
The new policy is an extension of the Obama
administration's livability initiative, which regards the creation of
alternatives to driving — buses, streetcars, trolleys and trains, as
well as
biking and walking — as central to solving the nation's transportation
woes.
LaHood's blog was accompanied by a DOT policy
statement
urging states and transportation agencies to treat "walking and
bicycling as
equals with other transportation modes." It recommends, among other
things,
including biking and walking lanes on bridges and clearing snow from
bike
paths.
Transportation secretary is normally a quiet
post, a
Cabinet backwater. But LaHood has been the administration's point man on
an
array of high-profile issues, from high-speed trains and distracted
drivers to
runaway Toyotas.
The new policy has vaulted LaHood to superstar
status in
the bicycling world. Bike blogs are bubbling with praise. A post on
Ridemonkey.com calls him "cycling's man
of the century." The Adventure Cycling
Association's Web site calls LaHood "our hero."
"LaHood went out on a limb for cyclists," Joe
Lindsey
wrote on Bicycling.com. "He
said stuff no Transportation secretary's ever said,
and is backing it up with action."
Word of the policy change is still filtering
out beyond
the bicycling and transportation planning communities, but the initial
reaction
from conservatives and industry has been hostile.
The National Association of Manufacturers'
blog,
Shopfloor.org, called the policy "dumb
and irresponsible."
"LaHood's pedal parity is nonsensical for a
modern
industrial nation," said the blog. "We don't call it sacrilege, but
radical is a
fair description. It is indeed a sea change in federal transportation
policy
that could have profound implications for the U.S. economy and the 80
percent of
freight that moves by truck."
LaHood said he has been surprised by the
response.
"It didn't seem that controversial to me," he
wrote in a
second blog item. "After all, I didn't say they should have the only
voice. Just
a voice."
At a recent House hearing, Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio,
suggested jokingly to a Transportation Department official that one
explanation
for the new policy is that the secretary's thinking has been clouded by
drugs.
"Is that a typo?" LaTourette asked. "If it's
not a typo,
is there still mandatory
drug testing at the department?"
The new policy is not a regulation and,
therefore, not
mandatory, Transportation undersecretary for policy Roy Kienitz
responded to
LaTourette.
But it's LaHood's view "that the federal
government
should not take the position that roads and trains are real
transportation and
walking and biking is not," Kienitz said. "His view is it's all real
transportation, and we should consider it based on what benefits it can
bring
for the amount of money we spend."
That didn't satisfy LaTourette.
"So is it his thought that perhaps we're going
to have,
like, rickshaws carrying cargo from state to state, or people with
backpacks?"
asked the congressman.
Bicycling advocates have been blasting
LaTourette. Andy
Clarke, president of the League of
American Bicyclists, with 300,000 affiliated
members, called his comments "a little childish."
LaTourette said in an interview that he thinks
bike
paths, bike lanes and projects that make communities more walkable are
fine but
shouldn't be funded with money raised by a gasoline tax paid by
motorists. The
federal gas tax pays for most highway and transit aid, although lately
general
Treasury funds have been used to supplement the programs.
LaHood noted that LaTourette supports federal
funds for a
bike path in his district.
"The point is, on his Web site he's bragging
about the
fact that he got some money for a bike path," LaHood said. "He knows
people in
his district like them."
LaHood, 64, said he and his wife have biked on
weekends
for years. Three days before his announcement of the new policy, LaHood
stood on
a table to speak to a gathering of hundreds of bike enthusiasts in
Washington.
He drew cheers when he vowed the Obama administration will put affordable
housing next to walking and biking paths.
"I'm not going to apologize for any of it," he
said in
the interview. "I think this is what the people want."
___
On the Net:
League of American Bicyclists:
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights
reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36492953/ns/politics/