Congress to bikers: Get a car
A house subcommittee has voted to cut all funding for bike paths and
other pollution-free transportation programs.

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By Katharine Mieszkowski

http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/07/22/bike_paths/index_np.html

July 22, 2003  |  For every bike commuter who proudly pedals to work
under the mantra "one less car," Congress has a
message for you: Get back on the highway where you belong, burning
fossil fuel like a real American. That goes for you, too, you
traffic-hazard pedestrians.

Fresh out of subcommittee, a new congressional transportation
appropriations bill will entirely eliminate some $600 million worth
of annual federal funding for bike paths, walkways and other such
transportation niceties in fiscal year 2004.

Never mind the political fallout of U.S. oil dependency on the Middle
East, or the fact that the average mileage per gallon for new
cars and trucks in the U.S. is at its lowest level in 20 years. Members
of the House's appropriations subcommittee on
Transportation, Treasury and Independent Agencies know that what America
needs now is fewer bike paths and walkways --
but more highways.

Defenders of the bill argue that, in light of huge federal deficits,
something has to go, but for bike activists and environmentalists
who have been pushing for decades for alternatives to driving, the cuts
are a giant step backward.

"The irony of trying to make it easier for people to drive when we're
clearly running up against major roadblocks on providing oil
for driving is just too much," says Leah Shahum, executive director of
the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit that
promotes bikes for transportation.

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