BTA Blog readers, you are invited to join cycling advocates from Baker City, Maupin, Medford, Newport, and the Willamette Valley for a virtual recap of Day 1 at the Oregon Bike Summit. Following is a history lesson, lobby training, legislative overview and overall celebration of bikes and Blazers wins.
Jerry Norquist, Allison Hill Graves and Scott Bricker discuss lobbying strategies in the Capitol rotunda.
The conference began with Cycle Oregon’s Jerry Norquist and the Bike Gallery’s Jay Graves giving an excellent history lesson of cycling in Oregon…
Norquist and Graves credited Rep. Earl Blumenauer for first challenging cyclists to be a presence at the national level, and naming Congressman Oberstarr from Minnesotan as the “grandfather of the bike movement.” Oberstarr played a big role in passing the ISTEA bill in 1991, which set aside 1% of federal funding dollars for bike/ped projects and helped start the shift to multi-modal transportation. Oberstarr is currently the Chair of the Transportation Committee in Washington, and both he and Blumenauer are optimistic about the future of the bike movement with the Obama administration. Obama was recently overheard saying (in complete and utter disbelief, I imagine), “you mean there’s not enough money in transportation for bikes!?” Looks like we’ve got the big man on board, says Blumenauer.
BTA Executive Director Scott Bricker stepped up next to talk about bike legislation at the federal and state levels. Bike/ped projects around Oregon have already begun to see an influx of federal funding from the stimulus bill. The big winners in the room were Portland and Medford with $1 million in federal grants; projects in Wilsonville, Philomath, and Newport have also been funded. America Bikes, Rails to Trails, Bikes Belong and T4America are all good resources for staying informed of national goings-on.
Moving on to state level and the goal for Wednesday’s lobby meetings, Bricker emphasized the importance of building the voice of bicycling in Salem for long-term momentum. Cyclists are still working to overcome the “scofflaw” reputation; name-calling and negativity this session over the bike registration bill hasn’t helped. Furthermore, Oregon is facing a budget deficit between $3 and $4 billion, making this legislative session an extremely challenging one.
Dick Schouten represents the Washington County Board of Commissioners.
Some of the BTA’s priority bills this session, including the Idaho Stop law, died last week after missing the deadline for scheduling a work session. The spotlight for Wednesday’s lobby meetings is on three bills: Vehicular Homicide (HB 3399), Driver Education (HB 3252), and Fund Non-motorized Transportation (HB 2001).
More coming soon on Wednesday’s lobby meetings. Also check out Bikeportland and the Mercury for additional coverage and photos.
