Our friends at The Bus Project recently hosted a massive multi-day conference in Bend to Reboot Democracy. The BTA attended, spoke out in support of active transportation, hosted several workshops and trainings, and earned some volunteer support. Here’s the skinny.
The event was designed to engage people as volunteers and donors for important legislative campaigns. We presented a policy proposal with 1000 Friends of Oregon, Willamette Pedestrian Coalition, and several other partners.
Advocating for Livable Communities and Transportation Choices, we highlighted the need for Oregon’s metro regions to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets through coordinated land use and transportation planning. Also, we talked about the need to compliment these planning efforts with new funding mechanisms for active transportation infrastructure and transit operations.
Put simply, we need neighborhoods where biking and walking are safe and easy.
At the event we stood up in front of the nearly 400 participants to describe the challenge we face in building more compact communities connected by a dense network of bikeways and sidewalks. According to the Alliance for Biking and Walking, only 1.2% of all federal transportation dollars are spent on sidewalks and bikeways.
In Oregon the situation is even worse. Only 1% of all state highway trust fund money is required to be spent on bicycle infrastructure. It is time for change.
We followed up our presentation with small group discussions on the detailed policy changes that can help solve our current predicament. By working with legislative leaders from across Oregon, our coalition will continue to push for legislation to fund planning and construction of livable neighborhoods.
Check out photos from the event here.
