Dellphinus

League of American Bicyclists * Petition -- We have the right to be on the road on federal lands!

Sign the Right to the Road Petition (11.10.11) The draft of the Senate’s transportation authorization bill, S. 1813 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, includes a mandatory sidepath law for roads on Federal land that would force cyclists off certain roads and onto trails and paths, regardless of their condition or utility. Tell your Senators that bicyclists have the right to be on the road on federal lands.
Sign the petition!

B. Carfree

I just sent a message to my Senator (Jeff Merkley), who happens to be one of the 18 votes in favor of this horrific bill from the Environment and Public Works committee. I let him know that he will lose several campaign volunteers in three years if this bill passes with the sidepath clause intact. I feel doubly betrayed since I also worked on Sen. Boxer's first two campaigns for the Senate and she chairs the committee.

With friends like these...

DEK

Signed!

Dellphinus

Cmon folks- everyone is potentially affected by this. Please sign, and spread the word...

Wogster

I think the issue is that they want to force bicycles onto sidepaths, by law, rather then doing what is done in other places, and that is to make the sidepath the preferred riding place. Which is actually easier then fat old politicians who haven't been on a bicycle since Nixon think it is.

Make the sidepath wide, you need two lanes 3½' wide minimum with a line between you need proper passing signage, it needs to be maintained to a higher standard then the road, and it needs to be kept clear of snow, water, debris at all times. It should be fenced off from dog and child play areas, during maintenance you need to have proper detours. Forcing all cyclists onto a broken up, muddy trail that is under snow or water for half the year, isn't acceptable.

John_V 

They got my against vote plus my nasty comment.

rydabent

I sent in my vote with a comment that the proposed law probably is unconstitutional since a bicycle is a legal vehicle.

Mobile 155

Is there a posted site with the proposed law so we can view it? I know we don't have some of the weather considerations as some but some of our bike trails are pretty nice here and if they are required to put in seperate bike trails or paths it might not be so bad. We are already restricted from most interstate freeways already and bike trail running next to them would be nice.

qcpmsame 

Signed the petition. I will encourage others to do the same.

Bill

xizangstan

Mobile - I thought that was one thing Obama promised, when he was soliciting votes to get elected. He promised transparency and posting proposed legislation on the Internet for at least 10 days for all to see. Now, you can't find a copy of the bill, to review? Seems to me somebody's forgotten there's another election cycle coming around.

BluesDawg

https://epw.senate.gov/public/index.c...7-c9f4ff22484f

All 600 pages of it. The offending paragraph from page 226...

"(d) BICYCLE SAFETY.—The Secretary of the appropriate Federal land management agency shall prohibit the use of bicycles on each federally owned road that has a speed limit of 30 miles per hour or greater and an adjacent paved path for use by bicycles within 100 yards of the road."

Looigi

I'm against the restriction just on general principle, but especially if there are no criteria for the alternative path. That path must be wide enough, smooth enough, and straight enough, and be free of pedestrians and other impediments to expeditious road riding.

teachme

signed!

Peter_C

To the OP? Please post this on BROL as well? I do not wish to 'steal your thunder' - but think it needs to go up there as well?

Cassave

Signed.

Dellphinus

Please steal all the thunder you want, and repost wherever you think there might be a signature!
And I have no idea what BROL is...

Again, everyone, repost!

Peter_C

OK BROL = BentRiders Online - another forum, mostly about recumbents, etc... will repost as you have the original...

VertigoFlyer

Signed - No political bullchit in my post....;-)

batcat

Signed gladly, but with alarm. Another skirmish in the ongoing battle to discriminate against bikes.

baj32161

I hate to be a killjoy here, but, internet petitions have no validity at all. You need a LEGAL signature for a petition to be valid. I am all for this action, but you would get far greater results by actually writing your congressman or senator. If this petition even gets looked at, it will be a miracle. Please don't flame me but this could end up being a colossal waste of time and energy. If we think our elected representatives don't give a shyte about us now, they certainly won't care if we don't take the effort to express our displeasure in REAL and tangible ways.

Cheers,

Brian J.

B. Carfree

You're right, at least as far as my experience goes. I sent my Senator an email yesterday and will follow up with a phone call tomorrow if he (actually a staffer) hasn't replied by then. My wife will also send him one and I expect several relatives/friends and associates to do the same. Mine is a small state, so the loss of even a few campaign workers is a very real concern.

I wish we could stop fighting battles we won a long time ago so we could use our time/energy to move forward. We need some better means of killing zombie ideas.

BluesDawg

While you are technically correct, bear in mind that this petition is but one part of a campaign by the premier bicycling advocacy organization in the US. Right now, their efforts are focused on the committee drafting this bill. I expect that at the right time, they will launch a full scale effort to have people contact their elected officials about this as they have had success doing on several other issues in the past.
"The League is working on many other aspects of the transportation reauthorization bill. This petition relates specifically to the mandatory sidepath law, which we felt deserved special attention. Stay tuned for news and action alerts related to this and other aspects of this critical legislation."
In the past they have provided links to sites that will determine your particular senators/representatives and send customizable messages to them or provide mail addresses and phone numbers to assist you in contacting them personally.

edit - In fact, this post by Bike League President, Andy Clark, does encourage such action and provides a link to help.
https://blog.bikeleague.org/blog/2011...nd-onto-paths/

DnvrFox

Even with a "Legal signature" (whatever that is), a petition has no special validity. It is simply a means of showing support of - hopefully - a large number of people for an idea Nothing more, nothing less. And, yes, it is better to contact a legislator personally - but that is something that. few folks will actually do, while they may sign a petition.

I currently have a petition I started with over 12,000 signatures. The major benefit has been the comments that we have collected and used. These are very effective. This has been presented to congress and the President, among others.

https://www.gopetition.com/petitions/...ignatures.html

Also, the voluntarily supplied email addresses can be used to advantage in furthering the cause.

oilman_15106

I am going to be killjoy #2. Note: I have not read the entire bill. Just how many "Federally owned" paved road miles are there? If a highway runs through federal grounds it usually is state owned. So unless there is a paved MUP adjacent the road you do not have an issue. Most of the roads on federal land in the West are dirt roads. The only place I have been where this might apply is Grand Canyon NP but I think the speed limit is 25mph. Not that I am overjoyed with my legislators any more than you'all, I think we might get some more facts about the impact before we pile up the fire wood for a burning at the stake.

seenoweevil

Signed.