Economic Impact Survey for Seminole County Trails
A message from the East Central Florida Regional Planning Council:
The East Central Florida Regional Planning Council is conducting a survey to determine the economic impact of trails in Seminole County from now until November 19th. This includes face to face surveys at trail heads and along sections of the Flagler Trail, Cross Seminole Trail, Seminole Wekiva Trail and the Sanford Riverwalk. You may also take the survey on line using this link:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SeminoleTrailUserSurvey
Anyone interested in volunteering with survey assistance should contact Tara McCue at tara@ecfrpc.org or 407.262.7772.
Funding for this project is provided by Seminole County, the Florida Office of Greenways and Trails, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation
Thank you for your support!
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at 407.262.7772.
Gina Marchica
GIS Specialist
gmarchica@ecfrpc.org
East Central Florida Regional Planning Council
309 Cranes Roost Blvd. Suite 2000
Altamonte Springs, Fl 32701
407.262.7772 (phone)
407.262.7788 (fax)
www.ecfrpc.org
We Did It! Transportation Bill Preserved!
We’ve won – for now! Thank you to everyone that was able to send e-mails and make phone calls on behalf of keeping Transportation Enhancements and the Safe Routes to School programs intact in the extension of the transportation bill. You did make a difference – please see the letter below from “America Bikes” that summarizes what we accomplished, and what we need to do next. However, as detailed below, we’ve just won the initial battle – we will still need to stay on this over the next six months until the extension expires – we’ll keep you posted (but we will try to keep the e-mails to a minimum).
On behalf of FBA and all our partners – thanks again!
Regards,
Tim Bustos
Letter from America Bikes:
Thank you for all your help over the last week beating back the Coburn Amendment. Together the bicycling community generated over 50,000 emails into the Senate – as well as hundreds, maybe even thousands, of calls. We reached every single Senator and created a buzz in the halls of Congress. I heard from several Senate offices stating their support for the clean extension and for Transportation Enhancements. It was clear that, had Senator Coburn offered his amendment on the floor, it would have lost overwhelmingly.
You may read in the news today that Senator Coburn dropped his amendment because he got a promise from Senator Boxer to make Transportation Enhancements optional in the two year bill. I’ve gotten several emails today asking if we won the battle but lost the war. No we haven’t. We have not lost any policy ground- although we may be losing the messaging battle.
Please remember Senator Coburn is the same person who says TE is 10% of Surface Transportation Funds, and suggests that TE funds go mainly to the ‘beautification’ and ‘museum’ uses of Transportation Enhancements. Just because he says there will be an ‘opt-out’ provision for TE in the long term bill doesn’t make it so.
Senator Boxer, Chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee charged with drafting the Transportation bill, has stated that “there is no opt out option” and that there will be dedicated funding. She has stated there will be reforms to the bill, including to the programs that provide dedicated funding for biking and walking. There may not even be a program called ‘Transportation Enhancements’ in the new bill- but she has promised there will be dedicated funding.
She also said that if its controversial there should be a vote. We should consider ourselves on notice that we will need to defend dedicated funding for biking and walking in six months when this extension expires. And we will need to be able to get 60 votes in order to overcome a filibuster. The push we did this week helps in building that support but we will need to continue building relationships in order to bring swing Senators to our side. The Bike Summit will be critical in this fight.
Over the next week or so we will be thanking our Senate Champions- Senators Boxer, Reid, Durbin, Schumer for their leadership in the transportation deal with the House, and many many more who were lined up ready to speak on our behalf had the Senate debated the issue- and we’ll send an update to the partners in DC.
We also want to thank you and promoting the alerts and in the media- and thank all the individuals who called and emailed. This outreach helped keep Senate leadership strong in defending TE, and helped us educate all Senators. This will help in the next fight.
If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at 202-215-3908<tel:202-215-3908> or via email caron@americabikes.org<http://caron@americabikes.org>
Sincerely,
CaronCaron Whitaker
Campaign Director
America Bikes
1612 K Street, NW Suite 802
Washington, DC 20036
(ph)202-215-3908
(f) 202-223-3181
(e) caron@americabikes.org
When America Bikes, America Benefits
Action Alert: Critical Funding at Stake
A message from FBA Executive Director Tim Bustos:
“We have been working on this for awhile now, but the fight isn’t over yet. I’ve gone on the congressional record on behalf of FBA, we’ve written letters, and we’ve had meetings with our members in congress. However, the final vote could happen in a matter of days. People that don’t ride bikes, and know nothing about the valuable contributions cyclist contribute to society, could vote to take away as much as 700 million in critical funding for bicycle projects. They also fail to realize that Florida is one of the most dangerous places in America to walk or ride a bike, so we can’t let this happen. Please circulate the information below to your contacts, your bike club members, and anyone else you know that can contribute to this effort.”
From the League of American Bicyclists:
We expect that in the next few days, Senator Coburn (R-OK) will ask Congress to eliminate the federal Transportation Enhancements program – the primary funding source for the past 20 years for bike lanes, trails, bike racks on buses, bike education etc. This isn’t safe or smart; it’s not good for the economy or the environment; this is bad health policy and bad transportation policy. But they are going to try because they don’t think bicycling matters.This year, around $700 million of Federal transportation funds, which in reality is less than 2 percent of total transportation dollars, will be spent on bicycling and walking. In 2012 that figure might be a big fat zero.
Even though bicycling projects create more jobs per dollar than highway-only projects and cutting enhancements won’t impact the deficit – the money just won’t be spent on bicycling – some Members of Congress want to force us backwards to a 1950s highway-only mindset: as if oil embargoes, congestion, smog, the obesity epidemic and climate change never happened.
Now is the time to Save Cycling, so we are asking you to contact your Senators and urge them to support continued funding for biking and walking. Don’t let them take away this vital investment program for smart, sustainable, safe transportation choices.
Please Take Action today.
Thank You.
Go HERE for LAB “I BIKE I VOTE” Blog post and direct link to TAKE ACTION
FBA in the News
The Daytona Beach News-Journal recently printed an article on our very own Tim Bustos – read all about it here!