Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017 - 24

BICYCLE FRIENDLY BUSINESS

NEW SAFETY GRANT MONEY
FLOWS TO STATES THANKS
TO LEAGUE ADVOCACY
KEN MCLEOD

ver the last several federal transportation funding bills,
the League noticed a troubling trend - it was becoming
harder for states to access funding for non-infrastructure
safety programming. In 2005, there were three federal funding programs that could be used for "non-infrastructure" programs. Then in 2012, it became two. And as the process for last
year's FAST Act began it was becoming apparent that it would
soon be one.
"Non-infrastructure" continues the rich cycling tradition
of naming things in contrast to other technologies, "clipless"
pedals, "tubeless" tires, and "threadless" stems. In this case,
"non-infrastructure" means everything that is not concrete,
paint and other improvements that require construction crews.
For bicycle safety programming "non-infrastructure" most often means in-person education, law enforcement training and
targeted enforcement actions and paper or digital educational
materials.
"Non-infrastructure" programming is a core part of what the
League of American Bicyclists believes in. It is why we have
a League Cycling Instructor program and created a comprehensive Bicycle Friendly America program based on the 5 E's
(engineering, education, encouragement, enforcement and
evaluation and planning). We also knew that this funding is
often critical for state and local advocacy organizations that are
contracted by local governments for bicycle safety programming and educational material development. Given that the
threat of "non-infrastructure" funding would continue to diminish and be harder to access, our lobbyist, Caron Whitaker,
got to work to preserve and expand non-infrastructure funding.
In 2015, the National Bike Summit laid the groundwork for
comprehensive safety programming when over 500 attendees
met with their representatives on Capitol Hill to promote a
Vision Zero grant program. This effort was complemented by
consistent pressure on legislators and agency staff to create
safety performance measures for reducing bicyclist and pedes-

24 BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA

trian fatalities in each state. With the help of League members,
Summit attendees, and state and local advocacy organizations,
we had made it clear that bicyclist and pedestrian safety was an
issue deserving of federal attention.
Drawing upon a multi-year effort to make bicyclist and
pedestrian safety a national issue, Caron could work with
members of the House of Representatives Transportation
Committee to ensure that there was funding available to address bicyclist and pedestrian safety. Representative Peter

405(h) safety grants can be used to fund safety videos like these produced
by the New York Bicycling Coalition.

http://www.bikeleague.org/sites/default/files/FAST_fact_sheet.pdf http://www.bikeleague.org/content/become-instructor http://www.bikeleague.org/bfa http://www.bikeleague.org/content/5-es http://www.visionzeronetwork.org/

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Fall 2017