ACTION ALERT

For over two years, LACBC has worked alongside the Safe Routes to School National Partnership to call attention to the critical lack of funding for walking and biking in Los Angeles County. Despite pedestrians and bicyclists making up 19% of all trips and 39% of roadway fatalities in LA County, less than 1% of transportation funding is spent on these two modes. On July 16th, Metro’s Planning and Programming Committee will consider adopting a 10-year Short Range Transportation Plan that again gives short shrift to walking and biking.

 TWO WAYS TO PARTICIPATE and SUPPORT:

Join us July 16th at Metro:

We’re mobilizing our countywide coalition to turn out to a Metro committee meeting next Wednesday (we meet at 2:15 pm to coordinate). Please join us on July 16th to show your support for increasing funding for walking and biking.  Metro Board Room: Planning and Programming Committee considering $88B plan with only 0.6% for walk/bike

Where:    Metro HQ, Metro Board Room, One Gateway Plaza, 3rd floor
Day:         Wednesday, July 16th
Time:       2:15 pm to coordinate* –  You do not have to speak. Easy access from Santa Monica on the #10 Big Blue Bus. * we’ll notify those who rsvp of any time adjustment

Please RSVP Eric at LACBC. (email eric@la-bike.org) 

Social Media Participation!

There is also an opportunity to use social media to express your support.  Using the hashtag #metrofundwalkbike. Please join the conversation online by posting to Twitter and Facebook:

• Answering the question: “Why should #metrofundwalkbike?”
• Add pictures!! Write your answer on a piece of paper – (green if possible) and share the picture in tweets and on Facebook. Get your friends and family to do it too!
• For social media tag our local Metro Board Members, Westside is Pam O’Connorr @PamOConnorMetro, Zev Yaroslavsky @ZevYaroslavsky and Mike Bonin @mikebonin and @metrolosangeles
• Not on Twitter or Facebook? – comment on this post or email us your comment and/or picture – We’ll post it!

Together we can get the funding we need to make LA County walkable and bikeable, but we need the whole choir singing. This week it gets real. Please help get the word out to your networks so we can get diverse turnout next Wednesday and a full representation online.

Metro’s reluctance to plan for and invest in active transportation stands in the way of our region meeting its mobility, environmental and public health goals. In Metro’s view, walking and biking are the purview of individual cities and not a regional transportation priority. As a result, Metro has a fragmented approach to walking and biking that does not ensure that all of the parts add up to a region that is in fact multimodal, safe and serves the needs of all travelers and all trips. (JM, SRTSNP)

Metro’s staff report  addressing  these concerns dismissed the value of walking and bicycling as “regionally significant” modes of transportation and continues to discount the importance of non-commute trips. For more info and additional links, please see full post at SRTS National Partnership