The Eastern Trail Alliance, a New England based trail group responsible for developing a trail from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to South Portland, Maine, is the latest group to sign on in support of the VBF”s Rails-With-Trails petition. This petition asks that trails be included whenever tax dollars are used to upgrade or enhance rail corridors.
“History is on our side,” said John Andrews, President of the Alliance and former president of Saco Trails, “With more rails with trails, hundreds of lives can be saved, community health can be improved… Fuel can be saved… America can be an even more wonderful place to live, work and play.”
The Eastern Trail is being built along the old Eastern Railroad Corridor, the first railroad to connect Boston, Massachusetts to Portland, Maine, operating from 1842 until 1944. Since then, the corridor has been used by utility companies for natural gas and electricity transmission.
The Eastern Trail is also the Southern Maine section of the East Coast Greenway, a proposed network of trails to connect Calais, Maine with Key West, Florida.
In response to the new bike lanes in front of the White House, AM talk radio loudmouth Tony Kornheiser went on a rant against cyclists, encouraging people to “run them down.” This went largely unnoticed (AM talk radio is pretty marginal anyway), but it made its way to Lance Armstrong and Bob Roll — who took offense, and have spoken out.
Now that Eric Gilliland has left to head NACTO, the Washington Area Bicyclist Association is seeking a new executive director. Details are on WABA’s jobs page. Let’s help them find a real sparkplug!
“This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”
That’s what Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood tweeted in reference to a new federal bike and pedestrian policy, which promises to, “Treat walking and bicycling as equals with other transportation modes.”
This is a big announcement. We encourage you to see the accompanying article at Mr. LaHood’s own blog, with more video, and links to more coverage.
Biking and walking have long been shortchanged by both federal and state governments. As the Alliance points out in their 2010 Benchmarking Report:
Ten percent of trips are by bicycle or foot, yet bicyclists and pedestrians make up over 13% of traffic fatalities and receive just 1.2% of federal transportation dollars.
So this new federal policy is a welcome change. Let’s think about moving people, not just cars.
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