When the Town of Blacksburg began planning a major reconstruction of Main St. through downtown, local cyclists saw something lacking — bike lanes, or consideration for cyclists.

So, independent of any bike club or other organization, two local cyclists started circulating a petition to get the Town to revisit the issue. With over 1000 signatures collected, the Town is now considering a new bike-ped plan, and creating designated bike routes through downtown.

Today’s Roanoke Times is covering this great example of how cyclists can make a difference, just by speaking up.

Blue Ridge Parkway 75 Inc. will be holding a series of meetings and public input sessions to help plan the Parkway’s 75th Anniversary. Spotlight your community or promote your 2010 event by making it part of the Anniversary festivities. The meeting dates are:

• Mon, Feb 23: Hampton Inn Waynesboro/Stuarts Draft, 15 Four Square Lane Exit 91 off I-64, Waynesboro
• Tues, Feb 24: Holiday Inn Valley View,
  3315 Ordway Drive Exit 143 off I-81 to Exit 3W, Roanoke
• Wed, Mar 4: Crossroads Institute, 1117 East Stuart Drive Exit 14 off I-77, Galax

Click here to download the meeting invitation. (PDF)

From the invitation:

“The Parkway’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1985 spurred a multi-year increase in media coverage of the area and brought millions of new visitors to the Parkway region, resulting in impressive economic impacts. As we approach and make plans for the 75th Anniversary, the opportunities for a similar result are equally favorable.”

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a world-class touring and day-ride destination for bicyclists from all over the world. Bicycling on the Parkway is important to Virginia’s economy, and a key recreational resource for Virginians. Let’s highlight this by getting some bicycling events into these festivities!

from Brent Hugh, via the Thunderhead listserv

The House Rules Committee has released the conference report–what
may be the final version of the stimulus bill.

It looks like:

• Enhancements gets 3% of highway funds (less than the 4.5% allotted in the House but above the 0% allotted by the Senate)
• Metro areas get 30% of total highway money (less than the 45% allotted by the House)
• $27.5 billion for highways (see Part 1, p. 231)
• $1.5 billion for surface transportation (discretionary grants; may be for highways or transit; see Part 1, p. 226)
• $8.4 billion for transit
• $8 billion for high-speed rail (up from both House & Senate originals, it appears)
• $1.3 billion for Amtrak

Commuter transit employee fringe benefit increased from $110/month to $200/month putting the transit benefit on par with that currently
allowed for parking (Part 2, page 69; this amends 26 USC Section 132(f))

The bill is available as two very large PDFs:

• Part 1: http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/hr1_legtext_cr.pdf
• Part 2: http://www.rules.house.gov/111/LegText/hr1_legtext_crb.pdf

My analysis: http://mobikefed.org/2009/02/economic-stimulus-enhancements-gets-3.php

Update from Transportation for America: http://t4america.org/blog/archives/668

VBF would like to thank Brent Hugh of the Missouri Bicycle Federation for his timely analysis.

In the words of William Mullholland, “There it is. Take it.” VBF urges all Virginia bicyclists and bike-ped professionals to submit their ideas for the stimulus to http://stimulus.virginia.gov

As we reported earlier, the Commonwealth of Virginia has put up a website to collect your input on how to spend the Stimulus money:

http://stimulus.virginia.gov

We urge everyone to push for bike-ped projects — to promote exercise and healthy lifestyles for our citizens, and sustainable transportation options; to reduce our dependence in foreign oil, and reduce air pollution; and to generate jobs and grow our economy, by promoting tourism in the Commonwealth.

Both individual residents and local governments can submit their ideas and projects. We hope our local governments have already been working hard on this. But now might be a good time to check in on them, and maybe give them a little push!

Please submit your ideas, for bike trails or paths, or bike-friendly road improvements.