Friday, January 22, 2016
Another anti bicycle bill
Tennessee legislature is back in session. A bill has been introduced to prohibit gas tax money from being used for any bicycle or pedestrian infrastructure. Bike Walk Tennessee is trying to get this killed in committee. Representative Terri Lynn Weaver is a very crucial member representing the 40th TN congressional district. She is Chair of the Transportation subcommittee. This will come up for a vote next Wednesday. If any of you know her or even reside in her district, please post or email me at bruceeday at gmail dot com. Politicians pay much more attention to their constituents.
The bill
40th district map
Thanks,
Bruce
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7 comments:
Well, the map is a bit hard to read but it looks like I live in the 40th district so I will respond to her and I will put this on my Facebook in hopes of catching some local friends.
Rep. Courtney Rogers, who's district includes a large portion of Hendersonville and Sumner County, is a co-sponser of this bill. Please contact Mrs. Rogers (rep.courtney.rogers@capitol.tn.gov) to let her know how you feel about this bill. If enough of her constituents voice their opposition, perhaps she will withdraw her support.
Thanks guys.
I did not want to make the original post too long so did not include some of the problems. Gasoline tax pays for only a part of road funding. If one could actually figure out how much of the cost of a bike/ped facility was paid for by gas tax it would affect bike/ped funding very little. The real problem is that this might curtail bike/ped projects simply because that would be the easiest way to comply with the law. The overhead cost of bike/ped projects relative to their actual construction cost is already an impediment to their implementation.
I suspect this is a bill introduced as a favor to one or two people so hopefully only a few dissenters will be enough to squash it.
Thank you again.
Bruce
Update: TDOT had a scathing review of this bill and how much it would cost TN in Federal funding. This should kill the bill but crazier (in my opinion) things have passed the TN legislature. http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/109/Fiscal/HB1650.pdf
I sent an email to Representatives Rogers and Kumar. I heard back from Kumar and was encouraged by his response. " I favor your position and will try to help." The fact that White House is located in both Sumer and Robertson counties I felt I needed to engage both representatives. I hope we get an update on the status of this bil.
Brian,
Thanks for getting involved. Your support helps now and down the road.
The Transportation Committee has postponed consideration of the bill till February 10. The potential adverse affect on facilities for persons with disabilities has caused a lot of chatter among those advocacy groups. I'll post updates here as they come about.
Bruce
A big thanks to Rep Weaver for her reply. My two reps have not done so yet.
Bruce
Hello Mr. Day,
The bill is rolled for the second time for I believe the sponsor of the bill and the Department of Transportation is in discussion of the bill. Thanks for your email and insight which is a valid argument and to which I take into consideration. Not sure what they will come up before it comes to my committee but I can assure you it will be highly debated or not considered at all.
Thanks again
Blessings
Terri Lynn Weaver
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