Active Transportation for America: A Case for Increased Federal Investment in Bicycling and Walking

In its report “Transportation for Tomorrow,” the National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission called for a “renewed commitment to serving the American people’s need for a system that ensures unparalleled mobility, access, and safety.” But the Commission tried to construct the puzzle for achieving this worthy goal with critical pieces missing.

Bicycling and walking were overlooked in the otherwise exhaustive report despite their importance to any comprehensive transportation policy that addresses traffic congestion, relief from high gas prices, and the growing challenges of climate change, expanding waistlines and shrinking budgets.

Relatively small investments in bicycling and walking help to address all these transportation related problems. By making bicycling and walking—or “active transportation”—viable options for everyday travel, we can cost-effectively improve our mobility, protect our climate, enhance energy security and improve public health. Active transportation requires no technological breakthroughs— just federal investment at levels befitting its potential contribution to America’s well-being.

That potential is surprisingly substantial. This report broadly quantifies, for the first time, the benefits America can expect if bicycling and walking play more significant roles in our transportation system. It concludes that increases in federal investments to improve the convenience and safety of active transportation represent a highly cost-efficient use of public funds, producing a wide variety of benefits for all Americans.

There could not be a more a critical time for such a shift in federal transportation funding. For the past half-century, America has spent the overwhelming majority of its transportation resources building an extensive road system to facilitate travel by automobile. ...

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To download a PDF of this report, go to www.railstotrails.org/atfa.

Rails-to-Trails Conservancy
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CONCLUSION
Active transportation is unique in its promise to offer numerous benefits, without any of the trade-off’s that so often come with other transportation policies. This report has made the case that bicycling and walking could and should play a far more prominent role in America’s transportation system, and that federal investment in bicycling and walking infrastructure is a cost-effective means to help meet the mobility needs of more Americans. Offering a balanced set of ways to get around better fulfills our nation’s transportation mission.

Mission Statement of the U.S. Department of Transportation
“Serve the United States by ensuring a fast, safe, efficient, accessible and convenient transportation system that meets our vital national interests and enhances the quality of life of the American people, today and into the future”

The resulting fuel savings from shifting just some of the shortest car trips to bicycling and walking would result in cost savings far larger than the upfront costs of infrastructure investments. In anticipation of expensive changes in our energy supply system and the challenges of reducing CO2 emissions, active transportation offers a welcome contribution to greenhouse gas reductions at a net cost savings.

On a human scale, the health benefits from increased investments in safe and convenient infrastructure for bicycling and walking may very well turn out to be the most valuable “side-effect” of shifting our transportation policies. By accommodating bicycling and walking, federal transportation policy can help reverse the devastating trends in obesity that were aggravated by development patterns tailored to the automobile. ...

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