What to Tell the State Senate About Bike Transportation

This fall citizens who care about transportation have 10 opportunities around the state to tell the state senate what priorities will move our state forward when a transportation revenue package is adopted. In Bellevue, Everett, Wenatchee, Yakima, Tri-Cities, Spokane, Vancouver, Tacoma, Seattle, and Bellingham from Sept. 17-Oct. 15, you need to speak up for smart, healthy, cost-effective transportation networks that mean safety and jobs for all of us.

You can also submit comments at www.senatetranspofeedbackforum.org. You’ll need to enter Biking/Walking in the “Other” field where they ask for your primary transportation concern. (Perhaps your first concern is that it’s an “Other” instead of being on the list!)

If you have your own story about what it means to invest in biking, like the story Stella’s mom told about biking to school in Kirkland or the support from Vancouver to Anacortes for local trail projects or Frank’s success as a teacher getting kids on bikes in Tukwila, tell the legislature. Additional points you can share with the Senate, your own legislators (look them up online and send an email), and Gov. Inslee:

• Washington only works when all people who bike, walk, take transit, and drive have an equal opportunity to get where we need to go safely and efficiently. We need future-oriented transportation investments that represent our values and share our priorities for safety, jobs, and health.
• Cost-effective investments in biking and walking transportation are good for drivers too; they increase safety for all while they keep people moving and reduce pollution from Washington’s roadways.
• Safe, comfortable, complete bike networks attract businesses, a talented workforce, tourists, and home buyers to help grow Washington’s economy.
• Bikes mean jobs: Biking and walking investments create 40% more jobs per dollar spent than for other transportation projects.
• Many people can’t or shouldn’t drive—the young, the old, people with disabilities and issues that prevent them from driving, people who can’t afford to own and operate a car. They still need to get to work, to school, to the doctor and the grocery store. Washington needs a transportation system that creates transportation independence and choice for all, not just for some.
• Investments in Safe Routes to School to help kids walk and bike have improved safety with zero collisions or injuries at all Safe Routes project sites, and have helped our kids get more active and arrive at school ready to learn. We need to keep this up to make the next generation healthier.
• In Washington driving user fees (gas taxes, licenses, tolls) fund less than half the cost of our streets and roads. We all pay for streets—we should all be able to move freely and safely.
• The only acceptable transportation revenue proposal is one that includes biking/walking investments and fixes our transportation crises: Fix our crumbling roads and bridges, make our streets safer and cleaner for everyone, keep our buses moving, and finish the job of creating a system with real connections for everyone.

When the legislature comes to your town, show up to show them you care. Speak up to tell them your story. Stand up for biking and walking, for fixing our roads, for investing in the transportation system of the future. It takes every one of us to make sure Washington bikes.

• Download this PDF & print in color to have flyers to hand out and hold up at the sessions to show that Washington Bikes! 
• Larger Washington Bikes Sign PDF 8-1/2×11