Ride IllinoisRide Illinois
March 16, 2016

Ride Illinois at the National Bike Summit

For 15 years, Ride Illinois has attended the National Bike Summit and led Illinois’ delegation of advocates on Lobby Day where we ask our Senators and Representatives to speak up for bicycling. Our small, but mighty group of eight visited the offices of two Senators and ten Representatives on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, March 9th, and had the opportunity to share our goals on a number of issues.

First, we thanked our Senators and Representatives for their recent support in passing the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST) this past December. The FAST Act is the first long-term transportation bill approved by Congress in over a decade, and includes 5 years of dedicated funding for biking and walking projects – a significant win for bicycling in America! The FAST Act is the number one source of federal funding for local bike projects and will provide at least $835 million annually. Roughly $30 million of that total will be received by Illinois every year.

The FAST ACT also changed the availability of funds for safety education and enforcement programs. With the new National Safety Priority Program, Congress allotted approximately $14 million annually for states where bicycling and pedestrian fatalities make up 15% or more of all traffic fatalities. Illinois is one of 20 such states this year, making us eligible for $700,000 or more for programs that support:

  • public education and awareness programs for motorists, pedestrians, and bicyclists on relevant state laws;
  • training of law enforcement officials on bike/ped safety laws;
  • and enforcement campaigns on bike/ped safety laws.

On Lobby Day, we informed our Senators and Representatives of the importance of this new program and asked them to help us encourage the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) to apply for these funds by the July 1st deadline. Ride Illinois has urged IDOT to take advantage of this funding opportunity and has offered ideas on how we could partner to deliver safety education programs with our resources and tools such as BikeSafetyQuiz.com.

Lastly, we asked our Representatives to co-sponsor a new bill called the Personal Health Investment Today (PHIT) Act designed to promote health through physical activity. This bill would allow Americans to use pretax dollars in health savings accounts (HSAs) and flexible spending accounts (FSAs) to pay for items such as bicycles, bike education classes, ride fees, gym memberships, fitness equipment, and more. The PHIT Act would allow individuals to set aside up to $1,000 and families up to $2,000 per year. Just imagine being able to purchase your child’s bike or pay for rides like our GITAP Bike Tour with pretax dollars!

The PHIT Act already has great bipartisan support in the Senate and growing support in the House. Learn more about the PHIT Act and ask your U.S. Representative to co-sponsor the bill.

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Our Illinois Delegation pictured above (from left to right): Bill Chalberg, Downers Grove Bicycle Club Board Member; Tania Sebastian, Ride Illinois Chief Operations Officer; Michael Gorman, Bike BloNo Board Member; Ed Barsotti, Ride Illinois Chief Programs Officer; Elizabeth Adamczyk, Women Bike Chicago Chair; Cynthia Hoyle, Alta Planning + Design;  Richard Bascomb, Village of Schaumburg Transporation Manager; Jeff Yockey, Champaign County Bikes Executive Director.