National Poll: 83% of Americans Support Maintaining or Growing Federal Funding for Sidewalks and Bikeways
Last week America Bikes, a national coalition of advocates working to promote bicycling and walking at the national level, released the results of a survey conducted in March this year. The survey revealed the following:
While I was thrilled to see the public support, I was curious on the specifics of how the survey was conducted. I contacted America Bikes’ Communication Coordinator, Mary Lauran Hall, to ask a few questions. For example, the survey size of 1,003 struck me as rather small sample size. I was also curious about the return rate of the survey as well as the margin of error.
Hall responded promptly stating that the survey was conducted via phone, by Princeton Survey Research Associates, an independent research firm, and thus there was no survey return rate to measure. Hall stated that the sample size was reflective of the demographics of the U.S. as a whole. She also stated that the margin of error for the survey was +/- 3.6 percentage points and pointed me to the white paper (pdf) which laid out the details of the survey.
The white paper was revealing in both how little the survey respondents knew of how much of our transportation dollars supported projects to increase walking and bicycling mode share, as well as how much the public was willing to increase support upon learning about the pitiful investments made to support bicycling and walking,
Participants were first asked to estimate what percentage of federal transportation funding is currently spent on sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike paths. Participants were then were asked to say what percentage of transportation funds should be spent on biking and walking infrastructure.
Respondents then learned that less than 2 percent of transportation funding goes to sidewalks, bike lanes, and bike paths; 17 percent is used for public transportation; and 80 percent is used for roads and highways. Respondents were asked if the percentage that goes to biking and walking should increase, decrease, or stay about the same.
The results showed that 83 percent of respondents support maintaining or growing federal funding for sidewalks, bikeways, and bike paths.
From a fiscally conservative standpoint, investing dollars to build infrastructure that encourages more people to travel in modes besides the automobile can pay off in a significant manner. It just remains to be seen how many of our elected representatives at both the national and local level are willing to recognize that fact and become champions to transform our cities that are easy to get around by bicycle as they are by car.
On the heels of America Bikes’ survey results, comes an action alert from The League of American Bicyclists to ask our congressional representatives to support federal funding for bicycling and walking.
Senators and Representatives are meeting now to create a final transportation bill, and we need your help to protect the funds that the Senate designated for local biking and walking programs.
We are working to preserve the Cardin-Cochran agreement. This agreement was part of the Senate bill passed two months ago with bipartisan support. It allows local governments and school systems to access much-needed funds to make bicycling and walking safer and more accessible, in response to local needs. The agreement does not increase the overall size of the transportation bill, it simply maintains a funding stream that local governments have used for over 20 years to provide their citizens with a variety of safe transportation options.
After speaking face to face with our elected leaders both locally and nationally, these action alerts actually do provoke our representatives to act. So while armchair advocacy doesn’t seem like it accomplishes much, be assured that it does.