Save Biking & Walking this Bike To Work Day

I received this announcement from Randy Van Vleck, the Active Transportation Manager at the City Heights Community Development Corporation:

This Bike To Work Day, please consider stopping by the City Heights Transit Plaza on University Ave (on top of the SR-15 freeway) this Friday, May 18 from 6am to 10am. We’ll be partnering with Transportation For America to host a call-in station with pre-paid phones for bike commuters, walkers, transit riders, and residents to call Senator Barbara Boxer to encourage her to stand strong in order to protect walking, biking, and transit funding as the Senate and the House come together to shape a new federal Transportation Bill.

The House and Senate bills are vastly different. In February we teamed up w/ the community to organize the biggest rally/press conference in the region that sought to encourage our Senate to restore walking, biking, and transit funding to the Senate version of the Transportation Bill. Together, we were successful in restoring that funding!

However, the House version of the bill has stripped funding for active transportation and transit, which prompted experts like Dr. Jim Sallis to describe the House bill as ‘pro-obesity.’

In order to improve public health and to create Complete Streets that are safe for all people, not just one group, we will need to keep the pressure on as the Senate and House come together to shape a new bill. If we don’t, walking, biking, and transit-dependent communities — like City Heights — that need funding to make those modes safer, will be negatively impacted the most.

Join us this Friday at our pit stop for the call-in and to pick-up tons of free Bike To Work Day snacks, refreshments, and accessories.

P.S. The bathrooms at the kiosk, which haven’t been open to the public in years, will be open and operating.

P.S.S. MTS is offering free rides home on transit for folks with bikes.