(This is an archived action alert from May 2005.)

CAMPO is the government board that funds major transportation projects in Austin and surrounding counties. In 2004 the CAMPO staff recommended that sidewalks and bicycle facilities (e.g., bike lanes, wide outside curb lanes) be included in road construction projects whenever that would add only 20% or less in costs. This proposed policy was very similar to a policy from the Federal Highway Administration and a policy which the City of Austin has adopted. It would dramatically improve the process for developing a bikeway system and for connecting sidewalks throughout the region.

But in March, the CAMPO Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Travis County staff offered amendments which would virtually eliminate the requirements for building sidewalks and bicycle facilities. The amendments would allow the jurisdiction responsible for each project to determine, based upon no criteria at all, whether sidewalks and bicycle facilities would be too costly to build. These amendments would allow all jurisdictions, including TxDOT, to continue building streets and highways the same way they have in the past, usually without bikeways and sometimes without any safe routes for bicyclists or pedestrians at all.

Your action could help to determine whether CAMPO adopts the strong policy or the weakened policies from the TAC and Travis County staff. If the strong policy is adopted we could see major improvements in facilities for bicyclists and pedestrians in a five-county area, and very soon. But if CAMPO goes with the weakened version, all that goes out the window.

Please ask our officials not to weaken the bike/ped funding proposal. Your message doesn't have to be very long -- even a couple of sentences is better than nothing. Here are some talking points:

• You are asking that the CAMPO 2030 plan require sidewalks and bike facilities to be included in road projects whenever they add only 20% or less in costs.
• The original proposal with the 20% provision was based on FHA guidelines. Adoption of the 20% rule would bring Central Texas up to standard with the rest of the United States.
• The watered-down proposal could give communities a veto over building bike/ped facilities.
• TxDOT's record on building such facilities themselves, without being required to, is abysmal.

Remember, polite messages work best. Angry or threatening messages don't help us.

Dear CAMPO and Travis County Commissioners:

Need inspiration?

Here's what Tommy Eden sent.

Dear Judge Biscoe and Commissioners:

     Please reconsider your recommendations regarding the proposed CAMPO policies for bicycle and pedestrian facilities in the 2030 CAMPO Transportation Plan. CAMPO staff based their recommendations on federal design guidance. The changes which Travis County is recommending would eviscerate the proposed policies.

The original proposal was based on the design guidance of the Federal Highway Administration. See "Policy Statement," paragraph 1, under the following link: http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bikeped/design.htm. Adoption of the 20% rule would bring Central Texas up to standard with the rest of the United States. Failure to adopt these policies will cause our region to continue to lag behind other regions.

The changes which Travis County has proposed could give TxDOT a veto over pedestrian and bicycle facilities on state highways throughout Central Texas. TxDOT's track record on construction of such improvements is abysmal. According to Travis County's proposal, pedestrian facilities and bicycle accommodations would not be required if "the jurisdiction constructing the project has demonstrated that providing the [facility] is not feasible due to excessive cost." Thus, if TxDOT unilaterally determines that building sidewalks is too expensive, as they have determined on many occasions in the past, then TxDOT may simply decree that building the sidewalk is too expensive to build, regardless of the cost.

Please approve the bicycle policies which CAMPO staff has proposed. Help to bring Central Texas up to the standards of the rest of the country. Help to provide quality transportation for the people of Travis County who do not drive cars.

Thank you,

Tommy Eden

Dear Judge Biscoe and Commissioners:

The e-mail message I sent you last week was in reference to an issue which will be on your agenda at next week's Commissioners Court meeting. Specifically, I was responding to a letter signed by Judge Biscoe, initialed by Joe Gieselman, and sent to CAMPO by fax from the Transportation and Natural Resources Department. The letter is titled, "Comments on the CAMPO Mobility 2030 Plan." It is dated April 5, 2005, and it contains the following recommendations:

Recommended changes: Reword BP-2 as follows: 'Provide pedestrian facilities with all new construction and reconstruction of roadways in this plan within urban and suburban areas unless: pedestrians are prohibited by law from using the roadway, the cost of constructing the pedestrian facility would exceed 20 percent of the cost of the project, or the area served by the project is sparsely populated, or the jurisdiction constructing the project has demonstrated that providing the pedestrian facility is not feasible due to excessive cost. Pedestrian facilities may include sidewalks within the right of way or separate pathways adjacent to and/or in the vicinity of the roadway.'

Reword BP-3 as follows: 'Provide bicycle accommodations with all new construction and reconstruction of roadways in this plan within urban and suburban areas unless bicycles are prohibited by law from using the roadway, the cost of constructing the pedestrian facility would exceed 20 percent of the cost of the project, or the jurisdiction constructing the project has demonstrated that providing the bicycle accommodation is not feasible due to excessive cost. Depending upon the characteristics of the roadway, bicycle accommodations may include bike lanes, shoulders, or wide outer lanes within the right of way, or shared use paths within the vicinity of the roadway. This policy may also be met by demonstrating that future demand will be addressed through local implementation of a comprehensive interconnected system of off-road bicycle facilities.'

A similar re-write was offered for proposed policy BP-4.

The changes proposed in this letter would remove all the substance from the policies as they were originally proposed. The original wording which CAMPO staff proposed for the bicycle and pedestrian policies would help everyone in our region who does not use motor vehicles for transportation. The requirement that sidewalks and bicycle facilities be provided with construction projects must have some definition which states exactly what is meant by excessive cost. If the words "excessive cost" are not defined in these policies, you can be sure that TxDOT will find ways to avoid building the facilities we need. If each jurisdiction is allowed to define "excessive cost" in its own way, the construction of sidewalks cannot be guaranteed in any of our lifetimes. Please support the CAMPO staff in their efforts to improve conditions for walking and bicycling in Central Texas, and resist the temptation to dilute the new policies for our region.

Thank you,

Tommy Eden