Asking for your thoughts on whether it is a good use of taxpayer dollars. Weird also like to hear if and how ike commuting is supported in your community. We would also like to hear if and how bicycle commuting is supported in your community. We have a special line for cyclists this morning. You can also catch up with us on all your favorite social media pages on twitter and facebook. You can also email us. Morningstart this talking about this story in roll call. It notes that as cycling to work becomes more popular, it is becoming more dangerous. This story goes on to note that is proposingmocrat and 11 million lowCost Loan Program. The program would be modeled on the popular transportation Infrastructure Finance and infrastructure act that provides loan guarantees for road, bridge and transit projects. As you might note, the league of American Bicyclists is one group that is in favor of this program after the congressman unveiled his proposal at the end of last month. The league released its own statement on it. That is andy clark talking about this loan program in which states would receive the credit backing of the federal government and repay these loans. It is an 11 Million Program that is being proposed by the cosponsored by several other members of congress. We want to hear from you this morning about why sick ling man federal dollars for bicycle commuting. Howant your thoughts on bicycle commuting is supported in your part of the country. Give us a call. The phone lines are open now. You can call in now. Some membersnote, of congress, not all members of congress, are supporting funding for bicycle programs and bicycle commuter programs. Last year during the debate over the transportation bill last summer, senator rand paul of kentucky proposed an amendment to eliminate the funding for in the programs that is transportation alternatives program. It wasnt the first time that he proposed this amendment. The funds in this account, which are about 800 million, rand paul wanted to direct it towards bridges and critical corridors funding. That is a Funding Program for specifically to fix bridges around the country. That proposal got some pushback from supporters of bicycle commuting around the country. The first it was in time that rand paul proposed it. He proposed it back in 2011, to , this 800oney million from the Transportation Alternative Program to bridges. Back in 2011. He released a statement. He said lets Fund Construction efforts on americas most highpriority infrastructure needs without adding to our national debt. In this time of massive annual proposalis bridge certainly trumps bike paths and squirrel sanctuaries. That was his oped in the youth louisville courierjournal. We want to hear your thoughts on federal dollars and federal efforts on this. It also, what is happening in your neck of the woods. Lets go to fred in whitman, massachusetts on our line for independents. Fred, thanks for calling the washington journal. Retired. Am 72 and i teach now. I substitute teach. I have been riding my bike since i was a kid. I have lived all over the. Ountry massachusetts probably has some of the best bicycling abilities anywhere in the country. One of the biggest problems that i share with other cyclists is the idea is a good idea, but by the time it goes to the politicians you never get what you wanted. You always end up getting that is far from something cyclists would want. You cycle with pedestrians and cars. They just finished the project on the bostonquincy line. You say the politicians get involved in it is not what you wanted third how do they change the process . What do they add or take away from the process that you want . See you g caller what we need is separation of traffic from pedestrians. We have to meld into traffic again. In this application where there is an expressway and everything else, they could have easily made an arrangement where you bypass all of this. They just dump you back into traffic again after you go over a river. You are stuck there. There is no way to cross traffic. The way they designed the interaction, they could have gone around to keep your a from traffic. The thing just died right there area obviously, the people who would have liked to have a different way were never encouraged to be involved. Cyclists still represent less than one percent of all daily commuters. Bicycling is the fastestgrowing way that americans get to work. Almost 800,000 american cycle to work in 2012. That represents a 10 increase over previous years. Government. Com took Census Bureau data from 2006 in 2011 and showed a map with the parts of the country in which cycling is growing the fastest. You can see the massachusetts area, which are last caller called from, green being the most growth from 2006 to 2011. Also, of course, the new york area and d. C. Metro area and chicago, as well. The red areas in which cycling has declined. Plenty of green in terms of areas in which cycling is. Rowing this is a map from governing. Com. Also, in the national highway Transportation Safety administration, their stats on Bicycle Safety, specifically fatalities involving bicycles and motorists over the course of here several years are the 2012 statistics. About 726 bicyclists were killed in injuries and traffic crashes in 2012. 2011. S up from 682 and that represents a 6. 5 change over the course of the year. We can also show you a chart that takes the traffic fatalities involving bicyclists back to 2002. There are about 665 dating to 2002. 629 in 2003. Inn creeping up to 677 back 2011. Lets go to peter waiting in schenectady, new york on the line for cyclists. Peter, thank you for calling in this morning. Ifler yes, i am wondering how you get out tickets for speeding. If someone jumps in front of you, do they get a ticket . How do they get that . Should there be more ticketing for bicyclists to raise federal funds . I think we should just run them over. Why is he jumping onto giving us a ticket on a bicycle . That there are more bicycles there will be more cops on bikes to give tickets. People rushing to work and whatever. Suddenly a guy jumps out in front of you and hes a cop giving you a ticket for going too fast. A conversation on our Facebook Page at facebook. Com cspan on the subject. Edward brownlee writes let cities fund their own bike trails. Lets go to bellevue, indiana on our independence line. Caller im in bellevue. 15 minutes out of seattle. We have great facilities for and recreation. Also we have good ability to. Rive through the city more progress is on the way. Im 67 and they cut back on the metro. Probus,tried to be proanything to get the cars off the street. But with the cutbacks, it takes me about 45 minutes to walk up to the closest to stop to the closest bus stop. If i ride there and connect with the bus, theres only room for three or four bytes on the front and it is always full. The park and ride, if they could add funding to help these parkandride have secure bicycle storage, we could bike up to the parkandride and leave our bikes there and catch the bus. It would be so much more forgettable. It would get a lot more people out of their cars it would be so much more predictable. We have been talking about the possibility of a new loan program to help out the state and federal governments. It would be backed by the federal government. Think it would be helpful. Our state and local governments contribute a lot to this. Years wen the next few are beginning to construct light rails from seattle to the. Ellevue area again, it is a matter of getting to the light rail connection. Luckily, with a light rail you can roll your bike right onto the train. You dont have to go up any steps or anything. It is making the connections. I think for some of us, like i say, i am 67, that do not have the option of riding all the way into the city from here. It is 1520 miles one way. To encourage some sort of federal funding, to have local places. They do help us with our light systemnd some of the bus has cycle help. To make that more userfriendly, to have some secure storage areas to put your bikes once you get to the Public Transit would really make a big difference. Stella writes in on our twitter page. We are taking your calls and your comments this morning and our facebook and twitter pages are open. Were talking about federal funding for bicycle commuting. Lets go to chuck waiting in camden, new york on our line for republicans. Chuck am a good morning. Chuck, good morning. Caller im not opposed to helping fund bicycle routes. Live in upstate new york ive member ever since i was a kid you had rules of the road mixed in withwere cars and we had no problem. As far as the fed getting involved in it, we cant get 80 me we cant spend 80 millions on Something Better than bicycle lanes . I think that should be held at the state and local levels. I live on a county road that is in desperate need of repair. You cant do 25 miles an hour and a car. It would probably be safer and easier with the bicycle, but i dont understand why we are notg federal money and leaving it to local and state government. Gain, host agree with you senator paul who is talking about prioritizing Infrastructure Projects . He wanted to put money that was intended for bicycle funding to bridge repair. He has been trying to do this since 2011. He tried this last year in the transportation bill and an amendment he proposed. Would you agree that it is a prioritization issue . Caller absolutely. You cantcture get around because roads are , not to mention bridges. Around here, i count immediately eight bridges that have been out for over three years. What is going on . They say there is no money to fix them. So we are going to build bicycle . Anes i wonder how these people get Emergency Care or god for bid prevention. Re no wonder were losing our houses, because we cant get to them. It is time to start fixing america. Ive never seen our country look so bad as far as the roads. It is disgusting. Time thatt the first a president has said were going to fix our infrastructure. Where is it . Again, we are talking about an 11 million low Cost Loan Program to help state and local governments roadside rocks, trails and dedicated bicycle lanes. A proposal was put forth new jersey a proposal was put out in new jersey. Lets go to marry waiting in jefferson city, missouri. She is on a line for democrats. Im just calling in to say im very glad to see a bill like this introduced in congress. It is something that is very needed. Map that you showed earlier with the green and red spots. I noticed st. Louis, which isnt , and thathere i live are hardly any green dots, which i would say is a bicycle unfriendly area, where we live. It is just that local governments have the will to put in bike paths and lanes and make it safer bicyclists, but we need a little bit of help from the federal government. Im 62 and still work. I would ride my bicycle to work every day if i had the ability to get there safely. But i dont. I have to cross a major intersection. I would have to write in streets that have no bike lanes, no sidewalks. So i drive my car to work every day. It is only about four miles, which is not very far. Support that,uch so i just wanted to call in and say i support the congressmans efforts. I would call him today and let him know that i would do the same. Jefferson city, missouri, looking at the Census Bureau data from 20062 thousand 11. The red dots are where commuting where bicycle commuting has decreased. Green dots are where bicycle commuting has increased over the course of those five years. We will stay on this topic for about the next 25 minutes or so. Newse point out some other from around the country this morning, from the headlines. Wall street journal. Of a Washington Times story, that story notes that hough his political bite on the topic, the wall street that republicans will try to push that issue to call for more infrastructure that Vice President joe biden will try to push that issue. Andnt to get your thoughts find out what things are like in your neighborhood. Joseph is calling in from telephone you on our line for independence. Caller good morning. Is the mostg inexpensive means of transportation that there is. I would like to put that in there. I would also like to ask you, have you been threatened about building number seven since you wont talk about it . Joseph. , we will stick to bicycling as a topic and keep conspiracy theories for another day. Richard, good morning. I have a few comments. Recreationalles of walking. And the city has where spent hundreds of thousands of three quartersin of a mile a bicycle lane in one. Ection it is a waste of federal money. The recreational part is wonderful. The federal government has no business trying to tell us what to do. All right, richard calling in from lynchburg, virginia. Benefits for bicyclist and bicycle commuting. There is a benefit for those who bicycle to work. This is also current courtesy of the league of bicyclists. There may be as much as 20 a month and tax benefits for employees who bike to work very is a law that has been on the books since 2009. It notes that an employee cannot choose to reimburse themselves with pretax income. Employere paid by the and an employee cannot receive both the transit and bicycle french benefits in the same month. That is talking about the different transit benefits that workers can get. That is one of the benefits that are out there and written into the federal code. Were talking about federal support for those who bicycle to work. I want to get your thoughts and comments. Were going to ron on in harrisburg, pennsylvania. Ron, good morning. Yeah, i have been a bicyclist commuter for pretty much my entire life. What i notice out there is there seems to be a aggressive pointed at bicyclists. It may not just be funding for a wider shoulder and if you bike baths, but maybe a few vulnerable pedestrians or may changersons laws the attitude of drivers out there. When i have an account or with the car, i am automatically a loser. It gets a couple of scratches, maybe a debtor to, but i end up with something broken or worse. Host jack, good morning. Hello. If we can save a lot of energy and a lot of money on fossil fuels if people go to work on bicycles. We all understand this. It would change a lot of potholes and help get people jobs into the streets to get people this information. You know, to help people to reduce emission as we face this horrible climate change. One thing that i do fear, the only thing i do fear is that it for Police Officers to see what im doing on the bicycle. Indiana, i live in a Constitution Free zone. Ive gotten pulled over and my laptop has gotten surged because i had it in my back pack because i was heading to the library. This is a very conspicuous topic because it is close and personal to my heart. The fact that i drive to work on my bicycle to say fossil fuels, yet i am pulled over by an officer of the law because i have an Electronic Device on my backpack. Thank you, jackson in granger, indiana. Conversation is always continuing on our twitter page. Joe writes and, if anything there should be more federal support for unicycling. We will keep of the subject for the next 15 minutes or so, but i want to give you some more headlines. These from overseas. These from the front page of the New York Times today. If you want to read more on that in several stories and editorials today but a new human rights report about conditions in north korea, here is the front page of the Washington Times. This u. N. Report on conditions and how north korea treats its citizens. I want to read you a bit from the Washington Post story. The United Nations released an authoritative report on north korea. You one investigators u. N. Investigators a bit from that report. Also the subject of one of the lead editorials and todays wall street journal. Notes rial board scores the regimes abuses and enablers. Several different stories on that subject. But we are talking about federal commutersr bicycle and Bicycle Safety. We want to bring in congressman Earl Blumenauer on the subject. He is always seen with his cycling pin. How are you . Congressman come are you with us congressman, are you with us . Are you there . Guest yes. Host thank you for joining us from oregon. Guest happy to do it. Host we have been talking about this bill by your fellow congressman on creating a new loan program specifically to help investments in making bicycle commuting safer and pedestrian commuting, as well. Want to get your thoughts on the overall level of federal support for cyclists. Guest i think it is a nice step forward. More of thea little revenue stream for cycling improvements at a time when resources are stretched very tight. But it is merely a drop in the bucket. What we really need to do is go back and address the program we used to have. The bicycle Enhancements Program for bicycles and for pedestrian activities and others. Secure ands a more more generous funding level. That is one of the reasons why i introduced legislation to require the department of transportation to have better metrics and safety standards. Fastestgrowing method of commuting in the country. Almost one Million People per year. It does not show up for many people, but cycling truly is exploding, the popularity of what is happening in bike sale programs in our nations capital, in new york, chicago, communities across the country. The real problem here is that have notong we invested adequate resources in the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians. There are about 10 times as many their are funding as a percentage. On the new bill bicycle commuters representing about 1 of all daily commuters. Is the support for bicyclists and federal funding equal to that level of commuters . Speaksthat percentage only to commuting. It does not speak to the much larger scale of bicycling in communities. There are hundreds of thousands of children who have been benefited in terms of being able excuse me walk safely to school. There are communities around the country with that percentage of far