Raise your hand if you had former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich pegged as a staunch advocate for walking and biking to school? A few days after schools across the country celebrated Walk to School Day, a middle school in Saratoga Springs, New York is in the news once again for their policy prohibiting students from walking or biking to school. Apparently, Newt Gingrich caught wind of their policy and wrote the school district a letter urging the school district to drop their policy.

Two weeks ago, we were successful in beating back a handful of dangerous amendments to the yearly transportation budget in the Senate that would have broken federal promises to fund crucial, long-planned public transportation, passenger rail and bike/pedestrian projects. In less than 48 hours, supporters like yourselves sent more than 10,000 messages to your Senators in opposition of these dangerous amendments. Your quick action was instrumental in letting the Senate know that it’s important we continue funding alternatives to driving that can help us use less oil, cut our emissions, bike and walk safely and reduce the amount of time we spend in congestion each day.

We wrote yesterday about some very dangerous amendments from Senators McCain and Coburn, asking you to take action to help preserve funding for desperately-needed bike and pedestrian facilities. We’re happy to report that Senator Coburn’s amendments were defeated, preserving critical funding for bicycle and pedestrian facilities across the country. We thank you for taking the time to weigh in with your Senator. The Coburn amendment failed with only 39 votes in favor.

With Congress directing their attention to the contentious debate over health care reform and how to pay for it, it seems that transportation has been relegated to the back burner. In the meantime, evidence is continuing to mount that transportation investments — what we build and where — have an enormous impact on our health and the financial bottom line of providing health care. Two new studies add to a compelling case…

Here in Washington, DC last weekend, the 12-foot-wide bicycle and pedestrian lane of the Woodrow Wilson interstate bridge over the Potomac River held its grand opening, filling with bikers and walkers joining the thousands of cars that cross the bridge each day. The bridge, connecting Virginia and Maryland on the southern part of the Capital Beltway, is a vital transportation link in the region, where Interstate 95 (and the large majority of truck traffic) bypasses Washington, continuing north or south along the eastern seaboard. But making the Wilson Bridge an intermodal success was not easy.

Senior cyclist Originally uploaded by Humane Design Our photo of the week shows a street that is so safe and accessible that anyone can bicycle. Unfortunately, it’s in Germany and not here. Thanks to Humane Design for the submissions. Add your photos to the T4 America Flickr pool

With revenue for federal transportation falling fast, lawmakers face a major challenges in funding the next transportation bill. (The Hill) The New York Times reviews a new book on how cyclists are altering the landscape of American cities. Southern Florida’s Tri-Rail system faces major cuts and the possibility of being completely shut down by 2011. [...]

Earlier this week, we talked with you about Transportation for America’s national objective for a healthier, safer transportation system, and showed you the performance targets needed to measure our progress towards these goals. Today, we’d like to talk about just how we hope to reach these goals through some of the policies and reforms that [...]

DSC_0298 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America This woman breaks out a map to look for the best bike route to…well…somewhere in our nation’s capital. We didn’t get a chance to ask. From the Freedom Plaza pit stop for D.C’s Bike To Work Day this morning. Check out the whole set of photos here. Do [...]

1006 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America Mayor Don Ness of Duluth, MN speaks at the kickoff events for Bike to Work Week on Monday Perhaps you’ve heard that Friday is Bike To Work Day. Events will be happening in cities small and large all across the country to encourage people to try biking to [...]