Hours after receiving over 5,000 letters and phone calls and a letter signed by more than 600 groups from an unbelievably broad spectrum, the House Ways and Means Committee ignored that broad, bipartisan opposition and went full speed ahead with their unprecedented plan to kill dedicated transit funding — ending the historic guarantee for dedicated funding for public transportation, leaving millions of riders already faced with service cuts and fare increases out in the cold.

LaHood with Mayor Fenty, DDOT Director Gabe Klein and Reps. Blumenauer and Oberstar. Photo courtesy of USDOT. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has made a point of championing bicycling as a legitimate travel option everywhere, but he is also keeping an eye on his own backyard, including Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington DC. LaHood joined DC Mayor [...]

Today, along with numerous other partners like Rails to Trails, League of American Bikers, America Bikes, and America Walks, we’re asking all of our supporters to make a phone call to your Representative to support this new bill — the Active Community Transportation Act. With the National Bike Summit in town this week, more than 700 advocates for safe walking and biking are visiting the offices of their congressional delegations today, asking them to sponsor this bill and letting them know about all the benefits of making it easier to safely get around on foot or on bike. We want to back them up and have all of our voices heard loud and clear in the halls of Congress today. So take just 2 minutes and call your Representative and ask them to co-sponsor this bill. It’s quick and easy.

In the last 15 years, 76,000 Americans have been killed while walking or simply crossing the street. Help could be on the way. Rep. Earl Blumenauer introduced a bill last week to create a $2 billion competitive grant program to fund safe networks for biking and walking. This week, more than 700 bike advocates are descending on Capitol Hill to drum up strong support for the program while in D.C. for the National Bike Summit. We need to back them up: Send a letter to your representative urging them to co-sponsor the Active Community Transportation Act (H.R. 4722).

Youtube user bobrpdx has some great videos of last week’s unveiling of the made in the USA streetcar in Portland, including interviews with Rep. Pete DeFazio and Rep. Earl Blumenauer. Check out the rest of his videos for more Portland transit goodness. In this particular video, Rep. DeFazio talks about the streetcar made locally by [...]

The first American-made streetcar in almost 60 years was unveiled to the public today in Portland, Oregon in a special ceremony today with transportation secretary Ray LaHood. To let everyone in Oregon know how significant Transportation for America thinks this event is, we took out an ad in The Oregonian today to congratulate Portland and their congressmen for making an investment in clean, green jobs in Portland.

The Oregonian’s editorial board offers a ringing endorsement of Rep. Earl Blumenauer’s (D-OR) measure to provide relief for transit agencies and incentives to build housing around transportation stations. (The Oregonion — Editorial)