Get Ready for April's “Taking it to the Streets”

This April – Carpool, Vanpool, Ride the Bus, Bike, Walk, Telework

The public is encouraged to discover ways to save money on gas and travel, plus improve health this April by joining Taking it to the Streets! The campaign urges people to use alternative transportation modes and track their trips with Trip Track to win prizes donated by local organizations.

Taking it to the Streets is a regional campaign spanning 12 counties in Southwest Florida. Activities include worksite and college campus challenges to try alternatives to driving alone, such as biking, walking, carpooling, taking public transit, working from home/teleworking, starting a vanpool and more.

“Try Transit Day” is scheduled for Thursday, April 19, 2012, when transit agencies throughout the region will be offering specials to riders. LeeTran will be offering free rides all day.

In Lee County, the City of Fort Myers, Lee County Office of Sustainability, BikeWalkLee, and the Lee County Health Department have teamed up with the Florida Department of Transportation’s Commuter Services program to organize this campaign.

A Transportation Expo of workshops and resources will be on display at the NW Regional Library in Cape Coral March 19-May 1. Other activities will be listed on the campaign’s Facebook page and campaign organizer websites.

“Individual transportation choices can change an entire community,” says Lee County Commissioner and Commuter Services Ambassador Ray Judah. “The goal of this campaign is to give people and organizations a fun opportunity to take proactive steps in how they get around our area. For some, those steps will save them a lot of money!” said Judah.

Get registered; find information on transportation choices, sign up for carpool/vanpool ride-matching and get help with Trip Track at CommuterServicesFL.com. “Like” the Taking it to the Streets SWFL Facebook page, tag and post your participation at www.facebook.com/TakingittotheStreetSWFL

Get a media kit, campaign materials, and suggestions for challenges today by contacting Commuter Services at (866) 585-RIDE (7433).

Update on transportation bills winding their way through US Congress

The week of Feb. 14th was supposed to be the beginning of the House and Senate debate on their respective transportation bills.  As usual, the schedule for floor action has slipped some, but the past two weeks has been full of lots of debate and maneuvering over the bills.  As a result of the firestorm of opposition against the House proposal to eliminate dedicated funding for transit, the House leadership announced that they were dropping that provision and plan to scale the 5-year bill back to possibly 18 months.  No revised bill has been put forward, but we hear that the other objectionable provisions will remain--elimination of programs for safe walking and biking, favoring highway construction over other modes, taking away local control, and raising revenues through oil drilling, just to name a few.  It is unclear when the House leadership plans to bring a revised bill to the floor.

Letters against House bill: BoCC   (MPO sent same letter on 2/17), and BikeWalkLee.

On the Senate side, their 2-year transportation bill has actually been on the Senate floor this week.  Did you know that yesterday's contraception vote was actually an amendment to the transportation bill??  Hopefully, the Senate will now begin to consider actual transportation amendments to the bill.  The key vote we're tracking is consideration of the bipartisan Cardin-Cochran amendment that will give local communities greater control over bike/ped funding.   The BoCC, the MPO Board, and BikeWalkLee have all sent letters to Senators Nelson and Rubio urging them to support this amendment.  Click here to read these letters. BikeWalkLee, BoCC  (MPO sent same letter on 2/17)

The current transportation authorization expires on March 31st so Congress needs to take some action this month.  We'll keep you posted on our blog and Facebook page, so watch for updates and action alerts!

Report by Darla Letourneau

FDOT begins resurfacing project on Pine Island Rd. which includes new bike lanes

Good News!  This week, FDOT is starting a resurfacing project on Pine Island Road (SR 78), from east of Del Prado Blvd. to west of US 41.  The project is scheduled to be completed in this summer.
Currently, there are neither bike or pedestrian facilities on this area of Pine Island Road.  As part of this resurfacing project, bike lanes will be added.  No pedestrian facilities are being added, but the contractor will be making ADA modifications at the Pondella Road intersection.