Bicyclists representing the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy delivered a petition with more than 51,000 signatures to the American Automobile Association headquarters in Heathrow, Florida, Monday morning.
The petition asks that AAA stop its opposition to using the federal Highway Trust Fund to pay for trails and other bicycling programs. Those programs amount to about 1.5% of the surface transportation funding, according to the non-profit.
About 25 cyclists joined the procession from the OutSpoke'N Bike Shop in Lake Mary, Florida, to the AAA offices located on the Seminole-Wekiva Trail, according to a Rails-to-Trails press release. That trail is an example of a bicycle trail paid for with money from the Highway Trust Fund.
Rails-to-Trails launched the petition drive in September after the head of the Mid-Atlantic AAA chapter wrote that Highway Trust Fund expenditures should not go to nonmotorized transportation, such as bicycle trails, sidewalks and transit.
Of the petition signers, about 33,000 identified themselves as AAA members.
AAA has said that the Rails-to-Trails petition mischaracterizes the AAA' position. See their Facebook page entitled, “AAA supports funding for bike and pedestrian paths.”
Rails-to-Trails disputes this, and says that AAA's position would, if enacted, eliminate the Transportation Enhancement program. That funding has been used over the years to build more than 19,000 miles of rail-trails and help create a more balanced transportation system.
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[…] some chapters of the American Automobile Association have not always been supportive of bicycles in their lobbying agendas, this is certainly a step in the right direction. We’d like to see […]