An anti-bicycle amendment was resoundingly defeated on the floor of the Missouri House today.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Paul Curtman of Pacific, would have removed bicycling from the major transportation funding proposal that will appear before Missouri voters this November if approved by the General Assembly this spring.
The controversy over the anti-bicycle amendment, which erupted Thursday, had stalled progress on the Missouri transportation funding proposal. Once the anti-bicycle amendment was defeated today, the full transportation funding proposal passed the House. It now moves on to the Senate for final legislative approval, then final approval by Missouri voters in November 2014.
Thousands of cyclists lit up capitol switchboards, emails, and social media in the past few days in opposition to the amendment. Dozens of organizations from across Missouri joined in the effort to fight the anti-bicycle amendment, as did major national bicycle, pedestrian, and trails groups.
That and the person of visits of individual cyclists and representatives from bicycle and pedestrian groups from around Missouri at Bicycle and Pedestrian Day at the Capitol yesterday served to turn the tide against the bill over the past few days. Several national bicycle and pedestrian groups also supported the grassroots effort with advocacy and social media alerts.
The final voice vote on the amendment was overwhelmingly against the amendment, with only a few lone voices voting in favor.
Who led the effort in the House to defeat the anti-bicycle amendment?
Representatives Chris Kelly (D-Columbia) and Jeremy LaFaver (D-Kansas City) spoke up on the floor of the House Thursday when the amendment was introduced with no advance warning. Thanks to their work, debate on the bill was halted, and we gained time to ramp up our statewide grassroots effort to support bicycling.
Key leadership in opposing this amendment was provided by many Representatives from across the political spectrum. Representatives who had heard from their constituents were fired up to defend bicycling and did so with eloquence and passion.
For their leadership, we would especially like to thank Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur), Genise Montecillo (D-St. Louis), John Rizzo (D-Kansas City), Jacob Hummel(D-St. Louis), Dave Hinson(R-St. Clair, sponsor of the transportation funding proposal in the House), Dave Schatz (R-Sullivan), Ed Schieffer (D-Troy), Nate Walker(R-Kirksville), Jeff Justus (R-Branson), Michael Frame (D-Eureka), and John Diehl (R-Town & Country).
What you can do now
Please take a moment to write or call your own Missouri state representative a note of thanks for their support of bicycling. At least 85% of representatives voted to defeat the amendment, so you can assume your representative opposed the amendment.
Even supporters of the amendment were gracious enough not to push the issue and allow an amicable resolution to the issue. So thanks are due all around.
The most important victory for bicycling in Missouri in 10 years–and perhaps 100
Defeating this anti-bicycling amendment today was easily the most crucial victory for bicycling in Missouri in the past ten years.
If the new transportation funding plan is approved by Missouri voters in November 2014, it will become the most significant victory in 100 years.
Since the institution of the gas tax in Missouri and the creation of MoDOT–so for about the past century–we have not been able to spend any Missouri road tax dollars on bicycling or walking.
Thanks so much to the legislators from every part of Missouri and every end of the political spectrum who stood up for bicycling today.
Thanks so much for each and every person who took the time to contact your own legislator to ask them to support bicycling.
Thanks SO MUCH to every legislator who opposed the anti-bicycling amendment–we’ve been able to mention only a few of them in this articles.
Together, we made a HUGE difference for bicycling in Missouri today!
