Day 3 of the Bike Summit was one of the most interesting days I’ve had in a long time. We all put on our monkey suits and headed up to Capital Hill to sell our bike needs directly to our elected officials. The morning started with another opening address from Congressman Earl Blumenauer. He got the 500 person crowd of bike advocates fired up to make our voices heard. Following Earl was Dan Beard, Chief Admin Officer of the House of Representatives, who is in charge of implementing Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s Greening the Capital Initiative. Mr. Beard spoke of the need for our Nation’s leaders to be setting an example of energy conservation and overall sustainability. With that in mind he made a huge announcement to us. Starting on Earth Day 2008, Capital Hill will have its very own bike share program! 30 bikes will be stationed around Capital Hill and be available for Members and Staffers to use for commuting, lunch break rides, or pleasure rides down the Pennsylvania Avenue. This is not some “green bike” or “yellow bike” program that reclaims old beater bikes and randomly disperses them around town. These will be brand new bikes locked up at an official bike share terminal. Wow! It’s one thing for us cyclists to come to town once a year and plead our case, but for Members of Congress to be faced with the benefits of cycling day in and day out is AMAZING!

After our morning pep rally, we split up into our state delegations and flooded the halls of Congress. Well, the halls of the Senate and House office buildings that is. The Senate and House members occupy buildings on either side of the Capital where they conduct their day to day business. Our mission? To get support for the 4 Policy Issues given to us at the Bike Summit:
1. Support the Complete Streets Bill being intrduced.
2. Support the National Parks Centennial Initiative and make sure cycling is a part of it.
3. Join the National Bike Caucus
4. Sign the Congressional Resolution that says cycling is important and we should have a National Bike Policy and an Inter agency Cycling Task Force.

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We traveled back and forth between the House and Senate buildings on free pedicabs thanks to Planet Bike. By the end of the day, we met with the staff of Wyoming Congress persons Barbra Cubin, John Barasso, and Mike Enzi. We also had face to face meetings with Idaho Senators Larry Craig and Mike Crapo. The best part was they actually listened to what we had to say and seemed interested. Sure, sure that’s why they’re politicians right? Maybe. We’ll see who takes action and who doesn’t.

At the end of the day we gathered for a Congressional Reception in the Senate office building. Standard shoomze a palooza but the free food and beer was a nice touch. Big points to the Legislative Aids from Barasso and Cubin’s offices who showed up to mingle! Finally the event came to a close with an amazing speech by Rep Oberstar. If you dig bikes and hope that there’s someone out there fighting for them you should watch this video. Good to know this day in age there are still some politicians standing up for the right things.

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