Approximately $620,000,000 in federal money is about to be taken away from bicyclists and pedestrians and given to motorists.

Early in July, the House of Representatives Transportation and Treasury Subcommittee voted to eliminate the Transportation Enhancement funds for 2004. Those are the funds set aside for things like multi-use trails, bike lanes, bicycle education and safety programs and Safe Routes to School programs.

Enhancements funding began with the Intermodal Surface Transportation Equity Act in the mid 1990s, when some bright lights in Congress discovered that not all transportation happened in motor vehicles. Given the traffic congestion and exhaust fumes generated by motor traffic, Congress decided to encourage nonmotorized transportation by spending one percent of the transportation budget on making bicycling and walking more convenient and safe.

The enhancements program was continued in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which covers transportation funding through 2005.

Now it appears the bright lights have gone out, and the House of Representatives is pulling the plug on enhancements funding. This is not going to save taxpayers any money, by the way: the $620 million in enhancements money hasn't been subtracted from the budget. It has simply been diverted to build more roads.

The Transportation and Treasury Subcommittee actually voted to increase transportation spending to $34.1 billion in 2004. Not a penny of that will go to bicyclists or pedestrians. Apparently, the republican majority of the subcommittee (the vote was along party lines) doesn't feel that transportation happens without an engine.

On July 24, the House Appropriations Committee killed an amendment to restore the enhancements funding. Again, the vote was basically along party lines, with the republicans holding the majority in the committee. The House Appropriations Committee is chaired by none other than our own representative, Congressman Jim Nussle.

Here in the metro area, enhancement money has been used for a number of trails, including those along Martin Luther King Drive in Waterloo and Gilbert Drive in Evansdale, as well as the extension of the Cedar Prairie Trail to connect with the Sergeant Road Trail and part of the Lone Tree Road Trail in Cedar Falls.

If the 2004 enhancement money is given to the highway industry, the loss will jeopardize -- and possibly kill -- such projects as Cedar Falls' new Riverside Trail, resurfacing the Sergeant Road Trail, Waterloo's new Donald Street Trail from Gates Park to Cedar Bend Park; and a trail around the new Grundy County Lake near Dike and relocated U.S. Highway 20.

Bicyclists deserve a slice of the transportation pie. A recent poll showed that 53 percent of Americans support spending more on bicycle facilities, even if it means less money for new road construction.

Get out your pens and paper, people. We need to bury Congressman Nussle and Senators Charles Grassley and Tom Harkin under a deluge of letters supporting re-instatement of the enhancements funding.