Senator Collins Introduces Conserve by Bike Act of 2003

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am pleased to join my colleague from Illinois in reintroducing this legislation to recognize and promote bicycling's important impact on energy savings and public health.

With America becoming more and more dependent on foreign oil, it is vital that we look to the contribution that bike travel can make toward solving our Nation's energy challenges. This legislation would establish a Conserve by Bike pilot program that would oversee pilot projects throughout the country designed to conserve energy resources by providing education and marketing tools to convert car trips to bike trips. Right now, fewer than one trip in one hundred is by bicycle. If we could increase this statistic to one and a half trips per hundred, we would save over 462 million gallons of gasoline in a year, worth over $721 million.

While more bike trips would benefit our energy conservation efforts, that would also help improve the public's health. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, fewer than one-third of Americans meet Federal recommendations to engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity at least 5 days a week. Even more disturbing is the fact that approximately 300,000 U.S. death a year are associated with being obese or overweight. By promoting biking, we are working to ensue that Americans will increase their physical activity.

The Conserve by Bike Act has received widespread support on the national, state, and local level, and I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.