Bicyclists Lose Major Champion in Midterm Election

Reader Contribution by Staff

We weren’t naïve.

Like everyone else in Washington, D.C., bicycle and pedestrian advocates expected a Republican surge in last week’s midterm elections. We knew a conservative Congress would have major implications for the next federal transportation bill. We were bracing ourselves for new faces and fresh challenges on Capitol Hill.

But nobody expected we’d lose one of our most dependable and powerful champions.

“I’m not going to lie,” Andy Clarke, president of the League of American Bicyclists wrote on Wednesday morning. “I’m depressed.”

If you don’t live in Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District or follow federal transportation policy, you probably don’t even know the name James Oberstar. He was elected to Congress in 1974, and, since his very first term, served on the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

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