Hear Hear!

From the blog of the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Ray La Hood- a defense of MUP building in Minneapolis, which is being attacked by Sen. Tom Coburn as "stimulus waste"

"I guess a better bike connection to Minneapolis's central business district doesn't count as infrastructure to some folks."

"Yes, some of those projects include bike paths, a key ingredient in our livability initiative to allow people to live, work, and get around without a car.

We don't call that waste; we call it progress"

If you read that without attribution the sarcasm of the first sentence and the call to arms clarity of the last sentence would sound like a independent bicycle advocate.

I think it's really great to hear that kind of ringing support of bicycling infrastructure from a federal agency, not just from bike centric blogs and urban planners.  What has come out of it, and what will come out of it is more complicated (and unfortunately has to filter through many levels of state and regional planning authorities) but it's a big change in attitude at the top and it's got to be a positive development for all kinds of bicycle planning.

Hat Tip to Washcycle