With conference negotiations occurring in a black box, transportation advocates on all sides are anxiously awaiting word of the final deal. Rumors abound that Democrats have been willing to negotiate away local control over bike/ped funding as a bargaining chip to get other concessions from Republicans. We don’t know if this is true or not, but bike advocates are stepping up their game, trying to hold Sen. Barbara Boxer to her promises to preserve funding support for small-scale street safety projects.

America Bikes took out an ad in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, Boxer’s hometown paper. (Click on the image to see the full ad.)

Other groups are keeping the pressure on, too. The California Bicycle Coalition, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Walk Oakland Bike Oakland, and other California groups are getting in on the action. “7500 pedestrians killed in CA since 2000 @SenatorBoxer,” tweeted WOBO this morning. “Pass Cardin-Cochran, make walking/biking safer!”