Dec 11 2008
Bicycle Infrastructure
Hey I want some of the free money Washington is throwing giving away these days. I am environmentally, fiscally, and most importantly personally responsible for everything I do. Damn… I just ruined any hope of getting some easy money from the feds.
Last night I read in the Oregonian a special interest group is going after some of the Federal stimulus dollars, so they can build a new $4 billion bridge across the Columbia River joining Portland and Vancouver. This bridge will increase the lanes of traffic from 6 to 12, include light rail, but would not start at least until 2012. What is happening to the economic stimulus between now and then? Going into the special interest’s pockets?
If you live in the Portland/Vancouver area you know traffic on the I5 bridge can be a major pain. But if you ride a bike across the bridge during rush hour you know this traffic is brought on by single occupancy vehicles and spending $4 billion on a new bridge is not the answer. Oregon’s Governor Kulongoski put $50 million into the budget for this project, so obviously Oregon can not afford to support this.
I think the $50 million proposed by Governor Kulongoski would be better spent on bicycle infrastructure. This would create a safer bicycling environment, which in turn would encourage more people to use their bikes for utilitarian purposes as opposed to just recreational riding. The most frequent negative statement I hear about commuting to work is people don’t feel safe because of auto, truck, and bus traffic.
So let’s see… bicycling is environmentally friendly, saves money (gas and health care costs), and puts the power and responsibility of being green and saving money directly on the cyclist. Damn… I guess I just ruined any hope of getting easy money from the feds for bicycling infrastructure. Sorry!
Now that I have bummed myself out, I think I will go for a bike a ride and create some mental sunshine. 
And then you consider that you probably live in one of the most bike friendly places in the United States.
Doesn’t it just make you green with envy when your read about the bicycling infrastructure in Denmark and The Netherlands?
Let’s hpoe the credit crunch and dropping economy put an end to silly ideas like this. When will politicians learn? Making more roads makes more traffic, more traffic hurts more people, more sick people need more care and can work less. Very simple…
I should have kept a copy, but I recall some time ago reading something from someone in the council in Groningen (a city a short bike ride from here with the highest cycling rate in the world: 60% of all journeys are by bike) saying that building infrastructure suitable for bikes was a fiscal measure more than an environmental measure.
The amount of money that it costs to make conditions good for cyclists is very much smaller than the cost of not doing so.
As a result we have expenditure here on cycling infrastructure which sometimes seems endless, and a very high standard of maintenance, but it’s actually very easily affordable because they look at the big picture instead of just treating cycling as a bolt on extra cost.
A “car economy” makes people poor as well as unhealthy.