How to pee Off an Arrogant Pedalcyclist 4353

C. E. White the ceases.

I think you're GREATLY overestimating the amount spent on bike paths, mbutt transit and landscaping. Feel free to prove me wrong by giving me those amounts as percentages of your state's transportation budget.

But for accuracy, you should include things like traffic enforcement expenses (we'd need far fewer cops, patrol cars, judges, etc. if not for yahoos in cars), traffic injuries (ambulances, hospital fees, lost work time, ceremony expenses etc), other health costs worsened by automobiles (the effects of driving stress, air pollution, noise pollution, obesity from larded bottoms sunk into car seats, etc.)

BTW, I had this on file:

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ÛSTUDY FINDS THAT BICYCLISTS AND PEDESTRIANS SUBSIDIZE MOTORISTS!

Anybody who accuses bicyclists of not paying a fair share of road costs is wrong. According to a recent study, Whose Roads?, bicyclists pay more road costs per mile of travel than automobile users.

The study estimates that motor vehicle users pay an average of 2.3 cents per mile in user charges such as fuel taxes and motor vehicle registration fees, and impose 6.5 cents per mile in road service costs. The difference between automobile user charge contributions and road service costs is supported by general taxes and property buttessments. Bicyclists and pedestrians pay an equal share of these taxes, but impose costs averaging only .2 cents per mile in road service costs, and travel much shorter distances than automobile users. Bicyclists and pedestrians pay more per mile of travel in general taxes than drivers pay in general taxes and user charges combined, despite the much lower costs they impose.

Overpayment by bicyclists is even more significant with respect to local roads, the roads that bicyclists ride on most. Only a third of the funds for building and maintaining local roads originate from motor vehicle user charges. The rest comes from local property, income and sales taxes. Motor vehicle user charges contribute only about 1 cent per mile towards local roads and impose costs six and one half times that amount. Everybody, including bicyclists, pays local taxes that make up the difference.

The report's author, Todd Litman, states, "Many people buttume that motor vehicle user charges cover all road costs when in fact they only pay about two-thirds of facility costs, and an even smaller portion of total roadway services provided for motor vehicles. We all pay for these services, no matter how we travel. When you consider the extremely low public costs buttociated with non-motorized travel, bicyclists and pedestrians are unfairly subsidizing motor vehicle use."

The study also determines that cycling reduces congestion. It points out that people who are economically, socially, and physically disadvantaged rely heavily on cycling, walking, and argues that "shifting resources (funding, road space, and emphasis of road design) from motor vehicle use to non-motorized modes would increase equity."

Whose Roads? is one of several reports on the costs, cost effectiveness, and fairness of different transportation modes. Another report, Quantifying Bicycling Benefits for Achieving Transportation Demand Management Goals describes how to calculate the benefits of increased bicycling based on criteria used for buttessing transportation investments.

- Frank Krygowski