bikies,
this is a letter sent from the Bicycle Transporatation Alliance
to the county executive, asking to transfer cost of trail maintenance
from the Parks to Highways.
Kathleen Falk
Dane County Executive
Room 421 City County Building
Madison, WI 53703
Dear County Executive Falk,
We were surprised and disturbed to learn that the Parks
Commission has reopened the issue of a trail fee for the use of
the Capital City Trail. Cyclists feel strongly that it is poor
public policy to have a special tax for bike commuters.
Creating a toll road used only by non-polluting commuters sends
the wrong message and sets the wrong priorities. Because
bicycling reduces road congestion and does not require additional
parking spaces, county and local communities save money every
time a citizen decides to leave the car at home. The fee punishes
transportation choices we should be encouraging.
In addition, because many bicyclists already purchase state trail
passes elsewhere, it is unlikely that Dane County will earn
enough from sales to meets its stated maintenance budget.
It was our understanding that Parks would investigate ways to
fund the maintenance of the Trail without imposing a fee on
cyclists. In fact, we offered to work with Parks Director LePine
on this issue.
The minutes of the July 11, 2001 meeting of the Parks commission
state:
Mohrbacher, Lowe, and LePine explained the action by the County
Board on Res. 29, 2001- 02. After a brief discussion of the
issues it was moved by Mohrbacher and seconded by Lowe to
postpone the implementation of the state trail pass on the
Capital City Trail until January 1, 2002. Motion carried (5-0).
It was also a consensus of the Commission to send a letter to the
bicycle groups and the Transportation Committee to develop a
forum in which alternative funding can be developed, through
legislative action and the budget process. This is to be done not
at the expense of other park programs. It was suggested that the
Commission advise the Executive's Office and the County Board
Office that the fee had been officially postponed at the meeting.
To our knowledge, the Commission never followed through. It
appears that the Parks commission has no interest in seeking
alternative funding. This is not surprising, since it is not
their mission to promote better transportation options for Dane
County. Therefore, we are asking that maintenance of the trail be
handled by the Highway and Transportation Department.
Since the path was built with transportation funds and it serves
a transportation purpose, it should be maintained as a
transportation corridor. If the Highway Department does not have
the personnel or equipment needed to maintain this corridor, they
could contract with Parks for the work. When put in a
transportation context, the maintenance of this path is trivial
compared to the many miles of roadway the County maintains. We
expect that the County will take necessary steps to bring about
this change or at the very least make good on its promise to form
a commission composed of local bicycle advocacy group
representatives in order to work out alternative arrangements.
Sincerely,
Darin Burleigh
Steering Committee member
Bicycle Transportation Alliance of Dane County
cc: Ken LePine, John Norwell
_______________________________________________
Bikies mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
