I think the important point that the bike community needs to hammer home every time someone brings up the "hard budgetary times" boogeyman is that every day, people in Dane County drive more than 12 millions miles, largely to get to work and home again. This driving about has a very large cost. The cost can be greatly reduced in a number of ways, and part of the savings can be applied to the greater public good, while the remainder stays with those who are now frittering it away.
At the pre-Katrina, outdated AAA estimated average cost per mile of owning and operating a private automobile ($.38/mile), that means more than $4,560,000 is blown out tailpipes every day in Dane County alone (more than 16,000 people cruise in from other counties at a higher daily per capita cost). That does not include out-of-pocket parking fees, nor the lost opportunity costs of alternative uses of hundreds of acres of land that daily hosts only oil-dripping, idle vehicles. Nor does it include the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in trying to treat preventable respiratory ailments caused or worsened by the above vehicle use. It also does not include avoidable health club costs paid by folks who drive to work, then drive again to jog on a treadmill or pedal a stationary indoor bike to make up for the fact that their commute mode is entirely sedentary. ...Nor the costs of public emergency response to scores of local crashes every month (or week?), nor the portion of property tax that subsidizes local roads... If only a tiny fraction of this societal expenditure were directed to more bike infrastructure, there would be plenty of money to be had for bike enhancement projects by a bold and innovative community, and competition among needed projects would vanish. Jeff Schimpff "Bus, Bike, Walk or Carpool to Work for Clean Air for Kids" -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Michael Rewey Sent: Friday, October 21, 2005 2:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Bikies] Naming the Missing Link Examples could be the Buckeye Extension of the Capital City Trail and the northerly path extension from the Old RR Bridge (near Mifflin Street) over the Yahara up to Commercial Avenue and beyond. M Rewey ******************************** From: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date sent: Fri, 21 Oct 2005 16:38:50 GMT To: [email protected] Subject: [Bikies] John Coleman Pathway > On bikies, Michael Rewey said: > > Unfortunately it may have delayed other projects because of city > > budget constraints. > Which other projects? > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
