On Sunday, Feb. 25 Darin said: > ... My point is that even if you buy into this characterization, you should still be sceptical of the Governor's proposal. Unless he invests the tax money in things like public transporation, the public will continue to enhance the profit margin of Exxon-Mobil and their ilk. >
The public is likely to continue to drive anyway, even if the state invests more money in things like public transportation. It's going to take more than just facilities and infrastructure to lure Madison drivers out of their cars and on to mass transit, car pooling and riding bicycles (or to live closer to where they work or visit, so they don't have to drive so much). But our representatives and the governor have demonstrated not even the slightest bit of interest in doing anything other than spending billions of public dollars on expanding highway capacity, despite there being a state law on the books already requiring it: "Surface Transportation Program - Discretionary" Statutory Authority: ยง 85.243, Wis. Stats.: The Surface Transportation Program - Discretionary (STP-D) funds projects that foster alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles such as bike and pedestrian facilities or plans, the purchase of transit vehicles for new services and other Transportation Demand Management projects. Funding for the STP-D program was eliminated in the 2003-05 state budget and again for the 2005-07 biennial budget. http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/localgov/aid/stp-discretionary.htm It's not only greedy, it's foolhardy. But they continue to pump money into more roadway capacity anyway. Go figure. More at: http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/localgov/docs/stp-d.pdf FINANCIAL INCENTIVES FOR REDUCING HIGHWAY TRAVEL AND ENERGY DEMANDS IN WISCONSIN http://www.danenet.org/bcp2006/vmr.pdf VMT Reduction: An Environmentally and Economically Sustainable Method of Eliminating Highway Congestion http://www.danenet.org/bcp2006/trans/neuman_vmt.html Mike Neuman _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
