For Wisconsin- specific stats, Dave Schlabowske covered this topic a couple of weeks ago in his Over the Bars in Milwaukee blog:
http://overthebarsinmilwaukee.wordpress.com/2010/10/13/myth-buster-cyclists-dont-pay-for-roads/ -- Kathryn Kingsbury Director of Communication, Bicycle Federation of Wisconsin www.bfw.org 608-251-4456 <http://www.bfw.org> <http://bikefed.blogspot.com/> <http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#%21/bike.fed.wi?ref=ts> <http://twitter.com/search?q=BikeFed> <http://delicious.com/network/BikeFed> Join the Bike Fed for the biggest bicycling bash of the year! The Saris Gala is Oct. 29 - register now<http://www.sariscyclinggroup.com/index.php/saris-gala.html>. On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 11:11 PM, Eric Sundquist <[email protected]>wrote: > I can't vouch for all the figures in this blog post, but I do know that > fuel taxes and tolls now only cover about half the cost of roads in the > U.S., and the vast majority of that funding goes for freeways and arterials, > meaning local taxes cover most of the roads we cycle on. > > > > http://www.grist.org/article/2010-09-27-why-an-additional-road-tax-for-bicyclists-would-be-unfair/ > > "Should cyclists pay a road tax?" > > That was printed on the side of one of Portland, Ore.'s MAX light rail > trains as it sailed back and forth across the region for six months in 2009. > > The question was designed to > provoke<http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/07/new_max_ad_should_cyclists_pay.html>, > and it did. "We already do!" I would grumble every time I saw it. > > It's true. And, fair being fair, we overpay. > > Say you own a car. You're shelling out an average of $9,519 this year, > according to the American Automobile > Association<http://www.aaaexchange.com/main/Default.asp?CategoryID=16&SubCategoryID=76&ContentID=353>(most > other estimates are higher). Some of those costs -- a percentage of > gas, registration, licensing, and tolls -- go directly to pay for roads. And > it hurts. You doubtless feel every penny. > > The thing is, that money only pays for freeways and highways. Or it mostly > pays for them -- a hefty chunk of change for these incredibly expensive, > high maintenance thoroughfares still comes from the general > fund<http://www.seattlepi.com/opinion/331734_firstperson17.html> > . > > Local roads, where you most likely do the bulk of your daily bicycling, are > a different story. The cost of building, maintaining, and managing traffic > on these local roads adds up to about 6 cents per mile for each motor > vehicle. The cost contributed to these roads by the drivers of these motor > vehicles through direct user fees? 0.7 cents per mile. The rest comes out of > the general tax fund. > > This means that anyone who owns a home, rents, purchases taxable goods, > collects taxable income, or runs a business also pays for the roads. If you > don't drive a car, even for some trips, you are subsidizing those who do -- > by a lot. The best primer on this is economist Todd Litman's highly readable > 2004 report "Whose Roads." (It's also the source for most of the figures in > this column. Download the PDF here <http://www.vtpi.org/whoserd.pdf>). A > journalist recently crunched the numbers in > Seattle<http://www.publicola.net/2010/08/31/we-all-pay-for-the-roads/>and > found the discrepancy in 2010 to be as wide as ever. > > There are many reasons for cities to encourage bicycling, and the economic > argument is one of the best. Every time somebody gets on a bicycle instead > of in a car, the city saves money. The cost of road maintenance is averaged > at 5.6 cents per mile per motor vehicle. Add the so-called external costs of > parking (10 cents), crashes (8 cents), congestion (4 cents), and land costs > and that's another 28 cents per mile! Meanwhile, for slower, lighter, > smaller bicycles, the externalities add up to one meager cent per mile. > > The average driver travels 10,000 miles in town each year and contributes > $324 in taxes and direct fees. The cost to the public, including direct > costs and externalities, is a whopping $3,360. > > On the opposite pole, someone who exclusively bikes may go 3,000 miles in a > year, contribute $300 annually in taxes, and costs the public only $36, > making for a profit of $264. To balance the road budget, we need 12 people > commuting by bicycle for each person who commutes by car. > > The numbers continue to be astonishing when you consider the cost of > bicycle infrastructure. It consists mainly of paint and is dirt cheap by > comparison to any other sort of transportation project. Portland has > transformed itself into a bicycling mecca while allocating less than 1 > percent of its transportation budget to bikes each year -- with critics > fighting tooth and nail against every penny spent. > > In tight economic times, when it's hard to scrape together the cash to fill > potholes, even this low level of bicycle spending is often put on hold. But > what if, instead, the road tax overpaid by bicyclists were invested into > making city streets safer, more comfortable, and more convenient for > bicycling? New York City has been doing just that, resulting in tens of > thousands of people taking to the streets on two wheels and -- if those > people would otherwise be making those trips by car -- saving the city a > whole hell of a lot of cash. > > Yet the myth of bicyclists as freeloaders is gaining ground. Proposals for > bicycle registration schemes crop up every few months, usually from > conservative politicians looking for someone to blame, but also at times > from well-meaning bicycle advocates. Never mind that no such program has > ever managed to pay for its own administrative costs. Nothing is > accomplished by putting up barriers to active transportation. Instead, these > barriers need to be removed. > > Cities -- and taxpayers -- can't afford *not* to invest in bicycling. > > Elly Blue is a bicycle activist living in Portland, Oregon. > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org > >
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