Thanks Chuck and Mike. Just a couple of items to note: a cooperative trail partner on a state trail retains 70% of the revenue from a trail pass they sell, per state law. Dane County only receives a cut when they sell the pass (there are a number of vendors in Dane County - Bike Fed and Friends of the Military Ridge State Trail are two of the bigger vendors). And here's a link to a web page with more info about the state trail pass: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/fees/trailpass.html. Trail pass decisions are indeed made on a case by case basis by the managing authority for the trail and are made for a variety of reasons. The trail pass is the only source of revenue we have for trails, which are historically at the bottom of the barrel for funding (at least at the DNR and for most local units of government) of maintenance and operations because they bring in little to no money, unlike other properties/activities that these entities manage. I will say that if trails were tru ly treated as roads, then we would be able to receive road funding for them and likely have no need for a trail pass. Ideally, we'd live in a society where trails were truly considered public goods and were funded as such. But we're not there. Many of our trails, including Badger and Military Ridge, have TE funds in them. For a full list, see: http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/parks/trails/state_trail_system_facts.pdf - second to last column.
Apologies for the run-on paragraph here...it's another one of those meeting-filled Mondays! -Brigit Brigit E. Brown State Trails Coordinator Wisconsin State Park System 101 S. Webster Street, Box 7921 Madison, WI 53707-7921 desk phone: 608-266-2183 cell phone: 608-219-1295 -----Original Message----- From: STRAWSER, Charles [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Monday, April 04, 2011 12:54 PM To: Michael Rewey; [email protected] Cc: Brown, Brigit E - DNR; Ross, Arthur; Marsh, Darren; [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: Dane County requires DNR state Trail pass for Cap City State Trail [was: Hank Aaron Trail update] DNR State trails (which include all of the trails Mike Rewey mentioned below, even the one Mike called the "Dane County Cap City Trail") are generally maintained by local municipalities, even though they are State trails. The local municipality that maintains the trail can choose whether to require the DNR State Trail pass or not. The city of Madison chooses NOT to require the DNR state Trail pass for the use of the Cap City State Trail within the city limits. So, apparently, does the city of Milwaukee (or Milwaukee county, or whatever local municipality maintains that section of the Hank Aaron State Trail Mike refers to). But Dane County Parks (whose director, Darren Marsh, is cc'd) maintains the Cap City State Trail outside the city limits of Madison (including Fitchburg, I believe, but I may be wrong about that), and Dane County Parks chooses to require the DNR State Trail Pass, in part because a previous director of Dane Count Parks believed that the revenue from state trail passes received by the County would offset the county's stated cost to maintain the trail (which, at the time, was ~$25,000 annually, and did NOT include plowing snow). Dane County receives 30% of any state trail pass WHEN IT IS SOLD IN DANE COUNTY (so, e.g., when I buy a state trail pass at Kettle Morraine south, which is not in Dane County, then Dane County receives $0 from my state trail pass, which I then also use when I ride on the Capital city State Trail). Robbie, Darin, myself, and others on this list argued back when Dane County made that decision that a) a transportation corridor built with transportation funds (as the Cap City State Trail was) should not require a user fee, since that makes it a toll road (I do not think the paved portions of the Badger State Trail or the Military Ridge trail were built with transportation funds, though I could be wrong) b) voluntary donation collection boxes along the Capital City State Trail might generate as much (or possibly more) revenue as the sale of State Trail Passes in Dane County to users of the Cap City State Trail. c) because Dane County receives part of the revenue of State Trail passes sold within the county, rather than part of the revenue of the state trail passes held by users of State Trails within the county, this system does not the even insure that the actual users of the Cap City State Trail (or any other state trail in Dane county) are paying any money that Dane Co receives). http://www.countyofdane.com/press/details.aspx?id=188 Dane County did not agree with those of us who protested enough to decide not to require a State Trail pass of those who use the Cap city State Trail in Dane County (outside of Madison), but they heard enough protests at the time that they agreed to buy State Trail Passes for anyone who uses the Cap City State Trail for Transportation, and sends them an affidavit asserting that: http://www.countyofdane.com/pwht/pdf/hw/capitalstatetrail-380-162.pdf I and others have long though this was far from an ideal solution, and perhaps it is time to revisit whether a state trail pass should be required to travel outside Madison on the transportation corridor that was built with transportation funds we call the Capital City State Trail. To illustrate this point, last summer I rode my bike from my place of work on the west side of the UW Campus (610 Walnut Street, 53726), almost exclusively on paved multi-use paths, all the way to the Dane County Parks Dept (1 Fen Oaks Ct, 53718), in order to be a part of the discussion of the future of bicycling in Dane County. Most of my trip was on the SW Path and the Cap City State Trail in the city of Madison. As soon as I crossed under the beltline (and outside the city of Madison), the Cap City State Trail became a toll road. So, ironically, Dane Co gave me an economic disincentive to ride my bike to a forum held by Dane County in which bicyclists were invited to participate in discussion of what Dane County should do to improve conditions for bicyclists in Dane County. Everything else about the discussion, led by County Executive Kathleen Falk (cc'd) promised positive changes for bicyclists in Dane County, but it is unfortunate that the County continues to choose to impose a disincentive for bicyclists to use one of the best transportation facilities in the county when they are doing so much else to encourage more bicycling. Chuck Strawser Pedestrian & Bicycle Transportation Planner Commuter Solutions Transportation Services UW-Madison Room 124 WARF 610 Walnut St Madison WI 53726 608-263-2969 www.wisc.edu/trans __________________________________ Michael Rewey wrote: It is interesting that's the the paved Hank Aaron Trail is a DNR trail and the DNR does NOT require a DNR trail pass. At the same time the DNR paved Badger Trail in Fitchburg and the paved Military Ridge Trail between Madison & Verona (mostly in Fitchburg) require a DNR trail pass. Also the paved Dane County Cap City Trail requires a DNR pass. Are some urban DNR Trails more equal than others? Mike Rewey -------------------------------------------------- On 29 Mar 2011 at 12:29, Tom Held wrote: The DOT plans to finish the extension to the Oak Leaf Trail -a temporary fix. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/lifestyle/118841714.html _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
