Who pays for the roads again?

You may have seen the letter to the Greenville News yesterday titled Vehicles, not bikes, pay for our roads (Google the article title if you are not a subscriber to see the full letter). The writer opened with the same old argument we have all heard before:

“Is anybody tired of all the whining and crying from the tight spandex and funny helmet crowd? All you ever hear from them is that “we have the same right to be on the road as cars do.” Wrong. There is no way they have that “right.” It is not a right; it is a privilege that I earned and pay for. I am required to carry insurance, passed a test and also pay a $20 a year road use fee. What do cyclists pay? Nothing!”

Of course we know that cyclists DO pay for the roads. Even though we ride bikes, most of us still own cars, carry insurance, and pay gas taxes. In addition, we ALL pay the income, sales, and property taxes that fund the majority of road construction and maintenance projects anyway. It is also worth noting that our lightweight ‘vehicles’ do NOT damage the roads the same way that heavy cars and trucks do. So if a cyclist pays for a road maintenance project through property tax, how exactly is he or she not paying a fair share?

I wrote a longer post in response to a very similar letter to the editor a couple years ago. I won’t repeat all the same points here, but I encourage you all to read that post. It is easy to write an angry letter without checking the facts, but I think the facts are clear. Cyclists do pay their share for the roads…and then some.

Alta’s Greenville Bicycle Master Plan project page

If you are reading this, you probably already know that the City of Greenville has been working with Alta Planning and Design on a Bicycle Master Plan for a while now (we are even one of the “featured projects” on their website). A public meeting was held in November to get community input for the plan, and second meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, March 15th at 5:30pm at the Hughes Main Library. 

If you missed that first meeting, Alta has a project website where you can learn more about the development of the Master Plan. If you click the “get involved” tab, you can find a link to take the online survey, and download the presentation from that first public workshop. I hope you all plan to attend the next workshop in March, but in the mean time the website is a great place to familiarize yourself with everything that has been happening so far.

I also briefly want to mention the Nicholtown Bike Share initiative. I missed the last Bikeville meeting where this was discussed, so I don’t have any information beyond what you can read at Livewell Greenville. It is a project that I am excited about though, so I will pass along more information when I can.

Image credit: Alta Planning’s presentation

People for Bikes

I assume that many of you are familiar with People for Bikes and have already signed the pledge in support of safer cycling. If you haven't, take a minute to review and sign the pledge now. Once you have signed on, the next step is to send a short email to your Congressperson asking him or her to support ongoing funding for bike projects and programs such as Safe Routes to School. People for Bikes makes that very easy to do by providing talking points and a template email to get you started. 

As I mentioned in a past post, South Carolina is statistically one of the most dangerous states in the U.S. for cycling. With the help of the PCC and concerned bicycle advocates throughout the state, conditions for cycling in SC are improving.  We still have a long way to go though, which is why it is so important that we remind our Representatives that a federal investment in bicycling projects and programs makes sense. Bikes Belong has a great statistics and research page to back up the claim that bicycle infrastructure is a good investment and Inhabitat points to a study which says that bike projects create twice as many jobs per dollar spent than regular road projects. Now it’s up to all of us to make sure those points are shared with our elected officials at the federal, state, and local levels. Let’s work together to make the roads in our state, and the rest of the country, safe for all users.

Riding in GreenVail

The snow in Greenville this week really shut down much of the city, but I am wondering if any of you took the opportunity to get out and ride on the quiet streets. I rode Monday and Tuesday with my DIY snow chain set-up, and really enjoyed (nearly) car-free roads both days.

According to the latest Bikeville e-newsletter, several people were out using the Swamp Rabbit Trail on Monday, while enjoying the winter views. If you have any snow riding pictures from earlier this week, post a link and share them here.

Church Street makeover

A recent post on the PCC blog linked to a Christmas day article in the Greenville News about “a $5.1 million project to transform Church Street into a tree-lined boulevard with bike lanes.” The article points out that the project, which has been on the drawing board for several years, “will remake Church with trees, bike lanes, sidewalk setbacks and crossings running from University Ridge to Augusta Street.”

If you click the direct article link above, it will redirect you to the Greenville News subscription page (if you are not a subscriber). You can Google the title of the article though- Church Street on Cusp of Makeover. For some reason, the Google link will let you bypass the subscription page and read the article in its entirety (a nice work-around while it lasts).

Share the News

A couple of months ago, I participated in the City of Greenville’s first major bicycle count, along with nearly 40 other volunteers. We spent one weekday morning and one Saturday morning counting cyclists and noting basic characteristics at various locations around the city. The new Greenville Bicycle Master Plan newsletter, called Share the News, outlines the results of that count, pointing out that we collectively counted more than 1,100 bicyclists during our two 2-hour long time slots. The newsletter also points out the following bits of information that were collected during the count.

• 76% of the bicyclists counted were male

• 64% of the bicyclists observed wore a helmet

• More than 60% of the bicyclists counted were riding

on the street rather than the sidewalk

• Bicycling was more common on the weekend than

during the week

• The most popular areas for bicycling were near

Willard Street, the Swamp Rabbit Trail and

McDaniel Avenue at Ridgeland Street

The results will be used for future planning and already validate some of the bicycle infrastructure plans that are slated for 2011 implementation. I’ll post more about those projects soon, but for now just know that good things are happening. Also, make sure that you are subscribed to the City’s Bicycling and Greenways newsletter for the latest news “about ongoing efforts to encourage bicycling and walking for recreation and transportation” in Greenville.

Continue to vote for Swamp Rabbit funding

Last month, I mentioned that the Swamp Rabbit Trail was in the running for a $250,000 grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project. I have good news to pass along to all of you who voted. Thanks to you the project made it to the next round!

Now we all just need to continue voting everyday throughout December so we can bring that grant money to Greenville to make our trail safer. There are two ways to vote (and you can vote both ways each day):

• On the web at http://www.refresheverything.com/swamprabbit
• Texting the message “104074” to Pepsi (73774)

Keep spreading the word about this too. Let’s make it happen.

Update 12/13/10:  Follow the new Vote Rabbit blog for the latest news about this initiative, and if you are mentioning on Twitter, make sure to use the hashtag #voterabbit. However you chose to do it, continue to spread the word and influence others to vote rabbit everday.