This Week in the Mercury
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Bikes / Portland Bike Budget on the Chopping Block
Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Feb 25, 2009 at 1:57 PM
It's red alert over at the Bicycle Transportation Alliance blog, where staffers just found out this week what the global economic meltdown means for Portland's bike budget - a 40 percent cut to one of the city's most visible programs, Safe Routes to Schools.
Last year the budget for Safe Routes, which hires "bike ambassadors" to teach kids and parents about bikes and disseminate pro-bike propaganda citywide, was $750,000. A big chunk of that — about $200,000 — was a "one time" appropriation from a surplus in the city budget. Remember when budgets had surpluses? With the city budget dipping into the red, PBOT announced earlier this week that the Safe Routes budget would have to be slashed down to $520,000. "We just can't afford it. The one time funding that the we had last year just doesn't exist," says Linda Ginenthal, PBOT's Transportations Options Program Manager, "So we're scaling back the program to really get the cores."
Here's the breakdown of what Portland will actually lose because of the cut: $7,000 in new bikes will not be purchased or distributed to school children, $3,000 in other marketing incentives (like bells and lights) won't be purchased plus they'll have to scale back bike encouragement projects in local schools and (here's the *gulp*) cut some staff.
Ginenthal says three Safe Routes staff will see their hours cut. "We're not cutting three positions," clarifies Ginenthal, "We're cutting 10 percent of the time for three positions - so three people will be working at 90 percent." The jobs affected are two safe routes to school organizers (who train parents to lead bike workshops at schools around the city) and the program director.
Also on the budgetary chopping block is the SmartTrips program, which distributes info about non-car transit options to parents of schoolkids. This is a big deal because the program has a lot of great benefits for Portland — the overall, long term kind of benefits that are often at stake when people have to start slicing budgets. "We've done this now by 5 or 6 years and through that program we've reduced the drive alone rate by nine percent," says Ginenthal. Less people diving alone helps the local economy in a lot of ways. It reduces congestion, which in turn helps the city's overall economy by making freight cheaper to ship and office commutes more quickly. Cars chew up the roads way more than bikes, so getting more people on bikes significant numbers saves the city money on repaving roads. Plus, notes Ginenthal, "In this economic climate, getting people to drive less puts money back in their pockets."
While BTA staffers fear for their jobs, Ginenthal says PBOT is trying to dig up more money to patch the budget hole, maybe by negotiating with ODOT or getting grant funding. "We're looking in every place where there could possibly be funding... Everybody is under the crunch here."
The conversation about this is already getting hot over at BikePortland, where a commenter sparked anger with the line: "This program does very little other than supply jobs to unskilled workers. I am happy it is being cut."
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What I don't understand is how the numbers add up. The article mentions that the program will get cut by about $200,000. Then it goes on that the cut will involve $10,000 in bikes and marketing expenses, plus 10% reduction of 3 staff positions. The way that I read it is that the 10% reduction will save the city $190,000, which really prompts the question what the cost is of these staffers or what the BTA charges the city for their services in this program.
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The office of transportation does contribute money. But if by "pay to staff" you mean pay for entire salaries, then no.
It's PDOT that runs the SRTS program. (And it's researchers at PSU (like me!) who evaluate the program, and whatnot. Yearly evaluations are nationally mandated.)
And the BTA is the primary organizer of the 2nd SRTS National Conference, which is to take place in Portland.
Sarah Mirk: you typed "PBOT."
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"You fucked up - you trusted us!" -Otter
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Personally, I'm shocked and dismayed that Adams would have lied about his priorities in the campaign just to get elected. That's so totally out of character for him.
No doubt he'll hold dozens of open meetings to allow people to comment and explain why he's decided to make his changes. That was always Vera's style, and it seems to be his as well.
The BTA has been such a clever, responsive, and effective organization in the past, I'm sure they'll come up with a way to restore funding.
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