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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Bikes BTA Calls Out Lack of $$$ for Bike Master Plan

Posted by Sarah Mirk on Wed, Nov 11, 2009 at 3:34 PM

No big surprise: City Council Planning Commission approved the city's new Bicycle Master Plan 5-0 last night, layering praise on the ambitious plan to build 600 new miles of bikeways around Portland and get thousands more urbanites on bikes by 2030.

That's the good news. But earlier this week, a post on BikePortland pointed out the bad news about the bike master plan—it's a lot of great talk, but the city needs to seriously get its rear in gear if all those beloved bike lanes are going to become a reality.

In a letter (pdf) posted on BikePortland, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) told the city's bike plan director, "To make and maintain this needed shift, the draft plan’s creative and thoughtful policies need to be matched by equally creative and thoughtful commitments and investments." Or, in the simpler English I put forward last week: SHOW ME THE MONEY!

Yeah, the BTA's letter could be sharper and more readable, but hopefully it's a sign that the advocacy group will start putting the screws on City Hall and the state transportation department to make bike funding actually match the big heap of hype showered on bikes in Oregon. In the letter, the BTA suggests some necessary benchmarks for success, including building 130 miles of bikeways by 2013 and bringing down Portland's bike crash rate to a quarter of what it is today by the year 2014.

All I'm saying is that after writing one, two, three, four, five articles about Portland's miserably low funding for bike infrastructure, it's good to hear the city's bike advocacy group make the same point to City Hall.

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  • Mark Searcy

 

Comments (9) RSS

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1
Wouldn't it be more newsworthy if the BTA WASN'T acting whiney and entitled?
Posted by Blabby on November 11, 2009 at 4:52 PM · Report
2
"....to make bike funding actually match the big heap of hype showered on bikes in Oregon"

Ha ha. Um Sarah, it's you guys showering that on yourselves.
Posted by Blabby on November 11, 2009 at 4:54 PM · Report
3
Sarah,

Thanks for the promotion, but it was Planning Commission, not City Council that approved the plan last night :-)

(Planning Commissioner) Chris Smith
Posted by Chris Smith on November 11, 2009 at 5:28 PM · Report
4
Has anyone noticed the massive numbers of cyclists on the road in the recent (rainy) couple weeks?
Posted by D on November 11, 2009 at 5:48 PM · Report
5
Portland features a large community of bicycle enthusiasts.
Posted by bowers on November 11, 2009 at 7:34 PM · Report
6
God, Blabby, do you EVER have anything constructive to say?
Posted by Paul Cone on November 12, 2009 at 9:17 AM · Report
7
Things like facts and details, such as knowing the actual governing body the meeting was held by, aren't really all that important to the Merc Planning Commissioner Smith.
Posted by CH on November 12, 2009 at 9:25 AM · Report
8
Do they factor in the cost of replacing the roadway that gets painted over for bike-only applications? If they don't, the BTA may be arguing a non-issue.
Posted by orgengine on November 12, 2009 at 10:25 AM · Report
9
Paul, here's something constructive:

The survey of Pdx residents found that one of the few areas they were less happy about from 2005 was the state of the roadways. In addition, almost 70% of working Portlanders drive to work by themselves every day. Add in the carpoolers and bus riders, and figure out how many people depend on ample, well-maintained, auto-oriented roadways.

Let's not worry about diverting additional funds to the small minority of people who regularly use bikes. If they'd like to pay a tax or fee, then they can do that themselves. And while they're at it, they can come downtown and take this green f**king pain off the streets and allow me get where I need to go.
Posted by Blabby on November 12, 2009 at 12:25 PM · Report

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