From: Eric Westhagen
[mailto:[email protected]]
Now I have heard everything. Basing the road repairs on actual vehicle
weight when talking about bicycles
Basing registration fees [that’s
what we’re talking about – what Eric calls “licensing”]
on the weight of the vehicle is absurd?
Wisconsin DMV doesn’t think so:
The REGISTRATION FEES for “light
trucks” are “BASED ON VEHICLE GROSS WEIGHT”
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/plateguide/light-truck.htm
Exceptions are farm vehicles (because
they’re presumed to be used primarily off the roads) and SUVs and Vans
with passenger seating taking up more than 50% of the internal capacity
(because that makes them “automobiles” http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/plateguide/auto.htm
instead of “light trucks”
“Heavy trucks” and
“trailers”
http://www.dot.wisconsin.gov/drivers/plateguide/heavy-truck.htm
FEES “BASED ON WEIGHT, mileage, and
fees for operation in other states.”
If the registration fees (“licensing”)
for various heavy vehicles varies according to weight, why shouldn’t it
vary for light vehicles based on weight?
As for bicyclists being elitist, the homeless people in
Madison riding
on (and living off of) their bikes give lie to the assertion that
cycling is an
economically elite activity. Maybe people who don't actually live and
commute
in Madison should refrain from making unverifiable generalizations
about certain
demographics within our population.
If the assertion is that cyclists are elitist because
they are a minority relative to motorists, well certainly that is the
case now.
But the graph in the article Scott cited, found full size here:
http://media.oregonlive.com/commuting/photo/3jpg-1e109d8637c3ad0b.jpg
shows a 275% increase in the number of
bicyclists in Portland as a share of all commuters since the last
census (and
this is JUST work trips, not ALL trips), and it suggests that if we
spent
something more than a tiny percentage of our transportation budget
(which
cannot be repeated frequently enough, comes almost as much from
property taxes
as it does from all motorists' "user fees"), then cyclists would not
be a minority among transportation modes.
As long as we continue to spend not only all of the
user fees, but also most of the property tax revenue spent on
transportation,
to benefit motor vehicles at the expense of every other mode, then of
course
motorists will be in the majority of road users. If we'd spent the last
century
subsidizing roller skaters at the expense of everything else (limited
access,
grade separated roads that prohibit all modes except roller skates,
anyone?)
then roller skaters would be the dominant mode of transportation in
this
country. Of course, there would probably still be people who are either
ignorant of or refuse to acknowledge the disparity in funding, saying "
why should we build paths for pogo sticks when they are such a tiny,
elitist
minority of the road users, and always so disdainful of those roller
skaters
swinging their arms and their weight around, when they're just normal
people
going about their normal business."
In greater Copenhagen ,
the percentage of cyclists is about 40%, within the city itself,
cyclists are
more than 50% of the mode share. But of course they've spent the last
three
decades encouraging bicycle use, with both facilities for use and
storage of
bicycles, and laws (and enforcement thereof) that favor bicycles.
Oh, but that's just northern Europe, you say, it
doesn't apply here (usually this argument, when applied to, say, Davis,
CA, or
even Portland, OR, is followed by "they don't have winter" - but it
sort of falls flat when describing Denmark).
Within the central part of Madison , more than half of
residents do
something other than drive alone in their car: they walk, bike, bus, or
at
least carpool. Residents of the relatively dense, mixed land use
central part
of Madison who
drive alone in their cars are actually in the minority. But of course
the
dense, mixed use, central part of Madison caters to the car less than
any other area in our region. Which is not to say
that central Madison doesn't cater preferentially to the automobile; it
does, just somewhat less so
than the periphery of the city.
Thanks for the post, Scott.
Scott wrote:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/commuting/2009/10/only_in_portland_some_protest.html
or http://is.gd/4GBEf
