Chuck, I suspect you know that almost all transportation dollars go to maintain the present pavements. And, as a bike advocate, you may be aware that the condition of pavements have to be maintained at a higher level for bike users than for cars and trucks.
We increased the level of pavement maintenance in the early 1970s for several reasons: (1) Bike Usage was increasing and it was the goal of the city to support bikes; (2) We got out of the County Pavement Program, wherein City taxpayers were funding Town roads to the detriment of tax payers; and, (3) Paul Soglin was elected Mayor. Over the years, our pavement maintenance dollars have diminished in proportion to other city programs. Hopefully, the City budget can cover all the bases in 2011. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of STRAWSER, Charles Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 9:07 AM To: Bikies Subject: Re: [Bikies] bike lanes Hmm, Larry's right. If we can't afford to maintain them, maybe we shouldn't be building them. Wait, are we talking about big roads, or tiny bike lanes? I forget. Hard to keep track since it has been pointed out many times on this list and in other forums that we don't have the resources to maintain what we've got, yet we still seem to spend tens of millions of dollars of the city budget every year expanding the existing transportation infrastructure, mostly for the benefit of motor vehicles to the detriment of all other road users chuck _____ From: Larry D. Nelson Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 9:26 AM To: 'Bikies' Subject: Re: [Bikies] bike lanes I suspect that there will have to be a substantial increase in the Operating Budget to maintain the existing bike lanes, in addition to the new bike lanes that are being planned. I also suspect that having a sum sufficient is going to be a challenge in the 2011 Budget. On the other hand, "if you can't maintain 'em, don't build 'em".
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