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Defend Everyone’s 1.5 Percent

Following a front-page article in the News-Leader about the 1.5 percent of the CIP tax renewal going to bicycle infrastructure, the paper has published a letter to the editor arguing that the money should go to roads first.

I’m also hearing through the grapevine that Councilman John Rush is getting calls from citizens who think spending money on bicycling is a waste.

To the bicyclists and friends of bicycling in Springfield: I think it’s time to respectfully respond.

I’m doing so here on Carbon Trace. And I’ve been responding in the comments section of the News-Leader.

We also need a few people to step up and write letters to the editor and call city council.

This 1.5 percent belongs to everyone because making Springfield more bicycle friendly is a boon for everyone. Being bicycle friendly pays big dividends in the health of the community, the environment, the economy, and the quality of life.

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Comments 6

  1. Keri wrote:

    The mere mention of bicycles seems to bring out the sociopaths in the newspaper comments.

    Posted 01 Apr 2010 at 2:37 pm
  2. Steve A wrote:

    Who WAS that Isocrates commenter? Both in the post above and in his newspaper comment, he failed to mention that much of the bicycle infrastructure helps pedestrians at least as much. And THEY are the ones that need help the most, because they are more common, and more commonly injured or killed. They are a more important component of “the one mile solution” even than bikes. Besides, where pedestrians go, bikes also go.

    Posted 01 Apr 2010 at 8:23 pm
  3. Andy Cline wrote:

    Steve… I’ll speak to him about it asap ;-)

    Posted 01 Apr 2010 at 8:48 pm
  4. Robert wrote:

    Keri,

    You mean like this? LOL After every one of my newspaper columns there are many comments like this one.

    “sit down and be quiet, pednut. youre more than welcome to ride your bike on the shoulder of the roads. i think you all should ride the shoulder on interstates. trucks flying by and blowing you off into the ditch would be fun to watch.
    if you dont drive and you dont buy gas, then you dont pay road taxes to cover your radical anti-automobile nonsense. why should $millions in taxes be shelled out to make things a little more convenient for a puny minority who keeps whining at every opportunity? for 100 years or more, we, our parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and beyond got along fine walking, riding bikes, driving wagons and riding horses on the same roads as cars and everyone got along fine. now, pednuts come along and whine and stir up a division between cyclists and normal, rational people because you wimps dont have the guts we and our ancestors did. gotta have special trails and special lanes and special crossings and bike streets and islands. youre a bunch of damn sissies.”

    Posted 02 Apr 2010 at 8:10 am
  5. Andy Cline wrote:

    Robert… Wow. So confused on soooo many levels :-) Thanks for sharing it.

    Posted 02 Apr 2010 at 9:35 am
  6. Keri wrote:

    Robert,

    That one is more articulate than most of the ones I’ve seen ;-)

    Posted 04 Apr 2010 at 7:29 pm