My thanks to the News-Leader for highlighting alternative transportation in its editorial today. I question the assumption that riding on the streets of Springfield is not safe or that bicycle lanes are safe. But, all in all, the need for transportation options is a conversation Springfield needs to have, and I’m happy to see the News-Leader taking a leadership position.
Bicycling is safe compared to a lot of other things we do everyday. Springfield is already a great place to drive a bicycle. And we’re getting better all the time.
But, wow, I can’t even look at the online comments.
OK, well, yes, I did read a few of them 
Comments 13
Only 9 comments, not toooo bad. Except for the Uriah1950 who used to ride 100 miles, but now he has only ridden 40 miles in the last 5 years because he is too scared.
Oh, and there’s the requisite troll comment “When cyclists and pedestrians start paying the registration and licensing fees and the tax on gas to fund the roads, I think they’ll have a leg to stand on. Until then, they’re mooching off those who do pay for the roads.”
I swear, that kind of comment must be copy-pasted from some bank of troll comments somewhere. Think it’s worth making a comment to refute?
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 10:20 am ¶Please, please do, so I don’t have to. Surely at this point you have your own ready-made rebuttal that you can just copy/paste.
I hate reading News Leader comments too, particularly on this subject.
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 11:18 am ¶I love it — anti-troll boilerplate
And, no, I don’t think it’s worth participating. I think the N-L needs to follow my advice (see rhetorica.net) and institute a tiered comment/membership system that privileges transparency.
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 11:32 am ¶Looks like city works have your 6*.
City_of_SGFD
8:57 AM on September 8, 2011
Speaking to this topic specifically, the 1/8-cent sales tax is just that – a sales tax. It is paid by all who purchase goods inside the city limits, regardless of their mode of transportation. In Springfield, the vast majority funding for local street maintenance and improvements comes from various types of sales tax revenues. Registration, licensing and gas taxes are state funding mechanisms that pay for highways, bridges and other larger-scale projects.
Mike Brothers
Dept of Public Information
City of Springfield
*back
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 12:26 pm ¶I once told someone who said “bicyclists dont pay taxes” that he was right. I just go into any store, make a purchase and during check out I show my bicycle helmet. BAM! They take the sales taxes right off the total.
Just one of the many perks of being a free-loading bicyclist
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 4:28 pm ¶Andy, just refer such freeloader comments to my “your street construction sales taxes at work” post. I would, however, prefer to find out where Robert purchased his helmet.
As for the licensing – has everyone forgotten that the courts only allowed that because motor vehicles are exceptionally dangerous, warranting controls that are unacceptable for regular road users? I guess that is why this is called “the forgotten right.”
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 5:38 pm ¶Alternately, pinch the photo and sentd it where it might cause a troll to actually think.
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 5:40 pm ¶Steve,
Re: courts
Do you have a link to a nice story about that?
Thanks
Posted 08 Sep 2011 at 6:13 pm ¶Robert, sadly, I can’t find the original item right now. If you Google the subject, you will find lots of flaky stuff that claims driving as a right. Some of these actually use some of the court cases that bounced things like pedestrian licensing. The one that comes closest to the sense of what I originally saw (and it isn’t really bad) is at
Posted 09 Sep 2011 at 5:02 am ¶http://www.bicyclelaw.com/road-rights/a.cfm/road-rights-license-to-ride
Steve… From your link, this part is significant:
“Today, motorists are universally required to be licensed, while non-motorists are not. This fact is virtually always misunderstood by motorists to mean that they have a greater right to the roads, when in fact it means the opposite—they have a lesser right to the roads, because their use of the roads is by permission of the state, and subject to revocation. In contrast, non-motorists’ use of the roads is by right, and subject only to a duty that they observe the rules of the road.”
Posted 09 Sep 2011 at 6:49 am ¶Hi, Andy,
As a car-free bicyclist of 15 years in Springfield, my experience has been that most drivers are courteous, some are oblivious, and a very, very few are obnoxious. I’ve been hit by a large paper cup full of soda, and another time was hit by an egg that splattered on my arm and cut my skin (it was thrown from a car going the opposite direction than I was). Most of the obnoxious ones, though, content themselves with screaming at me. Whatever.
Generally, I think bicycling around Springfield is reasonably safe and most drivers are considerate. The weather is a greater impediment, in my opinion, than traffic.
Posted 09 Sep 2011 at 11:28 am ¶Jane… Agreed. Although I have never suffered actual violence.
Posted 09 Sep 2011 at 11:52 am ¶Steve’s link to Bob Mionske’s blog (Mionske is a JD and co-author, with Steve Magas, of Bicycling and the Law) is a good one.
Let’s remember that we authorize (license) drivers in a graduated scale according to the risks they impose on others, which is not the same as having the right to travel on the road. The public would not think it wise to allow someone with no skills to get behind the wheel of an eighteen-wheeler or school bus full of kids, right?
Where this falls apart to some degree is motorcyclist licensing. To operate a moto in most states you not only have to have an operator’s license (i.e., to drive a car) but a moto endorsement. To me, that seems either punitive or paternalistic.
Motos are smaller than cars and frankly, the unskilled motorcyclist is more likely to kill or injure himself rather than anyone else. Kinda like bicyclists. A lady in Albuquerque just killed herself on a moto. Riding for less than 6 months according to the local paper, she couldn’t control the bike on a fast curve and literally rode underneath an eighteen wheeler in the next lane and got underneath the wheels. Ugly way to die.
Posted 09 Sep 2011 at 12:15 pm ¶