Every fall Bike Walk Twin Cities and Transit for Livable Communities conducts a bicycle/pedestrian count. These counts are a major contributing factor in coming up with modeshare data. It’s also a core reporting element for the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program.
This fall, the bike count will take place at 42 locations on September 13 and 14 from 4:00-6:00 PM. Volunteers are needed to staff these count locations, and, well, count. A map of count locations is available on the Bike Walk website.
Volunteers need to attend a 30-minute training session on September 6, 7, or 8, and also need to have demonstrable counting skills. If you’re available and interested, sign up online to help.
So, there’s been a bunch of buzz about Minneapolis and bicycles lately. Grist is all a-flutter about Minneapolis as a bicycle town. There’s the kerfuffle about the Minneapolis bicycle coordinator hiring, as evidenced in this Star-Tribune story (and the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition’s recommended response). There was a bunch of gushing praise about bike-sharing and infrastructure following the Safe Routes to Schools conference.
Regardless of how one approaches the coordinator issue, one thing is going to become more and more clear in the near future. Minneapolis has become used to being able to do big, fancy stuff for bike/ped infrastructure thanks to being one of the pilot sites for the Non-Motorized Transportation Pilot Program (NMTPP). And the Grist article rightly calls out that progress in Minneapolis has been both due to investment and commitment. But the future holds a lot more commitment than funding to do much.
Realistically, the NMTPP is not going to be extended. Hell, right now on the federal level there is debate about even extending the gas tax (once practically considered automatic), let alone keeping dedicated funding for cycling in the transportation bill. The odds on the pilot program becoming a program program and spreading to other municipalities, let alone getting more funding? Fairly laughable.
Minneapolis and Saint Paul are also reeling from reductions in Local Government Aid from the state of Minnesota. Finances are a struggle. There’s not going to be generous additional funding from the cities — and not just because of the kinds of reactions seen in the comments on the Star-Tribune story about the bicycle position with the city, although you have to believe that’ll factor in, but also because these are cities having issues with basic street maintenance right now, let alone improvement and upgrades. When you can’t fill a pothole or buy a new snowplow to replace one that is at double its recommended service age, fancy street upgrades aren’t likely either. The ROI of bike improvements versus other improvements isn’t an issue when there are no improvements being made.
The seriousness with which Minneapolis treats bicycle safety and infrastructure is great. It will make a difference going forward. There are plenty of ways the bicycle coordinator position can continue to impact cycling in the city, and work on improvements. But I think cyclists locally are going to have to get used to improvements being less showy. Funds may still be available from various sources and grants, but the net total will be far less than previous. You’ll likely see more paint, and less concrete.
For those of you paying attention, during the 2011 Minnesota Bicycle Summit, Fridley was given a $110,000 grant from Bike Walk Twin Cities to do just this. At the time, it was said the city intended to invest $67,000 of its own cash in the project.
Six months later, Fridley is having public meetings to discuss MAYBE doing this?
What a glorious fate for this grant money.
The public meeting will be at 7:30 PM on September 15, in the Fridley City Council Chambers at 6431 University Ave. NE, Fridley, MN 55432. Please show up and join me in saying: WHAT.
I’ve been a little lax with updates recently. Part of it’s been being busy. Part of it is being depressed a little about the state of things.
I’ve discussed the current situation with the Transportation Bill previously. In an issue that is at once completely separate but entirely interlinked with the Transportation Bill, the federal gas tax is up for renewal at the end of September. The federal gas tax is 18.4 cents per gallon of gas (24.4 cents for diesel). The tax has never been indexed to inflation and has not increased since 1994. Most economists feel that the gas tax is way too low, and as you consider its alleged role in funding infrastructure, the crumbling state of our roads and bridges suggests economists to have a pretty good point even if you think math is hard. Heck, some states are trying to tax electric and hybrid vehicles to make up for ‘lost’ gas taxes based on vehicle efficiency.
Without reapproval of the gas tax, 75% of those taxes would be uncollectable. And that’s what a number of people want, including Grover Norquist, head of Americans for Tax Reform. Many anti-tax folk are saying that the gas tax, and any highway/bridge/road funding to come from it, should be solely controlled at the state level.
This is, of course, ridiculous. Many states are also extremely anti-tax. There’s some extent to which interstate commerce relies some on centralized planning and funding — and not on pissing battles between neighboring states “ruled” by different parties.
With both the current state of the transportation bill, and this, many transportation advocates are claiming it’s an advocacy battle. We all must write our congressional delegation! We must get involved!
Which is fine. It’s what you’re supposed to say. But advocacy requires people who are willing to compromise and change their minds. Precedent suggests that the people who’ve signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge aren’t going to budge. Writing my congressperson is a complete and abject joke, especially where it involves taxes.
I suppose I’m more of a mope about it all thanks to the deadlock in Minnesota and the Minnesota shutdown, which apparently achieved jack+squat for either side. And that’s what I see happening federally. I suspect the federal gas tax will get renewed, at present rates or a possible cut (which is its own disaster, if you consider the reduced funding levels already looming in transportation). But it’s not going to be based on advocacy. It’s going to either be based on reality biting in the ass via another bridge going ka-pow or some rarely seen but much needed pragmatism from Congress. Me writing my congressperson (who will be anti-renewal, when not running for president) will do nothing. My senators will be pro-renewal, and any letter I write will just go into the “validation” file, and won’t make an impact. And everyone else knows I can’t vote for them.
In summary: I’m going to go continue to put my younger child in the bike trailer and get her rolling, because it’s something I can do, effectively.
August 2, 2011
by julie Comments Off on Lithuanian Mayor Takes on Illegal Parking
