Posted on 08/06/2005 1:04:20 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Four communities will soon share $100 million in federal funds to develop bicycle and pedestrian trails aimed at enticing commuters to give up their cars to get to work, thanks to lawmakers involved in the final negotiations on the recently passed highway bill.
The four pilot projects at $25 million each were the brainchild of Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, an avid cyclist and, more importantly, the senior Democrat on the House Transportation Committee.
"A lot of trails have been built for recreational purposes," said Keith Laughlin, president of the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy, an advocacy for turning abandoned railroad rights of way into bike and hiking trails. "This is for transportation. There will be an emphasis on connecting destinations, getting to work, getting kids to school."
At Oberstar's request, Laughlin's group proposed a dozen communities for the pilot grants. Oberstar and other key lawmakers narrowed that list to four — the Minneapolis-St. Paul area; Sheboygan County, Wis.; Columbia, Mo.; and Marin County, Calif.
Minnesota wasn't the only state with a well-placed lawmaker. Wisconsin got an assist from Rep. Tom Petri, a Republican who chairs the committee's highway subcommittee; and Missouri was aided by Sen. Kit Bond, chairman of the Senate Environment Committee's transportation and infrastructure subcommittee.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat from California's Marin County, doesn't have a leadership role on transportation, but she served on the conference committee that ironed out the six-year, $286.4 billion transportation bill. So did Oberstar, Petri and Bond.
Keith Ashdown, a vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, questioned why two of the pilot projects would be in a northern climate where year-round bicycling is difficult.
"The selection was based on who was on the conference committee and not where the money is best served," Ashdown said. "It doesn't seem like you'll get the lion's share of getting people off the roads."
Laughlin, however, said Minnesota's Twin Cities have among the highest use of bicycles in the country.
"A northern climate can be a positive," he said. "If you can show these are places where you can cycle year-round, you can do it anywhere."
Oberstar was vacationing this week and was unavailable for comment, but his spokeswoman, Mary Kerr, said the communities were chosen based on merit.
"They were selected as the most bicycle-friendly, and they had the human infrastructure in place — people and groups that would be interested in getting it going," Kerr said.
Shannon Haydin, Sheboygan County's director of planning and resources, said her office got a call from Petri's office two days before the House passed the bill, asking if the county could come up with a plan for the money.
"We said yes," Haydin said. "There are a lot of projects that have been on hold because of lack of funding. I think we can be a role model for the country."
Ashdown, of Taxpayers for Common Sense, said his group didn't have a problem with the federal government funding bike trails.
"The highway bill is about more than roads, and it should be," he said. "But when you're suffering from record congestion in some of our biggest metropolitan areas, and alleviating that is considered the No. 1 priority, I'm not sure how effective these provisions are."
Ross Baker, a Rutgers University political scientist who specializes in Congress, said that it was no accident that the four projects wound up in the home states of the four well-placed lawmakers.
"Very little that happens in Congress happens by coincidence," Baker said. "Earmarking is a political payoff to constituents. This is the bread-and-butter of politics."
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On the Net:
Rails-to-Trails: http://www.railtrails.org/default.asp
Bliss-ninnies at work.
Howdy Norm!
Well....it'll leave more room on the highways for bigger, meaner, more expensive SUV's.
If they just have to keep tearing up perfectly good roads and rebuilding them to keep people working then putting in walk/bike ways not a bad idea in theory. The exercise would be good for us but what happens around here is that people use them for shoulders.
I'll have to hop on the federally subsidized bike trail system and come visit ya sometimes. (I don't have a bike tho... ;) maybe the gubamint can give me one so I can take advantage of the bike trial.)
It about 85 down here..
"What, you say that bike riders don't pay gasoline tax? Um, uh, hmmmmm, lesseeeeee... OK, I've got it, this will benefit motorists who do pay gasoline tax by keeping other motorists off of the road, yeah, the suckers will fall for that line..."
You could probably get more people out of their cars with that $100 million by paying them to not drive than you could by building these boondoggles...
We got to buy those pedestrian bridges and pedestrian crossing lights in areas where there is seldom a person on foot. It beats any thing I've seen.
79 and sunny here. Lovely. A little too hot in the sun.
Where I live there is a 10,000 acre state park nearby and the bliss-ninnies of the county are drooling over attempting to get "trail" access through our mountain property. Just what I need: a bunch of hippies on bikes, hikers with dogs, horse riders, etc. walking past my front yard whenever they please. Of course, if they trip on a pot hole or stub their toe on a tree branch, guess who they come after. They absolutely loathe the concept of private property.
Oh goodie. I get to work with some smelly sweat-hog who rode his bike to work. We'll need a lot of air freshener in the conference room.
The Bush (he won't veto it) highway bill is nearly as large as Jimmy Carter's first budget.
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