Grist - Comment Feed for Bikeways pay for themselves

Comment #1 by sindark

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:46:18 -0700

Road use feebate

If they start taxing road use by the kilometre, perhaps they can start paying people to cycle. It could be justified in terms of congestion, air pollution, emissions, and cardiac health (North America's biggest killer). They could do it on a voluntary basis using GPS devices and cameras for verification.

It would be like the net metering of electrical power.

a sibilant intake of breath

Comment #2 by claxton6

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 06:54:36 -0700

all well & good

But ... I think I'm missing the part where some of this winds up in the hands of the local governments that build bikeways. I guess you could say that freeing up money from road work can go toward it, but if the money for that roadwork comes from gas taxes, that may not happen.

Comment #3 by Biodiversivist

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 12:31:19 -0700

Every time I leave the Seattle bubble

and take my car into the burbs I get depressed. If you don't live in a city, biking is futile-- rivers of cars stretching out over the horizon in all directions, just warped.

In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world