A good read about a good ride....the evolution of Portland bicycling infrastructure.

I forgot to mention one of my Christmas presents.  The book Joyride by Mia Birk.  If your interested in improving bicycling in our region you want to read this....it will definitely light a fire under you.

Oh yeah, and it's just a good read....225 pages took me about two days...meaning I didn't put it down much.  If you want to get a copy or read an excerpt go to http://www.miabirk.com/.

Understanding Roadway Design.

 

 If you've followed the blog for a while you know that I'm interested in the regions roads.  It's a selfish endeavor really, as it might be for anyone....  Basically, I want the roads to function better for "me"!  Now in my case "me" isn't so much myself, as it is a person on a bicycle.  I've gone so far as to apply and be appointed to the citizens advisory board on the RTC's Regional Transportation Plan.  So as I try to become more involved in what happens in our regions road design, use, and planning, I thought I better start to get a little education and background on the topic.  Now I fully admit that I'm still in kindergarten with respect to road design but I did come across a pretty interesting read with respect to the US interstate system (arguably one of the best in the world).  

I won't go into all the details here.....and details abound in this book.  However, one quote late in the book made me chuckle this morning.

Just a little background...  A highway engineer is arguing that the Highway Trust Fund which is funded only partially by the gas tax should only be used for building highways, not any form of public transportation or "non-highway" project.

Jonathan Bingham's (a New York State representative) response:

"Did it make sense to use taxes on what has become a societal vice (the right to drive on good roads) to supply infrastructure encouraging that vice?  If the same principles applied to the federal tax on alcohol, the income would be spent building bars."

Seeing as I am an avid home brewer, (and patron of our local breweries) I found this quote pretty comical.  It does however, illustrate how most items that are taxed don't get every penny (and significantly more) of that tax put back into the product we're using.  So next time I'm at the brewery and hear a driver complaining about bicyclist not "paying" to use the road I'm going to have a new argument regarding the "tax" he pays and how it's used!