BIKES!!!!!!!;!!!!

The BTA makes me almost ashamed to be an occasional cyclist.

"People who ride pay about as much as those who always drive."

That's absurd. I commute to work on a bike, and one of the main reasons is so I can spend much, much less on gas than I would if I drove to work. I do pay license and registration fees, but my contribution to the gas tax kitty is pretty low compared to someone who drives in from Beaverton 5 days a week.

Oh good, Charlie Hales can go bike to China next time he decides to visit.

GLV, the gas tax hasn't gone up a cent since 1993. Considering inflation as well as the damage and construction caused by motor vehicles, the impact of the gas tax is likely a negative on the economy.

I also think you missed the general point which is that paying those vehicle fees while riding a vehicle that causes nearly no damage is much better than those who drive something heavier.

Don, this is about state revenue. Oregon raised the gas tax by 6 cents a gallon in 2009. ODOT relies heavily on it, as the chart I was responding to clearly indicates.

And I strongly suspect they didn't provide a detailed breakdown of each "user fee" because it would prove my original point.

Joseph Rose is probably the O's best reporter and it's a shame he is required to put out a piece of clickbait for the Republicans in the burbs to rage against them dern lib'rl bikes every week.

This may sound anti-bike, but it's not. I think the BTA is throwing up a straw man in this argument, which is "Bikes don't damage the road system." Of course they don't. No one will argue that. If we assigned costs by the amount of damage done, studded tire owners, commercial truckers, and TriMet would be paying over half of the state's road maintenance costs, I suspect.

There are real costs associated with building a better bike system. Beyond the cost of maintaining bike facilities, which needs to come out of that pot of money somehow, there is also the cost, in some cases, of changing our street system to accommodate more bicyclists. If you take a look at a number of streets around Portland, like N Williams for example, you will find areas where travel lanes were removed to accommodate bikes.

There is a cost to increased congestion in these areas. It could be time, it could be increased air pollution, it could be frustrated drivers getting aggressive with bicyclists. For the most part, when I look around Portland, I agree with the choices that have been made to accommodate bikes, but we're fooling ourselves if there aren't costs beyond pavement wear associated with these changes.

And, one last cost to consider, when these changes are put in so ham-handedly, as they often are, it only reinforces the political opposition to bike facilities and turns it into another left/right divide. Because, you know, we need more bile in our political discourse. In my opinion, organizations like BTA only fuel this fire and never want to concede or address legitimate gripes that are raised. Because, as Graham says, BIKES!!!!!!:!!!!!

@pdxMB: Remind me again, why exactly aren't studded tire owners paying more road fees than the rest of us???

@Stu: I don't know. Assuming it wasn't a rhetorical question, start here:

http://preservingoregonsroads.org/p/oregon…

Even if they instituted a fee, I have a feeling it wouldn't come close to covering the damage. Because, you know, like the rest of America, we don't feel like paying for shit that we think we're entitled to.

What if levy a tax upon ourselves by forming a committee and account- (522 non profit file) say 10$ a year, perhaps more... I was thinking that if did such we could in time have enough money to support bikers way of life and pay what ever we think is appropriate to a tax if it even went into effect. All i'm saying is that we get ahead of this. A simple filling, a small volunteer staff/committee and a "membership" dues that will be used to "fight" enhance existing roads, new trials, and "paying" the tax if ever it came into being... perhaps this is a few years too late but this has not yet went to a vote I believe so maybe just in time???