Bob CollinsShould bicyclists pay user fees?
In Oregon, three Republicans and a Democrat have filed a bill to do that. One of them gave his view of the responsibility of bicyclists in an earlier interview to BikePortland.org:
“On the way to work this morning, coming to an intersection, I stopped, and here comes a bicycle right next to me, right through the intersection…and that is a daily thing…and until we get a handle on that and hold them accountable….they’re creating a hazard out there. They’re on a public highway that’s designed for motor vehicles, not for those other uses…and to put everybody who’s driving a vehicle into a situation like this…I think it’s not right.”
Alright, that suggests a certain anti-bicycle mentality, but what about the concept of contributing to the maintenance of bike paths? By the way, Rep. Phyllis Kahn, who has filed legislation this year requiring bikes to stop at intersections with traffic signals, proposed a statewide bicycle tax/registration system many years ago.
Oregon’s got all sorts of interesting ideas for making money. At the start of the year, I wrote about its idea to tax drivers by the mile, because they stopped buying so much gasoline when the gas tax went up. This week, Gov. Pawlenty ordered $5 million to be spent to study the idea for Minnesota.
(h/t: St. Paul Issues Forum)
