How would you spend $25 million for bicycle and pedestrian facilities in your town? That's a question that reps (like Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman, right) from four municipal governments get to consider when they meet in Washington DC this month.
The four — Columbia, MO, Sheboygan County, WI, Marin County, CA, and Minneapolis, MN — were named as pilot projects in the pork heavy transportation bill passed by Congress this summer.
They'll meet Dec. 13-15 to discuss how to spend $25 million each in their communities. It will be interesting to see how far $25 million will go. I've read that bike paths can cost $1 million to $2.5 million a mile. Bike lanes can run $15,000 to $35,000 per mile.
All told, the transportation bill had about $4.5 billion for cycling and walking projects, a small fraction of the total $286.5 billion in the bill signed by President Bush.
The Associated Press has filed a story about bicycling's growing clout on Capitol Hill. The reporter interviewed the mayor of Columbia, 72-year-old bike enthusiast Hindman, and officials from lobbying groups Bikes Belong and America Bikes. As for passage of the bill, the AP reported:
It didn’t hurt the cycling lobby that President Bush has became an avid rider himself in recent years after having to give up running due to pain in his knees.
In fact, Bush told Bicycling magazine editor Stephen Madden that his sudden interest in cycling helped convince him to back the funding for bike projects.
Columbia mayor Hindman said he's been wanting to build a network of bike paths in his city for years. He and others say state highway departments were founded to build roads for autos and staff don't even consider facilities for alternative modes of transportation.
The Marin Independent Journal reports that officials there plan to start designing local facilities in January. They have until 2010 to spend the money.
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