Baltimore recently completed its first bike plan in 20 years.
The plan, if approved, will allocate $3.5 million over the next three years as part of the introductory phase of the long-term project, and connect 150 miles of city streets, bike lanes, paths, trails and assigned routes.
The Examiner is all for it and challenged employers to subsidize bike commuters.
Some employers already subsidize employee transportation. Why don’t downtown employers help employees kick the car habit by purchasing bike racks and seeking company discounts for bikes?
I'm sure there will be some employers who, because of dedicated leadership or an eye toward their image, will do something like this, like Discovery Communication does; but the bulk of employers are going to need some encouragement from the government - like taxing parking spaces - to make that kind of change. That's my opinion at least.
DC has a bike plan they finished in April of 2005. Unfortunately, they're already behind their goals. For example
Goal by the end of 2005 Reality (as of 9/7/05)
50 miles of bike route signs 10 miles
20 miles of bike lane 17 miles
Met Branch trail 50% complete Design/build contract not yet started
Anacostia Trail Design complete 50% complete
500 racks in place 305 racks
Street Smart program Ran in June 2005 and again right now
Some of the other goals are a little harder to define. I learned last week (as part of my training) that a study was done of over 800 Pentagon projects. Any project behind schedule 15% of the way in would always finish behind schedule at the end. DC is 10% of the way in and I'm not sure they can catch up.
The government already taxes parking spaces but then turns around and gives that money back as tax credits.
Posted by: Michael Plakus | June 19, 2006 at 08:57 AM