Roland,

A funny thing happens to most of us who live in Portland, on a somewhat of a regular basis most of us leave Portland and use those highways that take us to the coast or to the mountains or to other destinations throughout the state and beyond. Those who live outside Portland, and even out of state, do the same in reverse. Freight also moves in and out of Portland on that same highway system. All motorists that use the road systems, including freight carriers, pay taxes and fees that directly support the highway infrastructure throughout the state. All this movement adds to a healthy economy.

On the other hand, bicyclists in the bicycle mode of transport pay zero, nada, nothing to support bicycle infrastructure, let alone making any form of financial payment for the roads they share with motor vehicles. Sharing the road must mean sharing the financial responsibility, not subsidized support (poaching) from another source, in this case motorists.

As for the 1.5 percent (or about $700,000.00 to $800,000.00) of PDOT’s annual budget; get real, you continue to play a shell game to cover up the true amount of motorist paid taxpayer dollars spent on bicycle infrastructure in Portland. For example, the requests by the City of Portland to Metro in the MTIP:

$1,872,800.00 (total cost $2,087,000.00) for Marine Drive Bike Infrastructure
$1,366,000.00 (total cost $1,521,847.00) for a NE-SE 50s Street Bike Bv
$3,698,000.00 (total cost $4,121,141.00) for a NE-SE 70s Street Bike Bv
$300,000.00 (total cost $398,000.00) for bike network planning on NE 28th Av
$224,000.00 (total cost $250,000.00) for Sulivan’s Gulch Bike Trail planning (a request made by Metro but in the City of Portland)
$1,800.000.00 (total cost $2,006,018.00) for a Willamette Greenway Bike Trail

Rounded off that is "NINE" and a quarter million dollars requested for projects totaling "TEN" and a third million dollars within the City of Portland paid for by poaching motor vehicle taxes all for freeloading bicyclists that directly contribute ZERO tax dollars to help finance this specially designed infrastructure that can not be used by the financier motorists.

Then, if you add those dollars to the costs of providing bicycle infrastructure hidden within the price tags of other projects like 102nd Av on the eastside, East Burnside, Cully Bv, Division St, the Hollywood Transit Center and many many others, the costs of subsidizing bicyclists balloon even more.

Furthermore it is not the bicyclists that paid for that new confusing signal on East Burnside, and it is not the bicyclists that will pay to narrow the lanes on the Morrison Bridge only to add a bicycle route. Even when the money is in the form of a state grant, the dollars are being poached from motorist paid taxes.

I have more than once requested that you Roland, as a policy advisor for Sam, provide and post a total (yearly) amount of dollars that are being spent to subsidize bicycling in Portland, You have yet to do so continuing to hide behind PDOTs budget that does tell the whole story. If you do not have those figures, then transportation funding in Portland is truly dysfunctional. Personally, I think you are too embarrassed to provide the figures because chances are every regular commuting bicyclist in Portland could probably buy a new car every year for the annual amount of money spent on bicycle infrastructure. By driving those cars daily instead of free pedaling, bicyclists would then actually be contributing to the economy and paying taxes for infrastructure instead of poaching off of other taxpayers for a financially subsidized ride. Continuing to mask a REAL reality check demonstrates your fear that providing the REAL numbers also will demonstrate the REAL need for a bicycle tax.