One of the handouts at the meeting had a pie chart showing General Transportation Revenues (GTR) that come primarily from gas tax and motorist paid parking meter revenues. On the next page there was another pie chart showing how this category of funds was spent. Included in the expenditures was the harbor wall. I asked the question why, and said that maybe it made sense when Harbor Drive was in place, but it does not now. The answer came back: it has always been that way.

It seems to me having motorists pay for the harbor wall as it stands today is yet another raid on transportation funds that take away from the need for road repair and maintenance. Funding for the harbor wall should come from the general fund, or possibly the Park Bureau’s budget since the wall is now part of Waterfront Park. The harbor wall is NOT a responsibility motorists should be paying for. Furthermore, streetcar operations, also coming from GTR dollars, is NOT a responsibility motorists should be paying for.

Another page in the handout showed how the one-time revenues from the general funds for transportation Safe Streets Initiative will be spent including: $150,000 for bicycle safety improvements, $50,000 for a Platinum Bicycle Master Plan update, and $100, 000 for bike lights and bike race. What does updating the Platinum Bicycle Plan have to do with any immediate need for safety improvements? And General Fund dollars spent for bike lights and a bike race? This only demonstrates how bicyclists are like little children refusing to accept any financial responsibility for their own safety equipment (in addition to NOT financially contributing to help pay for bicycle infrastructure through a direct tax on themselves), and what appears to be some sort of communal need to have City taxpayers provide entertainment for them. Priorities are obviously out of alignment here, particularly when the total expenditures for bicyclists (not all safety related) are $300,000, compared to only $250,000 for fixing an increasing number of pot holes, a safety related item that affect everybody, and are there due in part because of deferred maintenance while GTR dollars are being siphoned off to pay for specialized infrastructure for freeloading bicyclists.