On my ride home today I bumped into my neighbor, who was also cycling home. He asked if I had seen the stupid, new bike counter, waste-of-money thing. “If they can afford that, they can afford to plow the trail” (which I do not disagree with). However, I said I liked it, and I think it’s worth the 15 cents extra taxes each resident will have to pay. With more time to reflect afterward, I put together a few arguments. Feel free to add to these:
1 – Any spending on bicycle related facilities, infrastructure, culture, visibility, etc. is better than none. People may disagree on the best use of money (“they should use that money to plow the trail”, “they should use that money to fix the root heaves”, ” they should use that money to build a cycle track,” etc.), but we can’t let perfect be the enemy of good. AND – it’s never either/or this or that. The idea is to increase the pie, not assume it’s fixed. We need to do all those other things, too.
2 – It’s visible and raises awareness of cycling. Families driving by will see it, and the kids will say, “Let’s bike down there and change the numbers.” People will ask questions and have conversations (including debates), all of which raises awareness of cycling. As they say, all publicity is good publicity.
3 – It actually increases the likelihood that the trails will get more attention. Next winter when the numbers drop like a stone after the first snowfall, they will be plainly visible to all. And the active bike advocates will go out and take photos and hold Jay Fisette to task for all the big promotin’ he was doin’, but how come we can’t plow the trail, huh?
4 – It may also raise the visibility of the other issues around Lee/Lynn. Now that area will be the center of attention even more than before. And when the numbers roll into 6 digits, it will be more obvious than ever that a volume of traffic that high needs to be accommodated better than it is.
So all in all I think it’s a big plus for cycling.
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