San Luis Obispo County’s Board of Supervisors and its seven city councils have an overwhelming obsession for bicyclists. The multi-million-dollar cost of creating bike lanes on Price Canyon Road, 75-plus miles of bike paths, and the many bike rallies are evidence of this. These cost the taxpayers money for police and safety concerns.
All of this would be fine if the bicyclists actually paid for a substantial portion of the cost associated with the above activities.
Bicyclists in the county should register their bikes annually and pay a substantial fee to help defer the growing cost to county taxpayers on their behalf. These fees are an opportunity for the biking community to pay their fair share.
SLO city’s website states, “As a bicycle-friendly community, the city of SLO is leaving a positive footprint on the environment by encouraging commuters to shift from motor vehicles to bicycles, reducing the number of vehicle trips and miles traveled in the community, reducing traffic congestion, and improving air quality.” Don’t hold your breath on this one.
It’s time for the bicycles to be registered and pay.
Philip Mordaunt
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Last-Minute Gift Guide.
RIGHT ON….how about getting bike riders to OBEY traffic laws like the rest of us.
if police would ticket and fine bikers instead of treating them like sacred cows we would all get along better
https://calpirgedfund.org/reports/caf/who-pays-roads
A little education goes a long way.
@Tim Wilkinson
What a crock of chit link.
Non-partisan report my az.
I assure you, this zero emission car driver pays way more in every sort of tax from payroll, to gas, to property and back to utility tax than any effin tree hugging, broke ask bike rider and probably a negative tax paying student in SLO proper.
That report is as believable and non-partisan as any MSM report having to do with fair reporting on anything to do with non-liberal subject matter.
A useless word salad is what that link was that you provided.
My wife and I each bike about 3,000 miles a year, and drive our cars about 25,000 miles a year (and we walk some too!) and I think some of you angry cars folks are missing a few variables in your analysis. First, most bicyclists, like me, pay plenty of taxes, including car registration (we own three), etc. so the idea that bicyclists are not “paying their share” is largely fiction. Second, hello??? are you paying attention when you drive? Where would you rather have the slowest and most cautious bicyclists ride? In the same traffic lanes as cars? Slowing everything down? Or off on a separate area where their disruptive influence on motor vehicles is less? Third, every bike ride is one less car ride, one less vehicle’s worth of congestion. Is that such a bad idea? So go ahead, hate bikes and everything about them, but factor in the above variables, and more. No need to be so cantankerous when bikes are saving our gas.
Even worse, outwardly sanctimonious bicycle riders.
Guess what, my household has 3 oft used bicycles. In 51 years of life, until this post, I never once had to tell someone this fact.
And btw, our two vehicles are both driven less than 7500 miles a year and one of them is a PZEV (zero emission).
Where are our prizes (or participation trophies) for using a childs conveyance item without seeking praise? /s
Why do we even have “bike” lanes? As a legal non-motorized vehicle, bicycles have as much right to surface street traffic lanes as a car. So, just slow down and follow them through traffic as they use any lane they choose, including left turn lanes at lighted intersections. The same goes for horse-drawn conveyances–just don’t forget to put a diaper on your old nag.