BIKE: 15 Percent Bicycle-Pedestrian Set-Aside is on the table

[rcbaker]

What really happened is that they listened to all the testimony and then put off a 
decision. They are still receiving input for another few weeks I think. What COULD 
happen is all the sprawl interests who are trying to get the bike money might submit 
hundreds of names on a petition to try to contradict the fact that most of the testimony 
last night seemed to be in favor of keeping the 15%. San Marcos brought a big 
delegation of city officials who did not speak -- to plead for some expensive ring road.

They also have a special green-sounding category of "congestion reducing" projects, 
which contain ways to speed cars as well as some bike projects, just to confuse the 
issue. They could transfer all the 15% to this category and you could still see no bike 
projects depending on what gets built. 

The prediction that they are going to raid the 15% set aside is probably accurate, 
because roads (as a form of welfare for the private land development interests) is in 
political control. Don't forget that billions probably went into real estate speculation in 
the Austin area during the 1990's high tech bom. 

As the cash for roads with political clout runs out, so do the environmental pretenses of 
the past. Of course stealing even the little bit of money promised to bikes will devestate 
bike plans far more than it will help fill the yawning chasm of debt needed to keep 
building roads -- in an era when every other kind of governmental expense is having to 
be cut back. Welfare for roads to meet potential growth projections decades in the future 
is sacred because it means profits on land development in an area where land 
development interests dominate politics.  

TxDOT and the RMA are trying to issue road bond debt like crazy, and any source of 
cash is fair game when you have a greedy Republican bureaucracy in charge. RMA 
head Bob Tesch recently said he spoke to Rick Perry and Perry asked him why he 
wasn't getting the toll roads built faster. The implication is that Tesch is taking orders 
from Perry, whos is trying to help all the special interests, starting with Walmart, which 
thrive on roads and sprawl. Perry appointed Tesch who I understand is a private 
developer. -- Roger



On 19 Nov 2003 at 19:13, Michael Bluejay wrote:

> 
> On Tuesday, November 18, 2003, at 09:53  AM, Bob Farr wrote:
> 
> > Yes fellow cyclists, the glass half-full (the meager 15 percent of
> > Federal TEA 21 funds currently set-aside for bike/pedestrian
> > projects in the CAMPO area) is about to be snatched from the table
> > and handed over to other air-quality enhancment priorites (perhaps
> > to fund an exit ramp or a few hundred yards of HOV lane). Nobody
> > really knows where that money will be spent, but it's a sure bet
> > that less will be targeted toward bike/pedestrian projects -- unless
> > you speak up.
> >
> > We've got 2 weeks for public comments; until 3 December 2003. CAMPO
> > Board Members need to hear from tax-paying citizens like us who
> > believe that encouraging the use of bikes and pedestrians
> > contributes much more toward improving air quality than does moving
> > more cars and trucks faster, through the same matix.
> 
> 
> Neither this nor the ACA website (which refers to the CAMPO meeting
> "last night") gives me a clear picture of what happened at the CAMPO
> meeting.  Sometimes we hear of upcoming meetings on this list but we
> rarely hear the outcome.  What was the outcome?  Did they vote on
> anything, or did they simply delay the decision until Dec. 3?  And on
> the one hand the ACA site says, in bold print no less, that we don't
> have enough votes to maintain the bike funding and so they'll be
> working with TBC to figure out the next steps, but then we're
> encouraged to send comments in to CAMPO even though it's supposedly
> for naught because "we don't have enough votes".
> 
> What happened at the meeting, and where are we really at?
> 
> -MBJ-
> 
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