Bike routes don’t advance alternative human-powered transportation

There are many subjects in Columbia that you are not allowed to talk about negatively. If you talk negatively about these subjects, even merely to stimulate a debate, you will be labeled with a moniker, a scarlet letter, or a head tattoo, and your name will fill the blogosphere accompanied by negative terms.

I am about to make a statement against one of Columbia’s holy grails — bicycles and trails. So I will now be called one of those “car-loving, energy-wasting, non-changing, stubborn people.” Sort of like the anti-Columbia tag line.

Here’s my beef: Pedestrian and bicycle routes along existing road courses do not advance alternative human-powered transportation. This was the goal and objective of the $23 million grant that we received from the federal government. I think the money is being wasted. I have not seen a demonstration of the very goals that I have heard must be pursued.

I think it’s time that the individuals involved with the grant in our pedway system to stop being all things to all of their interests. Road bikers are not commuters. Children trying to get from point A to point B through neighborhoods are. Riders of 350-mile marathons are not commuters. They are elite athletes. I will give up my roads to them if they follow the rules of the road. If they want to be road riders, they can be road riders.

Maybe I’m in phase three of programs for the pedway folk. But when I was growing up, we were taught to use residential streets as pedways. The problems that we had were the inability to safely cross major right of ways.

It’s time for this project to start connecting neighborhoods. That doesn’t mean building new trails — it means connecting neighborhoods where they cannot be connected through normal, marginally used right of ways. Build some connectors to quiet, residential streets. Build a few bridges that go across huge ravines that block me from conveniently getting from point A to point B via residential streets on my feet or bicycle. Enhance routing capability so that I can find how to get from point A to point B in the least traffic-bound scenario using the Internet.

Our $23 million can go a long way if these things happen. I don’t mind 8-foot wide sidewalks on one side of a street that are connected throughout a community that accept and acknowledge that people want to go to places that many of the pedway folk don’t like — such as Wal-Mart. Get me to grocery stores and shopping plazas, and even get me to the library.

Try spending some of this federal money on alternatives that are different. Take all the bicycles that are left on campus, those stolen by campus police from their rightful owners and the stolen bicycles collected by the Columbia Police Department. Then paint them yellow, put them in bike racks and allow people to use them. After three years, you will know where people would like by the number of bicycles that are yellow in the bike racks. I’m sure the federal government won’t mind paying for yellow paint.

Instead of worrying about how pretty subdivisions are and how many trees remain, contribute to the effort to make them walkable. There is $23 million to work with.

In addition, ask people other than the pedway folks what they would like to see. Maybe they have some ideas that would get them out of their cars. The pedway people are already out of their cars.

Make people safe. Just separate the cars from the people who are walking, recreating, and breathing. How intelligent is it to encourage people to be recreating next to exhaust pipes and vehicles traveling 55 miles per hour? Stop trying to get rid of cars and start thinking about helping people reach the objective.

So, now I will be labeled and crucified for my point of view. Meanwhile, I have just said what most of Columbians believe — that this $23 million experiment is more of the same and a bunch of baloney. If it’s not, then we’re doing a poor job of explaining to most residents of Columbia what the intentions are and how the federal money is being spent.

I see three choices: either get really creative, improve communication with the people you want out of cars, or consider giving the money back.