Ok, probably not bike bits.  I'm just going to stick to riding for a while and not saying anything else about bikes for a bit, especially since people that ride bikes don't seem to actually READ my blog before rambling on death threats and such.  But woe is me the ever writing transit user.  So yeah, love blogs, hate taxes, on to new topics.

I have a Green Line MAX Preview ride coming up tomorrow, which should be cool.  I believe the idea is we’ll make the loop around the Portland Mall on one of the new MAX LRVs.  Should rock, I'm looking forward to it.  Also Joleen will be joining me after she rides downtown on her bike (yeah, we ride bikes, did I mention that previously?)

More Bike Comments

So any new readers please note that I'm very pro-bike, so don't get fussy (Argh I couldn’t not comment).  I love cycling, I have since I’ve lived in Mississippi and even after ALL 6 incidents where a motorist has hit me.  All the motorists where at fault btw – just so you know.  Two of those have been here in PDX.  So I know what it is like to be threatened by automobiles.  It's a little different than being annoyed by a cyclists blowing a stop sign.  A cyclist might get killed, but if you're driving your greatest threat is the other vehicles (and yourself) on the road, not the cyclist.

Streetcar Bits

Ok, as expected (by me) the new streetcars will be $3.4 Million EACH!  That’s a FULL MILLION above the price of the original cars that where shipped from the other side of the planet.  We get them in country and they just balloon to $3.4 Million each?  I call foul.  People are a fuss about prospective bike taxes, they need to get a fussing about the price of the streetcars.  I want service, I want frequency, I don’t care that they’re spiffy looking new ones.  I WANT MORE STREETCARS but without the obscene stupid price tag.  Take out the twisty parts, buy some smaller ones, do something.  Sam Adams, Fred, and the rest of you guys come on!  GO PRICE SHOPPING  for some streetcars dammit!  204 where purchased recently by our northern Canadian neighbors who are paying significantly less than we are.  If we piggy backed on that order we could get them for almost a million less per car.  In addition we could probably still get something built HERE in America for vastly less money.  What are you guys doing?  Are you ignoring the price tag on these things and just hoping the streetcars will breed like rabbits or something?  Come on!

Ok, so a lot of people jumped my case for the ad without even thinking it through.  They didn’t think the ad through nor did they realize they where attacking a bicycle advocate.  So I just want to get a few things straight right off the bat for any current and future readers.

1. I don’t support bicycle registration, taxes, or any other nonsense of that sort.  Period.  I’ve already written the politicians involved and they’ve been informed of my opinions as well as other politicians that are directly responsible for the area I actually vote in.  I’ve blogged about this in the past, and have debated such many times and even posted pro-cycling blog entries such as my Bike Dedication & Bike Dedication Part 2.
2. I’m an advocate of closing MORE streets to pedestrian and cycle only traffic.
3. I’m an advocate to enforce, encourage, and perpetuate that automobile users pay vastly larger sums of their road usage so that competing modes; bicycles, buses, light rail, passenger rail, and anything else can actually compete fairly on a cost & right of way basis.  That would be vastly better than the lopsided mis-configured mess the Government has us setup with these days that leaves us; vulnerable to foreign energy, dependent on the dirtiest sources out there (oil/coal/etc), and ill-prepared for future progress of technologies without massive subsidies and the need for Government involvement in said affairs.  NOT cool.
4. I’m also an advocate of using general budget or any other funds to build out bicycle, transit, or other modes to more evenly displace less efficient modes of transport (i.e. cars, etc) in urban environments.  Automobiles have had general budget funds dumped into roadways, often dedicated auto only roadways for decades – almost a century, with barely a few percentage points going to any other mode at all.
5. I’m for laws that hold motorists accountable for actions committed in automobiles as I support laws that do the same for usage of guns, knives, pools, etc.  I name those because combined, they kill fewer children per year than automobiles, yet we have almost no laws governing the irresponsible and excessive use of the automobile on rural, suburban, and especially urban roads.
6. I’m for realistic zoning laws that encourage development based around not bikes, transit, or other modes, but around people.  Only zone based on bikes, transit, etc once the necessity for easy human movement between development is fulfilled.  The last thing to be considered should be the intrusive automobile.  Portland is a great case of well designed (mostly private sector) zoning, human scales, and above all market based human interactions versus Government sponsored walls of Interstate Concrete and mass scale planning (even though some SOWA type environments allude to the continued attempts at Central Planning).
7. If I had my way 100% though, I’d not have a single cent of subsidy in any transportation industry though; cycling, auto, transit, passenger rail, airline, or otherwise.  Subsidies do nothing but unbalance the entire flow and demand, allow society of over utilize and underutilize intelligent lifestyles.  It’s really a mess and should be remedied.  The solution, more manipulation of the population however is an unfortunate characteristic of what the last 50+ years of politics has left us with.

Is all of this stuff logical?  Not always.  But it doesn’t matter, point is, I’d go pretty far to create a more bicycle AND transit friendly HUMAN based environment versus the auto centric dehumanized environment most of this country has oriented itself around.  I moved 2400+ miles (as mentioned before for regular readers) back out here to Portland from other parts of the US.  There was a reason I did this, and it wasn’t because ODOT & WADOT want to build a $4.2 Billion dollar bridge across the Columbia River.  It’s for all the exact opposite of those reasons.

So hopefully that lays out this blog’s vantage point and it isn’t mistaken for an anti-bike blog.  Bicyclists by their mere efforts.  I generally won’t be commenting about bicycling much, but hope some of you keep reading and add to the transit discussions that often takes place here.  Thanks!

…and now, back to our normally scheduled topics on transit.