Andy Stahl

Randy,


The status quo gas tax also penalizes rural Oregon, i.e., those who
consume more gas pay more tax.  I, too, live in rural Oregon where I
serve on a rural school board (Crow-Applegate-Lorane) that, among other
costs, has one of the longest school bus routes in western
Oregon.


The issue of how Oregon pays for highway/road maintenance should be
separate from how Oregon pays for bicycle-related transportation
infrastructure.  Bicycles contribute zero to road maintenance
expenses.  However, bicycle infrastructure is costly to build and
does decay, although unlike roads, its decay is independent of use. 
That is, bike paths fall apart from tree roots, weather, flooding, and
the like -- not from the wear-and-tear of bicycle tires.


Best regards,


Andy




At 12:53 PM 3/11/2009, you wrote:

I am in DC at the national bike
summit and there will be a big increase in funding bike transpo.  As
far this last e mail

Below is a VERY bad
idea

It is not fair to rural town

60% of the people in Oakridge have around a 100 mile round trip every day
for work because there are no jobs in Oakridge   plus there are
many things we have drive to Eugene to pay

Many people in rural Oregon are low income this would really hurt. I
realize in the city you bike everywhere it is NOT that way in rural
Oregon

Some sort of weight/mileage
scheme that taxes as a function of miles driven and weight of vehicle (a
surrogate for road damage caused) is likely to be the long-term solution
for highway funding. 

A " clean tea" bill is proposed to adress this below and would
set a side 10% of cap funds for bikes. Oberstar is pushing this

Although a carbon tax is good
for the environment, it is unlikely to be a source of transportation
infrastructure funding as legislators will choose to spend carbon tax
money in other ways (i.e., per capita rebates, green energy
investments)a

Take and please remember not everyone lives in a big. 
We need solutions that work for everyone

Take care




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________________________________________________

Andy Stahl, Executive Director

Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics

P.O. Box 11615

Eugene, OR  97440

(541) 484-2692, 484-3004(FAX)

http://www.fseee.org

Note my new email address:  andys@fseee.org 

________________________________________________