Are Bike Lanes Redundant? Florida Republican John Mica thinks so!

[FayeforCure]

Scathing piece in the mosr recent Folio Weekly about Republican Cut and Slash policies harming the most vulnerable!!

Jacksonville, last week landed on a list of the most lethal metro areas for pedestrians. Jacksonville ranked third. In the first, second and fourth slots were Orlando, Tampa/St. Pete and Miami.

You might think that a state home to the top four most deadly cities â€" a state in which 11.1 percent of all pedestrians in the U.S were killed, along with 17.4 percent of bicyclists â€" would comprehend the need for improved highway safety.

But that assumption would require ascribing to lawmakers like Florida’s own U.S. Rep. John Mica the cognitive abilities and sympathies of an ordinary human. And that’s far too generous.

For Mica (R-Florida), the chair of the powerful House Transportation Committee, sidewalks and bike lanes are little more than pretty extras, as superfluous as flowerbeds and cabbage palms. He’s currently pushing to
eliminate federal safety requirements for road projects, gutting regulations that require bike lanes and sidewalks, which he compares to beautification efforts.

How does John Mica propose for bike lanes to be eliminated?

His transportation spending bill, which would cover the next six years of federal highway appropriations, would remove the requirement that 10 percent of the roughly $32 billion collected in federal gas tax dollars go
toward bike lanes, sidewalks, and the like.

Mica is pitching this bad idea as a way to free up” tax dollars in tough economic times, but it’s precisely tough economic times like these that force employees to hoof it to work. It’s tough economic times that send people who can no longer a ord gas or car payments out on the roads on two wheels instead of four. And the need to ensure their safety becomes more urgent as their numbers grow.

It’s hard to conceive that a modernday elected official would consider “transportation” a purely automotive concept. Everyone from community planners and developers to health experts and soccer moms understands that walking and biking are part of the transportation matrix, not expendable luxuries.

So why do we have law-makers who thumb their noses at bike lanes and transportation safety?

It’s no surprise that Mica would endorse the supremacy of the automobile, and the petroleum-based lifestyle that it sustains.
He’s Florida’s pre-eminent champion of the oil industry, alone among state lawmakers in seeking (before and after the BP disaster) to end a century-old moratorium on off-shore drilling. He even backed oil drilling in the
Everglades as far back as 1970. His brother is executive director of the Florida Petroleum Council, his daughter a paid shill for the oilbased Citizens Alliance for Energy Security, and Mica himself has collected some $60,000
from oil interests over the years.
So when Mica looks at gas tax revenues, he sees not an opportunity to improve transportation safety but to further advance oil industry profits, via more and bigger roads.

The tragic results? A local Planning and Zoning Commissioner explains:

Unfortunately, the counterpoint to Mica’s figurative oil stain is the literal blood spilled on the highways of his home state.
“How many more headlines must we read of kids getting killed or critically injured walking to a school bus or riding their bikes?” Orange County Planning and Zoning Commissioner Rick Geller asked the Orlando
Sentinel last week. He added, “Shifting funding away from bike lanes and sidewalks is
reckless and irresponsible.”

More here:

http://www.folioweekly.com/documents/folio0531wkl004.pdf

[KenFSU]

To play devil's advocate here, if 10% of federal gas tax dollars -- paid for by motorists -- are being used to fund construction of bicycle lanes, then aren't bicyclists freeloading off the system? Shouldn't they be asked to chip in as well, perhaps through some sort of permit?

Again, simply playing the devil's advocate here

[Dog Walker]

More bicycles = less wear and tear on the roads = roads last longer.  We do contribute our part!  

[Dog Walker]

Mica has never traveled in a bike lane.  No one he knows has ever ridden in a bike lane, therefore bike lanes are redundant.  The rest of us don't count.

[urbaknight]

All the extra money everyone pays fro everyday thing due to high gas prices, and the total disregard for bicyclists and pedestrians by the law, they owe us! They really do, non drivers pay taxes too! Some of us can't drive due to disability, poverty or loss of licenses. People like us have the right to be able to mobilize safely how ever we may decide to do it. But here, there is no choice for the rest of us non drivers. Furthermore, I find this poloicy to be in violation of the ADA. If this becomes a reality, it should be challenged in federal court, and those responsible for said poloicy should be forced out of government. I personally would send them into exile so they can no longer influence anyone in power.

[urbaknight]

Or better yet, charge them with first degree murder!

[Ralph W]

Some one, somewhere, is going to file a lawsuit, similar to all the others, claiming that public facilities (roads) are not ADA compliant and do not affording accessibility to the handicapped. Sidewalks must have ramps with rumble strips so that those in wheelchairs can cross the street and the blind can feel the texture so it's entirely possible that cyclists could claim that they are handicapped in their ability to safely use the roadways they are traveling.

We know that cyclists are supposed to use the roadways and not the sidewalks and our traffic laws apply to both motorists and cyclists and roadways are "supposed" to be designed with safety in mind, so it's not much of a stretch to find that the law will not allow what Rep. Mica is proposing. In fact, it's not much of a stretch that some judge could find that bike lanes, as they are now, are woefully insufficient and any future road construction, repair or modification must incorporate an enhanced bike lane that conforms to whatever the ratio is now for width of lanes vs width of vehicles traveling in those regular lanes.

[FayeforCure]

All the extra money everyone pays fro everyday thing due to high gas prices, and the total disregard for bicyclists and pedestrians by the law, they owe us! They really do, non drivers pay taxes too! Some of us can't drive due to disability, poverty or loss of licenses. People like us have the right to be able to mobilize safely how ever we may decide to do it. But here, there is no choice for the rest of us non drivers. Furthermore, I find this poloicy to be in violation of the ADA. If this becomes a reality, it should be challenged in federal court, and those responsible for said poloicy should be forced out of government. I personally would send them into exile so they can no longer influence anyone in power.

Thank you. It would be shameful to have wheelchair users, children and older people who cannot pay for themselves (through gainful employment) be acceptable roadkill. That is just not what a CIVILIZED society is all about!!!!

The biggest lesson is that no mode of transportation - at least I've never found one - pays for itself. All, be it travel by air, sea, road or train, rely on some form of taxation to create essential infrastructure. We would do better to think of transportation as something more akin to public education. It enriches society through its services, and we don't demand it pay for itself directly.

As we move to align our transportation systems with the demands of climate change and other needs, it would behoove us to remember this.

http://www.rpa.org/2011/05/spotlight-vol-10-no-9-gas-tax-myths.html

Regional Plan Asociation.

[Jumpinjack]

 Today, Bike to Work Day, Sec. Ray La Hood doesn't agree with Senator Mica.

[FayeforCure]

Here is Rick Scott's perspective on redundant bike lanes:

He (John Mica) has the support of Ananth Presad, recently appointed by Gov. Rick Scott to be top administrator of the Florida Department of Transportation.

During a congressional hearing run by Mica in Maitland last month, Presad said, "We must give serious consideration to whether â€" when resources and dollars are at a premium â€" spending money on sidewalks, bike trails, beautification and other projects like this is the most prudent use of taxpayer money."

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2011-05-05/news/os-gas-tax-bike-paths-20110501_1_bike-paths-bike-lanes-sidewalks

But Geller brings it home again with seeing kids killed by mororists due to a lack of sidewalks as unacceptable:

Anyone who periodically reviews my posts know I have great admiration for Rep. John Mica (R-FL), chairman of the House Transportation Committee.  I am asking him to consider modifying a proposal he floated to eliminate a 10% federal funding mandate for sidewalks and bike lanes.  The Orlando Sentinel published my strong words last week:

"How many more headlines must we read of kids getting killed or critically injured walking to school, walking to a school bus or riding their bikes?" Geller said. "To shift funding away from bike lanes and sidewalks, when Florida is number one in the nation for pedestrian and bicyclist deaths, is reckless and irresponsible."
Today, for the second time in two weeks, a motorist struck a child waiting for, or walking to a school bus in Central Florida.  The child, fourth grader Anthony Moore, died.  There were no sidewalks despite numerous subdivision homes nearby.  


Minneola Shores Road in Clermont, where a motorist killed a 4th grader today waiting for a school bus.  This photo came from the Orlando Sentinel.  

http://rickgellerforcc.blogspot.com/2011/05/john-mica-please-streamline-bureaucracy.html

[Jaxson]

To play devil's advocate here, if 10% of federal gas tax dollars -- paid for by motorists -- are being used to fund construction of bicycle lanes, then aren't bicyclists freeloading off the system? Shouldn't they be asked to chip in as well, perhaps through some sort of permit?

Again, simply playing the devil's advocate here

Thanks for playing Devil's Advocate, but this argument is a bit sketchy when we consider that bicycles are considered vehicles, too.  As someone who regularly pays gasoline taxes to various levels of government, I would rather drive on roads that have separate bicycle lanes than have to dodge bicyclists who risk life and limb to drive on the shoulder of the road.  In many cases, the shoulder of the road is just narrow enough for a small animal - and they usually end up as roadkill!

[ChriswUfGator]

Some one, somewhere, is going to file a lawsuit, similar to all the others, claiming that public facilities (roads) are not ADA compliant and do not affording accessibility to the handicapped. Sidewalks must have ramps with rumble strips so that those in wheelchairs can cross the street and the blind can feel the texture so it's entirely possible that cyclists could claim that they are handicapped in their ability to safely use the roadways they are traveling.

We know that cyclists are supposed to use the roadways and not the sidewalks and our traffic laws apply to both motorists and cyclists and roadways are "supposed" to be designed with safety in mind, so it's not much of a stretch to find that the law will not allow what Rep. Mica is proposing. In fact, it's not much of a stretch that some judge could find that bike lanes, as they are now, are woefully insufficient and any future road construction, repair or modification must incorporate an enhanced bike lane that conforms to whatever the ratio is now for width of lanes vs width of vehicles traveling in those regular lanes.

To bring an ADA or Title VII claim you have to be a protected class. Not 100% sure but doubt bicycles are.

[Ralph W]

I don't think the bicycle is the object needing protection. Claims are brought by the affected individual and what I meant was if just one person, who may or may not need a wheelchair or who also may not have an obvious and visible problem, brings suit under the provisions of Title Vll, then that persons claim would act as a class action suit under the ADA rules. If successful, that suit would be of benefit, not just to those with a doctors note but to every individual who must, or chooses to, use a bicycle on the public roads.

[FayeforCure]

I don't think the bicycle is the object needing protection. Claims are brought by the affected individual and what I meant was if just one person, who may or may not need a wheelchair or who also may not have an obvious and visible problem, brings suit under the provisions of Title Vll, then that persons claim would act as a class action suit under the ADA rules. If successful, that suit would be of benefit, not just to those with a doctors note but to every individual who must, or chooses to, use a bicycle on the public roads.

Unfortunately, very few claims are brought under ADA rules. I personally refrained from bringing a claim against a county school system in Georgia that had 1,700 inaccessible classrooms.

Imagine FL having no ramps to its classrooms in trailers.........it would be illegal per federal ADA laws and fortunately FL has abided by ADA laws 100% on that count.

Though I did involve the media on this issue, the GA school system did not budge at all.

A grand jury to which I referred the superintendent of schools in that county for indictment, only resulted in "recommendations for remedy."

Portable classrooms can bring real relief to overcrowded schools, but they may also create barriers for students with disabilities.

An 11Alive investigation found a number of local school systems that don't appear to be doing what the federal law requires to make classrooms accessible.

11Alive Investigator Jennifer Leslie learned the U.S. Department of Education is looking in to claims that school officials in Gwinnett County Public Schools violated the civil rights of one of their disabled students. The student, a 6th grader, was assigned to a 7th grade resource classroom, because he could not walk up the steps of a trailer to study with his peers.

Faye Armitage and her son Jason have learned to deal with adversity. Four years ago, during a soccer game, Jason collided head-on with another player and was paralyzed from the nose down. Since the accident, Jason has re-gained some movement and his mind remains sharp.

"He's come an awfully long way. I'm hopeful with the stem cell research that he will be back on his feet," Faye  said about her son. For now, Jason uses a wheelchair, which made it impossible for him last fall to get to one of his 6th grade classrooms in a trailer at Dacula Middle School.

Instead of installing a ramp or moving the class to accommodate him, school officials assigned Jason to an accessible 7th grade classroom in the main building.

"Just the whole fact of being excluded from some classrooms didn't make sense to me," Faye said. "None of the 6th grade classrooms out there in the trailers have ramps, and there have got to be about 50 trailers out there."

In fact, there are more than 1,000 portable classrooms in the Gwinnett County school system. Not even one of the portable classrooms is equipped with a wheelchair ramp.

In a 1998 affidavit, superintendent Alvin Wilbanks argued that adding ramps would cost too much money and take up too much space. So, the local fire marshal gave Gwinnett Schools a variance or waiver from the state accessibility law that requires ramps on all new classroom trailers. There was no mention of federal law.

"If you ever get sued in federal court, we're not promising that a federal judge is going to honor this variance," Georgia Fire Commissioner John Oxendine said.

Any portable classroom that was bought or relocated after January 1992 must be accessible under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to the U.S. Justice Department. This is true no matter how many disabled students are enrolled in the school or how many use the portable classrooms.

I refrained from bringing a federal lawsuit during a highly Republican era for fear that the courts would allow such egregious exceptions, setting back implementation of equitable ADA regulations elsewhere too.

A DOJ complaint I filed also went nowhere.

[urbaknight]

Why are southern governments so against people with disabilities? Is it just because federal laws made them do something that requires time, effort and extra money? I mean, it seems as if, if you aren't one of them, voted for them or kicked in millions in campaign contributions, then you do not matter and do not fall into the benefits of being southern! Isn't this America? or are they still trying to be the Confederacy? I'll bet they'd bring back slavery if they could find a way! Their feelings on people with disabilities and/or people who don't or can't drive resembles a modern Jim Crow philosophy! Down with southern governments as they are today! There are lots more good southerners than bad southerners, Please, good people of the south, for the love of God, get involved in politics and drive out the old, dried up, stupid and still prejudice idiots we currently have, please!