Comments on: Sellwood Bridge design approved by county /news/2011/01/27/sellwood-bridge-design-approved-by-county/ Building and Construction News in Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:33:27 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.6 By: JohnO /news/2011/01/27/sellwood-bridge-design-approved-by-county/#comment-51272 Mon, 31 Jan 2011 18:33:27 +0000 /?p=66539#comment-51272 Terry Parker’s concern that the interests of bicyclists and pedestrians played too great a role in the process because they won’t be paying vehicle taxes to pay for it is badly misguided.

“Local roads, where you most likely do the bulk of your daily bicycling, are a different story. The cost of building, maintaining, and managing traffic on these local roads adds up to about 6 cents per mile for each motor vehicle. The cost contributed to these roads by the drivers of these motor vehicles through direct user fees? 0.7 cents per mile. The rest comes out of the general tax fund.

This means that anyone who owns a home, rents, purchases taxable goods, collects taxable income, or runs a business also pays for the roads. If you don’t drive a car, even for some trips, you are subsidizing those who do — by a lot.”

]]>