SW,

A whole lot of the money that pays for roads and similar infrastructure improvements and maintenance is via federal funds, payed for by everyone who pays federal taxes, which includes those spandex clad cyclists. So my point is that they too are paying for roads and bike paths. BTW, most bike paths aren't that. They are what are called "multi-use" paths, used by cyclists, roller bladers, skaters, joggers, walkers, dog walkers, and I don't know who else. It would be a serious error in judgement to single out cyclists as the user group that should pay for bike paths that in fact are shared with a broader range of users. Users who are not quite so easily pigeon-holed.

As for cyclists who ride dangerously, they are the flip side of drivers who drive dangerously. Only the cyclists run the greater risk of injury or death. That is actually a separate issue, since neither bad driving or riding should be encouraged or tolerated.

Sorry about your relatives. No one wants to be on either end of a traffic fatality.

Stlhead,

Indeed it is a small percentage, but you don't have to be real bright to figure out that each commuter cyclist is ONE less car on the road. Is the reduction in congestion and pollution measurable? I don't know, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if it isn't measurable. But proving that it equals that many fewer cars on the road is pretty much self-evident.

Chuck S.,

You might as well say that cars, as numerous as they are, don't justify the truly insane expense it takes to accomodate them (and I'm one of them). A freeway interchange may accomodate thousands of cars per day, but I'm astonished when I read how much one of those pieces of concrete costs.

FP,

Go ahead, but you figure wrong. Maybe you'd like all paths and roads to be paid for by their unique user groups, but that's not how it works.

BTW, there's over 30 miles of multi-use path in Thurston Co. paid for by a variety of public funding sources. As a taxpayer, consider yourself screwed too, just like King Co. citizens.

I ride my bikes mainly on public roads. But I pay gas taxes too and a shitload of other taxes as well, so I don't feel like my road use is being subsidized by you and others.

Sg