Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Politics Boise Votes 2011: Elections and Bicycles
Posted by Talyn Brumley on Wed, Nov 9, 2011 at 8:49 AM
As Boise Mayor Dave Bieter rode a wave of support to victory Tuesday night, along with Council Members Elaine Clegg, David Eberle, Lauren McLean and Councilman-elect Ben Quintana, transit became a hot election night topic.
Bieter told Citydesk that he believed bicycle transportation would become a higher priority in the near future.
"We've taken some good steps, some early measures," said Bieter, pointing to the city's "three-feet-to-pass" law, which requires motorists to grant cyclists three feet of space.
Quintana said that he was eager to begin improving alternative transportation such as bike paths.
"Economic development tools is what those end up being," said Quintana. "I'm excited to start working on that today and improving not only the bike lanes but making it more safe for bicyclists. Hopefully, we can overtake Minneapolis and Portland and become one of the best bicycle-friendly communities in the country."
Bieter, Quintana and Council Member T.J. Thomson all mentioned local-option sales tax as the best bet for expanding public transportation.
"Having multiple options for local pedestrians, bicyclists and, hopefully, rail will come down to local-option tax authority," said Thomson. "It could be integrated over an estimated three- to four-year period."
Similarly, Quintana stated that improving alternative transportation, such as expanding bicycle paths, would help invigorate the economy and make Boise attractive to new businesses.
Comments (4)
Showing 1-4 of 4
Hate to be cynical, bot wake me up when the #1 item on a major company's list of wants when they relocate is bike paths. I've been involved in corporate relocations, never seen bike paths be the #1 issue. In context, we're doing pretty good there. It's good to do better, but I have an idea, why don't we focus on some of those things that are clearly our weaknesses? I hope we're not looking at the new City Council being so narrowly focused and too philosophically aligned to have a real dialog on taking this city in the right direction.
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It's nice that Team Dave supports bicycle transportation. I'm sure the city wields influence, but it's ACHD that designs and implements the infrastructure, and IMO they've got a good track record.
If the city would like to support bicycling - how about some education and enforcement? City Hall could direct the Boise Police Department to give a little more priority to bicycle law enforcement. (Right now their stated policy is, "Bicycle violations aren't a priority for the Department.") And bicycle education is nonexistent. Kids learn to ride "on the streets" - often getting bad instruction from peers or clueless parents. (You know - the parents who ride down the wrong side of the road, with no helmet.)
My 2 cents.
I would be interested in reading a more complete set of remarks. Is that available somewhere online?
Thanks Matthew,
Yes. You can access longer comments from Bieter, Quintana and Thomson on this exact issue in some videos as part of our Election Night coverage at http://www.boiseweekly.com/CityDesk/archiv…
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