Bicycles As Alternative Transportation
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It is clear that bicycle use as alternative transportation to the automobile in the County of Santa Barbara has failed to gain the support of the commuting population. In the past 10 years close to $5,000,000.00 dollars have been spent annually on alternative transportation (excluding items such as Clean Air Express), and this expenditure has failed to change driving habits. Had this $50,000,000.00 dollars been spent on needed county road and bridge repair the amounted needed today would be less then the estimated 50% shown here.
Deterioration and abandoned roads would not have occurred at such an accelerated rate. Timely and proper maintenance would have allowed more money to be spent on reasonable commuting options as the Clean Air Express. Conclusion With 25 years of planning and implementation in the county, all objective measures show a failure of bike use as a commuting option. The concept of people being willing to use bicycles as daily alternative transportation has failed to materialize. The millions of dollars spent and planned to continue this misperception is a fraud upon the taxpayers of this county and the nation in general.