1.) Decrease the amount of unnecessary trips. I drove to Lowes yesterday to pick up just paint samples. Today I am driving past Lowes to another store. If I was going to pay 3.89 a gallon as opposed to 3.59 a gallon I would have thought twice before I went out.
a.) If in my pea sized brain I thought this, its stands to reason that others will think this and traffic volumes should be cut down. This could then preserve roads and the increase in taxes would be more then be enough to fix our crumbling infrastructure.

2.) Decrease the amount of necessary trips. I can’t tell you how many times I see an 18 wheeler pull into our cargo bay with 1 or 2 pallets of stuff! Sure that stuff needed to get here. We have been shot in the foot by an untrue cost of shipping things. The semi/trailer combo is very efficient. They can go anywhere at anytime, there is no hassle. And because of this we send trucks to do just that. The problem is that a semi/trailer causes 50X and much wear and tear on roads as a passenger car does. What if from higher taxes things became more efficient. The trucks that appear at our loading docks came half as often and with 4 pallets worth of stuff? Unfortunately money is the only real motivator in the world.

3.) The increase in taxes inflates the cost of business and the whole global economic system fails. We would then loose rule of law and we would have to relearn how to use stone tools and bow and arrows.

As Chair of the Committee on Transportation Mica has to balance; 1. don’t add to the deficit, 2. don’t raise taxes, 3. maintain the existing highway/avaition/rail infrastructure with is falling apart, 4. create jobs, 5. save Amtrack (I’m not sure why), 6. replace the air traffic control system (this is 12 behind schedule), 7. cut federal red tape, 8. and play all the political games it takes to get a bill through a disfunctional Congress and a White House with no direction.

If I were in this guys place and wanting to get re-elected, I would ignore a weak cycling lobby and all those walking and bike projects too.

I did a century ride today and the thought that came to mind was over the next few years these rides may fade away here in central NY. Not that there isn’t a high level of interest but the roads / shoulders are in such poor condition to make the rides too difficult and dangerous for the average rider. The basic road infrastructure is falling apart.

Cyclists may well have to live with the fact that the prospects for this economy are so bad and politics so disfunctional that the bike infrastructure will be set back 10 years.

So what’s plan B?