John, maybe for a 3-4 month period during the winter there won’t be so much biking on the trails. The benefits still outweigh the costs in my mind. John do you happen to be married to the Bobby Boucher’s mama in the movie “The Waterboy”. Baseball Stadiums are the Devil! Bike trails are the Devil! Road projects are the Devil! Anything and everything that might involve use of taxpayer money is the Devil!

Does that group include you, or since you ride for pleasure, instead of exercise, does that exclude you?

I forgot that Europe has a tropic climate, enabling them to use their bikes as a source of transportation.

I am going to suggest that Critical Mass goes and ’shows off’ around Wildwood Park for a while.

John we need efforts like this to reduce our oil dependence. It sure sounds like you are content being a puppet of OPEC, and don’t mind paying 4 or 5 dollars a gallon for gas in the future when we have another price spike. So pick your poison I guess, either pony up some tax dollars for things like this, or spend $50+ on a tank of gas for the rest of your life. Maybe being a retiree you have enough money for the ladder. I sure don’t.

Just because you favor the automobile as a mode of transportation, doesn’t mean other viable means of transportation should not be taken into consideration.

I just returned from a trip to Madison, Wisconsin, where bike lines and trails represent a vital and crucial part of the network of the city. Everywhere I went in the city, I observed people young and old, on bicycles and other modes of transportation commuting from place to place. It was definitely something to see. Even though we are currently well into the fall season, people were still out on their bikes going to and from home, work, and school .

Providing safe, adequate access for bicycles is not a new concept. A good number of metro communities in the US are already allocating more and more transportation dollars to trails and bike lanes. With the increasing price of fuel, people are exploring alternative ways of getting from point A to point B. Also, in case you haven’t noticed the average weight of an American has gone up considerably over the last few decades. We are becoming a sedentary, obese nation. With this comes an increase in health problems from diabetes to congestive heart failure. Riding a bike is good – it gets you to where you need to go, doesn’t emit harmful pollution to our environment, uses less wear and tear on our roads, and gives the rider a cardio vascular workout in the process !

John – what’s it going to take to get you on a bike and see its benefits ? Why don’t you come out for the next Critical Mass ride and partake in the movement ?

Bicycles deserve to be on roads just as much as cars.

What percentage of roads are “100% with tax dollars?” 100% of them.

Building millions of dollars of roadways are justified for cars and not bicycles?

Someday I’d like to see a trail using the old interurban right of way south from Fort Wayne through Ossian and Bluffton and all the way to Muncie to link up with the Cardinal Trail. AEP/I&M still holds an easement over the interurban ROW for their power lines, and there’s precedent for trails on power line easements in the Calumet Trail in the Indiana Dunes area, built on the NIPSCO alignment.