Patricia Decker: Bike person
Patricia Decker and Robert Porterfield provide a lot of big numbers on the construction of the new Eastern span of the Bay Bridge in their long article for the SF Public Press.
They might have also mentioned another big Bay Bridge number, since early this year the Toll Authority commissioned a $1.3 million study on the feasibility of putting a bike lane on the Western span of the Bay Bridge at a potential cost of $390 million!
Since Decker is a bike person and an active member of the SF Bicycle Coalition, maybe she thought it wouldn't be helpful to the cause to bring up that particular big number.
She's so attached to her bike she's given it a name:
mireille (that's the bike. yeah, i named her. and use gender-specific terms when discussing her) changed all of that. before i'd even settled into the lower haight, i'd load up the bike onto AC transit, "dart" across the bay, and cruise up and down howard and folsom streets for dance classes, capoeira and other mission delights. it was practice for the inevitable move. i had to get a taste for the landscape and get some cycling wits to boot.
Labels: Bay Bridge Bike Path, Bicycle Coalition, Cycling
posted by Rob Anderson @ 8:47 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
What's your point?
Decker is a dedicated bike person, who didn't bother to discuss the potential cost---as much as $390 million---to put a bike/pedestrian path on the West Span of the Bay Bridge. Since the story is supposedly concerned with "spiraling costs" of constructing a new East Span to the bridge that were "never subjected to public scrutiny," the bike path idea surely deserves a mention, especially given the huge price tag. I suspect that she left it out just because that number is so huge and so difficult for anyone but a bike zealot to justify.
This is Decker here. Because the story is about the east span replacement, the west span bike lane was a bit too far off topic this time around. It was left out of the story, along with thousands of other words, because we wanted to focus on the financing costs and steel costs of the SAS. I will certainly keep it in mind should I be given the chance to write follow-up stories. Yes, I love my bike and I have given it a name, but that is neither here nor there. I also love a city with healthy transit options and smoothly flowing traffic and happy citizens who can live healthy, fulfilling lives.
On the other hand, you saw fit to mention on page 2 that the seismic rehab of the West Span cost taxpayers $500 million. Surely a possible $370 million expense warranted a mention.
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