More MAPS and Bicycling Trails

Following up to yesterday's post about MAPS and bicycling trails, we saw what we've been seeing every day on our ride in to work: a perfectly good, and paved, bicycle trail that runs through the median at Grand Boulevard. Amazing the things you can see when you look for them. Didn't quite look like a $700,000 per mile kind of paving job but it was nice.

Still, I was curious about where the route went when it headed north. The linked map is a little vague - it definitely isn't Walker since that's the route we take and there's not a bike trail to be had along that street. I checked Google Maps street view and moved over a block - ah, here we are, it's Harvey. Pan up or down a bit if the sign isn't visible but you'll see what I'm talking about.


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No, you can't read it but it's the universal yellow sign telling you that the street is the actual bike trail; the sign below it reminds drivers to share the road.

Well, I call that a little less than honest. When I'm promised a bicycle trail at $700,000 per mile, I'm thinking of something paved, not a sign thrown up next to a sleepy street.

Right, right, things were different with the prior MAPS; this time it'll be different. This time they'll come through on their promises. No fudging here. Why? Because they're, well, different. Trust them on this. The $700 million that'll be raised will go exactly where the promised. No lonely little sign on Harvey declaring it a bike trail. No sir. That was just a one time thing.

Sheesh.

Don't get me started on the mass-transit thing. (Oh, okay, here's a link to Reason's James Delong's article that most Conservatives cite when pooh-poohing mass transit. Still seems relevant. Google mass transit myth debunking and you'll get lots of articles insisting what Delong claims is untrue. But those pro-mass-transit articles make the same arguments the pro-MAPS people do about mass-transit here. Eerie. You don't think they're reading from the same play book, do you? Anyway, change your Google criteria slightly and you'll get plenty of articles detailing the promises of mass-transit that were never delivered once the kajillions were spent to put it in place. Oh, but I said don't get me started on this. So don't.)