I ended up sitting near city councilor Steve Cummings at Tuesday's workshop on the newly drafted
Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. The plan is the product of a contracted professional draft which was modified over 18 months by community members, stakeholders, and staff, and stems from the re-occurring requests over the past 5+ years by a significant number of community members that the city move forward on creating a safe and comprehensive bicycle system.
Cummings, who was clearly disgusted by the idea of bicycle lanes, took every opportunity to offer a whispered snide comment. When it came time to discuss the program's "Five E's" (Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Engineering, & Evaluation), Cummings laughed at himself when suggesting they left out "expensive". Before moving onto our title subject, I want to first comment on this notion of expensive that Cummings persistently reverted to. The plan initially calls for approximately $175,000 of work over the next 5 years, including sidewalk improvements, bicycling, signage, safety measures for our schools, and improvements for accessibility. $175,000 is a lot of money, without question. But for perspective, our road budget (CIP) for 2012 is just about $9,000,000 while our storm and sanitary sewer budget exceeds $20,000,000. If we just use roads, at an average of $9 million per year, over 5 years ($45 million total), the $175,000 represents an overall increase of... 0.0039%. Yes, less than 1/2 of 1% of the budget.
Back to the title - will people bicycle in Oshkosh? The presenters of the workshop talked about various usage in the city, the supportive feedback through surveys such as the Vision Oshkosh report, past community plan development initiatives (comprehensive plan), the growing numbers in events like the Tour De Titan and Bicycle Rodeo, and the strong commenting of support they received during plan developement all as examples of the community's support for this. Of course, anyone who leaves their house in Spring through Fall can also see the frequent bicycling that occurs in the city.
But Cummings was quick to say "it will never happen" when the presenters suggested that people might come from out of town to bicycle here. Really? Never happen? Is he suggesting that Fond du Lac is such a far superior city that they
can have thousands of people come for a bicycle event (Fond du Lac Cycling Gran Prix) while Oshkosh isn't a good enough city? Sheboygan can bring thousands of bicyclists and families to their downtown for a bicycle race and day of events but Oshkosh is too inferior to accomplish this?
Of course, this is all aside from the reality that a sizable portion of Oshkosh residents currently bicycle, and many more have voiced a strong interest in bicycling more if safe options were offered. We have many scenarios in which kids bicycle to school on less than safe routes, and a driving population that could greatly benefit from improved signage and education. We also have a population that could and will greatly benefit health-wise from being provided a fast, active option to get to their destinations (many city trips are less than 10 miles), and with gas prices at or near record highs, we could probably all afford to drive a bit less and hop on a bicycle. Finally, the city has made a commitment to environmentally-responsible operations that seek to reduce our environmental destruction while improving the lives of our residents - a commitment that strongly supports the implementation of a comprehensive bicycle plan.
So the obvious answer to this question - something that anyone who looks honestly at the community support and what other communities have done will admit - is yes, people will bicycle. And it will be good for them, and their health, and the city, and the environment. And anyone who suggests that this is not possible is either completely out of touch with the reality of our community or just being dishonest.
