By: Diane Benjamin
The Town of Normal plans to spend gas taxes on bike paths, Constitution Trail, and Connect Transit instead of roads.
People who DRIVE on those ROADS pay the gas tax – therefore other vanity spending should only happen with that money when the roads don’t look like this:
If the Town doesn’t listen to citizens this close
to an election they never will.
A group of ISU students are trying to get Normal to fix the mess they have to drive through. Help them out while you help yourself!
We must convince our federal elected officials to stop spending 10% of federal funds on enhancement projects so that the states stop tempting local officials with these funds resulting in this nonsense!
Yes – plus our republican reps need to stop supporting Disconnect Transit with Federal money’s Too!
Normal just told taxpayers they will use gax tax money however they want. Pet projects come before roads. They want to be known as bike friendly. I mean really how many bike sales would Koos loose or bike training sessions would McKarthy loose if they did not put the bike trail first? Fixing the roads does not line their pockets, growing bike sales and the bike community is how they get paid.
If the fuel tax was approved for the specific purpose of road maintenance, isn’t the town government required /obligated to use the funds only for roads?
The normal council refused to require it be used just for roads when Stan Nord made that motion. He couldn’t even get a second.
Bloomington earmarked the gas tax increase for resurfacing the city’s roads. Normal did not. The State is responsible for Rt. 9, Rt. 50, Rt.150, and Veterans Parkway.
I see this as a moral disagreement. It may be legal to use gas tax money on luxury amenity items, like a new recreational bike trails, but I do not believe it is moral to do so. The state advertised the gas tax increase was required to repair roads and bridges. Normal decided 6 to 1 to do something else with this money.
Don’t like it? Contact every Council member, mayor, and town manager and tell them. Hold them accountable. Don’t expect political parties or others to do it for you. Contact info is on Normal’s website. I recommend calling, but the group email address is [email protected]
Bicycles are legal means of transportation. Why exactly would it be “immoral” to spend monies on that particular infrastructure? On most roadways, bicyclists (including those on electric bikes or low speed vehicles such as scooters and mopeds) have the same rights and responsibilities as other roadway users. Many bicyclist use the same roadway and streets that automobile drivers use. Bicyclist usually also have cars and pay the gas tax you’re complaining about as being unfair to motorist.
Constitutional Trail is a multi use green space that is an asset to both Normal and Bloomington. Just because this blogger hates bicycles and bicycle riders doesn’t mean that tax dollars shouldn’t be spent in infrastructure improvement that includes recreational areas.
Hate bikes? The ones who think laws don’t matter
Hey Lance Armstrong, opting for trail extension improvements over motorist vehicle road improvements is a “moral issue” in this town because cyclists, through lobbying efforts of the McLean County Wheelers, Bike BloNo and others are in bed politically with the BN mayors, one who happens to profit off of community bicycle usage. The current proposal to extend the trail to Rivian Motors is nothing but a political ploy to satisfy corporation whom the Normal mayor has tied his political legacy to. Please enlighten me as to the attractions or businesses outside of Rivian that any cyclist would need to or want to support in that area. Also, more people in this community utilize motorize travel far more than non-motorized for their daily needs. You guys can use the same old tired argument that you used in your post when you are ticketed for moving violations with the same frequency that people driving motorized transportation are. You guys are among the biggest violators around. Also, local pols have promised for years to fix streets for years and have barely accomplished the minimum. If you truly feel the same about motor fuel taxes than I guess you people wouldn’t mind paying a $150 annual fee for tagging each bike you own or acquiring a license to pedal your bike on public arteries and taking periodic rules of the road or driving tests like all motorists have to.
No stinkin repair needed, McCarthy told us that last week, this is part of the uppity snobs roads maintenance program.
npeabody I agree with you 100% bicyclist need to be licensed their bikes need to be licensed. They don’t even come close to following the rules of the road. Spend some time in uppity town normal, just be careful or those riding bikes on the sidewalks will run you over. For years I have watched the intersection of north and broadway streets and have seen one bicyclist stop and that happened to be a police officer. I observed a bicyclist ride their bike on the sidewalk past mayor koos and he did not say a word to them. And don’t tell me it’s amateur bicyclist doing the breaking of the law several years ago I was ran off constitution trail by 9 people in their cute spandex outfits riding 3 wide and 3 deep. And anyone thinking mayor koos and council have a right to use taxpayer money designed to fix roads to promote extending bike lanes needs to have their head examined.