Uh-oh, the paper has another cars vs bikes war in the forum

The local news outlet has an article today on the City's plans for a bike-station-like-facility (Bikestation, in one word or two, is a trademarked term).

This thing was announced about six weeks ago, on the day of the Bike Summit II. Barry made a blog entry about it a few days later that neatly sums his objections to having such a facility.

Since I ride to work fairly often, and appreciate just about anything that will get more folks to ride instead of driving. In those terms, I am in favor of spending the money to improve the infrastructure vis-a-vis cycling usage. I would rather see the money spent toward getting the Big Four and K&I Bridges open to cross-river cycle traffic, for example, or to improving sight lines and safety at problem intersections and rail crossings (the rail crossing at Frankfort Avenue in the Clifton area comes readily to mind). Let's find improvements that will help more than just those who work in the business district.

Like many, I see little direct benefit in this. My commute would be split roughly in half by such a stop, so I cannot imagine myself getting much use out of it. I doubt the bike service option in such a facility would be of much use to me, either--I already pass within a block or two of three or four bike shops on my route.

For my own part, I rode the Vanguard Tuesday and Wednesday, and in light of the impending rain this evening rode the Raleigh this morning (and have the rain cape in the bag for the trip home). I will likely drive tomorrow, as I have several errands that will require faster travel than I can accomplish on the bike and may involve larger cargo than I'm set up to carry on either bicycle.