A draft of the Oahu Bike Plan is now available online for download and comment (until August 31, 2009). It baffles me how accommodating our climate is for biking, and yet how difficult and dangerous it is to commute via bicycle. The plan contains maps of existing and proposed bike routes throughout Oahu. Sadly, the Pupukea-Kaimuki route has been omitted from the department’s initial draft.
The estimated cost of the future bikeway network is currently $217 million dollars. A one-cent gasoline tax could potentially generate an additional $3.3 million dollars annually for bicycle projects (based on 2007 rates of gasoline and diesel consumption). The draft goes on to add, “Creativity in identifying alternative funding sources and getting projects built will be required to realize the completed O’ahu network as proposed and outlined in the O’ahu Bike Plan.”
Given the archaic response form provided for comments, my suggestion is (a) use Get Satisfaction to wrangle feedback in a more effecient and effective manner and (b) sounds like a prime candidate for crowdsourced funding.
