Whenever I read “my tax dollars” in a letter to the editor, I know immediately that the writer cares nothing about the common good. Such an attitude is completely contrary to the whole purpose of taxes. In a recent issue of the Virginia Gazette, someone angrily wrote in about how a bike race completely disrupted their life, pillaging their time and money:
Why are bike races allowed along Lightfoot and Fenton Mill roads? Bicyclists were running at a break-neck 25 mph in a 55 mph zone.
I was at this race last weekend: a lazy Saturday morning in the middle of nowhere couldn’t be a better time and place to have a bike race. It’s so unfortunate that the author was driving one of the three cars that travel those roads every day. The race was not a closed course, so I suppose the author/driver didn’t have the patience to quit speeding and drive carefully, especially with police around as escorts:
Who pays for those police cars? If the bicyclists pay for them, I hope there is a hefty fee to cover the gas and wear and tear on vehicles that my tax dollars bought.
The author of the above statement is living proof of why a police escort was needed in the first place. When I’ve been on the bike, I’ve been accosted countless times by people like this. Such a person sees the road as his or her personal space: all others must bow down before them. How dare cyclists use a road paid for with “my tax dollars.” It’s not like the cyclists don’t pay taxes, either. Indeed, the registration fee for the race probably included pay for the police, which is one of the reasons bike races and triathlons are so ridiculously expensive. Of course, the letter continues with the obligatory bike path comment:
Bicyclists cry for bike lanes then don’t use them, there’s a $50 million path to Richmond that they don’t use.
I’ve already visited on how “running at a break-neck 25 mph” on a bike path is extremely dangerous to pedestrians, but the author’s emphasis is less on safety and more towards the “$50 million.” In the end, the money arguments aren’t really about misuse of “my tax dollars,” but more about everyone else just being in the way. Can’t we all get along peacefully?
#1 by Chris on March 24, 2010 - 8:28 pm
You’re famous (kinda). Stumbled upon this and told the rest of the cycling club about it. I can’t see the original article, but the amount of mis-information in just the sections you quoted is sad. I’d love to use the $50 M trail to Richmond, but it ends right after the new bridge near Chickahominy River Front Park.
Link: https://lists.wm.edu/wws/arc/cycling-l/2010-03/msg00037.html