1 mile of a protected bike lane is 100x cheaper than 1 mile of roadway (Chart)

B' Spokes: Before I share the following article I thought I would share some other absurdisms working against us.

1) Speed of travel is the ultimate priority.
Which would be like saying I know someone with a Ferrari who zips around town, I would like to zip around town too so I need a new Ferrari and my 10 year old car is no longer good enough.
So freeways and freeway like roads are like Ferraris, expensive and really not practical for everyday use.

2) We have a huge backlog of car centric projects that total billions of dollars. So if we don't accommodate bikes and peds over a hundred years we'll saved enough to get one year of car centric projects for free.
This is like trying to afford a Hawaiian vacation by squeezing the last drop out of your toothpaste tube. Sure you are saving money by doing that but the reality is what you can purchase from that kind of savings plan cannot be anywhere near the cost of the toothpaste or the cost of the road project. We are skimping on road projects to appear frugal while buying a Ferrari. Does that make any sense?

3) The greatest need is based on what's the most expensive.
This would be like the government analyzing your food budget and seeing that you spent a lot on steaks saying you need to cut out fruit and vegetables so you can purchase more steaks. Now go ahead and try to refute the argument that most people like steaks so this is fair (like the argument that most people like to drive.)
This is a false argument that we are forced into, the argument is what is the best balance for what we can afford.
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By Zachary Shahan, Tree Hugger

One of the most hilarious (or, hilariously illogical) attacks on expanding bicycle infrastructure that I've seen repeatedly pop up over the years is the idea that "bicycle infrastructure costs too much." It only takes a few moments to reflect and put such costs into perspective.

For one, bikes are clearly much smaller and lighter than cars or trucks. So, the space needed to accommodate bicyclists is obviously much smaller, and the repairs needed from deterioration are also smaller. Furthermore, as you attract more people to bicycling, that pulls people out of their cars, reducing the deterioration and eventual repair costs of the car lanes. Naturally, the benefits improve even further when we think about bridges.
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See the article for the chart and be prepared to do a lot of scrolling to see where the cost of car projects ends.
<a href="http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/1-mile-protected-bike-lane-100x-cheaper-1-mile-roadway-chart.html">http://www.treehugger.com/bikes/1-mile-protected-bike-lane-100x-cheaper-1-mile-roadway-chart.html</a>;