Two important opportunities to share our priorities and ideas about how we get around in our community are upon us.
For decades, cars have had priority--in funding, space, health, and safety. As we now know, car driving creates greenhouse gases that are driving the planet to uninhabitable extremes. Air pollution from fossil fuels, including cars, kills millions of people per year. The National Safety Council reports that 46,000 people died in traffic crashes last year and traffic crashes are a leading cause of death for children. Cars and car storage eat up vast amounts of public space that could better be used for housing, business, parks, play, and life.
Budgets are skewed toward motor vehicles. The Sierra Club notes that, "Nearly half of WisDOT's $3 billion annual budget is spent on highway construction and expansion," nine times more than on public transit and rail. In La Crosse, we all subsidize free or low-cost public parking whether or not we drive cars. We all live with the mess, pollution, and danger of mostly free public street parking. We all lose out on the taxes, small businesses, housing, and green space we could have if cars didn't take up so much space. We all pay for the infrastructure that is almost solely for cars (Where are the safe bike lanes on Losey, South Ave., and La Crosse Street? Paint is not safe infrastructure.)
There are two chances to push for better funding, planning, and priorities for walking, biking, and taking the bus, the cleanest, safest, least expensive ways to get around.
First, on Thursday, December 14, Talk Transit with MTU staff and riders from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Southside Neighborhood Center, 1300 6th St. S. (accessible via #1 and circulators). Even if you are not currently a regular bus rider, your voice is needed. If reducing emissions and pollution, improving safety and equity, and boosting community cohesion means more people taking the bus, the MTU needs to hear, and be able to report, what changes are needed to get YOU on the bus. If you are a rider, feed back about what you love and what could be better.
And, you are invited to "up and down vote" the suggestions neighbors have made as part of the Bicycle and Pedestrian Master Plan update. Review the comments added about walking and bicycling in La Crosse made by fellow community members and like or dislike those that you agree or disagree with. This will help the planners understand which issues are most important to La Crosse residents as they being to develop plan recommendations. Visit the site at https://lacrossebikepedplanupdate.altaplanning.cloud/ And, if you want to think more about it, read
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