Originally Posted by
Seattle Forrest
You had a point toward the beginning of your message, in that roads are the circulatory system of our modern economy ( which is why many cities refer to some of their roads as "arterial" ), and that some of the cost is borne by people who benefit from this even without owning or driving a car, eg by being able to buy groceries that weren't grown locally. On the other hand, the quote above is a bit of a stretch.
Given how little damage cyclists do to the road and bridge infrastructure, compared to, say, big rig trucks, $1,000+ per cyclist per year is more than a little a bit dubious, if it means anything in terms of actual cost to the public.
Are you aware how much it costs to pave and maintain bike lanes, MUP? Further, to make such things safe, they need to be physically separate from the vehicle infrastructure which adds to the cost tremendously (bridges, tunnels and/or separate right of way). A $1000 per cyclist per year is frankly a very low estimate of the actual cost such infrastructure would entail. Further, since the "customer base" is so much smaller there is much less justification for spending limited public tax funds on infrastructure that would serve a very small percentage of the population. The issue isn't damage to the roads, but the need for a separate infrastructure which costs money. The high unit cost is also a function of the limited user base. The sheer fact of the matter is that Americans like to "spread out" and short of some fascist imposition of behavior modification that doesn't seem likely to change.
Our current infrastructure is deteriorating. In most places in the US there is less money available that needed to actually maintain the infrastructure we have available. Do a Google search on substandard bridges sometime if you want a scare. What is worse is the money available for infrastructure is further diminished by the need to spend some of it on adding new capacity. And adding new capacity is essential to maintaining a healthy economy.
Also, the source of the groceries doesn't matter. Unless your buying your food from the farm/ranch where it was grown then it is getting transported via the roads...