Word came out that the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDot) is not going to allocate $1.6 million in federal funding to the bicycle-sharing program that the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority (CRRMA) has been promoting.
If nothing else this warns us to watch the CRRMA closely. This is the group that the city is talking about turning over control of the international bridges to. Evidently TXDoT can see the impracticality of CRRMA plans while city council cannot. We need to watch what happens to the over 11 million dollars of profit that the city currently makes on the bridges and transfers to the general fund. CRRMA may have grandiose plans for what to do here in El Paso, but evidently the State of Texas does not agree with them.
A recent article in the El Paso Times quotes a member of a group promoting bicycling in El Paso as saying:
“This was a great opportunity for the community of El Paso. Austin is getting a program. Fort Worth is barely getting it set up. What is so different with those cities that they get one and we don’t?”
Newton
Without starting into the argument about the viability of downtown, or one about the people who frequent downtown, or relative lifestyles among the cities being compared, let’s start with gravity.
El Paso is built at the base of the Rocky Mountains. We have hills, actually steep streets. Pedaling a bicycle up a steep street is hard. Riding one down a steep street is dangerous.
The article goes on to point out “The hope, for example, is that people who need to get from UTEP or the Downtown library to the El Paso County Courthouse will use a bike instead of their car…”
I suggest that anyone who is not familiar with the terrain between UTEP and the courthouse take an air-conditioned car ride between the two. If the trip starts at UTEP the bicycle rider will have a downhill ride down Mesa. Oregon would probably be safer. Maybe the city could create run away bicycle traps to help save the people who lose control.
The trip back up the hill would be slower. Think of pedaling up Mesa at 2 in the afternoon sometime next week. It would be hot. Then again it would probably be good for the hospitals as the riders suffered heart attacks.
Really nice bikes
The plan is that the bicycles will cost between one and two thousand dollars each. These aren’t the kind of bicycles that the average citizen buys at the store, these are government bikes. The person who checks one out will have to provide a credit card. If the bicycle is not returned the credit card will be charged for the cost of the bike. That probably means that people will not just leave the bikes outside the place they need to go to.
They will have to get the the kiosk to rent the bike. Then they will take their ride. Assuming they reach their destination alive they will probably elect to return the bicycle to another kiosk. Then they will have to somehow get to their final destination.
I could go on, but you get the idea.
We deserve better
Brutus
elpasospeak 
Dare we ask how many city council members, city personnel and employees of the CRRMA currently ride a bike when commuting for work related purposes? Here’s a way to cut a few dollars from the budget. If this is such a grand idea, they should lead by example. Get rid of their city vehicles and eliminate any car allowances (are you listening Joyce?). To paraphrase Marie Antoinette, let them ride bikes.
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Bicycles @ $1000 to $2000 apiece!! Oh, yes!…that’s when TxDot or somebody else is paying for them! …And, I’d say, a purrrrfect goldmine for thieves.
As for the money being raped…er, I mean, reaped from the international bridges tolls, isn’t that pot of gold already causing pavlovian salivation among those Beto groupies who are going to use it for more Border agents to shorten crossing times? …and, let’s not forget, whatever they’re using those funds for now will have to find another income stream…
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If a guy on a street corner were to move money around the way our city officials move dollars around, it would be called a shell game.
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Since very few El Paso citizens would actually purchase such an expensive bike I am left to wonder which big campaign contributor is looking to get into the expensive bike business?
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Maybe Valenti can build a clinic halfway up Oregon for those in distress..
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