Comments on: Portland, Cultivating a Culture of Two Wheels http://bikeprovidence.org/2007/11/14/portland-cultivating-a-culture-of-two-wheels Providence Bicycle Coalition (PBC) Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:11:28 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Barry http://bikeprovidence.org/2007/11/14/portland-cultivating-a-culture-of-two-wheels#comment-14 Barry Wed, 21 Nov 2007 19:55:27 +0000 http://bikeprovidence.org/2007/11/14/portland-cultivating-a-culture-of-two-wheels/#comment-14 An additional economic reason for promoting biking: At $99/barrel for crude oil, it means every time a Rhode Islander buys a gallon of gasoline, at least $2.35 flows out of state just for the crude oil; Indeed we buy about 470 million gallons a year here. As a state with no refineries, an additional significant amount is lost to out of state companies for refining, marketing, profit, transportation etc of gas, so it must be well over a billion $ year of Rhode Islandr's money exported to buy gas. Biking gives an opportunity to capture some of that money and keep it in the state to benefit the local economy. Transit too can help on this. But so far the powers that be in RI have not been much interested. By the way, I was quite impressed with bike programs in Portland OR when I visited there for a greenways conference last summer and can discuss many of its related features. I was actually a student at Oregon Ste University in the 1970s and recall Portland then as a failed, neglected and dingy (but much cheaper!) city. An additional economic reason for promoting biking: At $99/barrel for crude oil, it means every time a Rhode Islander buys a gallon of gasoline, at least $2.35 flows out of state just for the crude oil; Indeed we buy about 470 million gallons a year here. As a state with no refineries, an additional significant amount is lost to out of state companies for refining, marketing, profit, transportation etc of gas, so it must be well over a billion $ year of Rhode Islandr’s money exported to buy gas. Biking gives an opportunity to capture some of that money and keep it in the state to benefit the local economy. Transit too can help on this. But so far the powers that be in RI have not been much interested.

By the way, I was quite impressed with bike programs in Portland OR when I visited there for a greenways conference last summer and can discuss many of its related features. I was actually a student at Oregon Ste University in the 1970s and recall Portland then as a failed, neglected and dingy (but much cheaper!) city.

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