Arbythree, Tulsa (7/30/2009 12:25:53 PM)

Coburn and McCain together. Enough said.

Buffaloe, (7/30/2009 12:27:02 PM)

good.they should blast them. Does the river in OKC have enough water for a ferry anyway? And for what? Bike paths...vital to the 'economic' engine of our nation.

Buffaloe, (7/30/2009 12:27:47 PM)

Arbythree,

So you agree with the spending do you? We need ferries and bikepaths right now?

Check It out, Tulsa (7/30/2009 12:31:30 PM)

Why improve anything while we are stimulating the economy?

outspoken, (7/30/2009 12:33:39 PM)

lets spend money meant for roads and bridges on roads and bridges. bike friends should demand a tax on bicycles amd related products to be used on paths just for them. then when the gov takes their money for other use. they can complain like we do when they use the road money for other use.

Bob 1, BA (7/30/2009 12:39:04 PM)

It took them 5 years to figure this out! Right on top of things...........

Ric, Broken Arrow (7/30/2009 12:41:12 PM)

Looks like low-water dams aren't such a good idea after all... and those bicycle riders may want to consider paying a tax after all.

born okay the 1st time, tulsa (7/30/2009 12:42:42 PM)

Buffaloe, dont bother. The only thing they 'see' is that Republicans are evil.It falls on deaf ears & blind eyes. This country is rapidly going downhill, no matter what the clowns in the whitehouse say. The economy is NOT improving, jobs are still being lost, businesses going under, not much new industry coming in.Sure, the housing market is stabilizing at the moment, at least momentarily, but only due to govt. bail out funds that we all will be paying for, for years to come.

C.R. Delough, Tulsa (7/30/2009 12:47:26 PM)

Trails!

/cue the Michael Delgornio phone...

outspoken, (7/30/2009 12:48:21 PM)

good point born okay the 1st time, however i would just like to add that not everyone will be paying for these tragic mistakes. only the people who work & pay taxes and pass that desire onto their children to have the so called american dream. the new american dream must be sit back do as little as possible and rely on the govt. to bail us out & have complete control of our lives.

Scooterman, (7/30/2009 12:50:12 PM)

I would say nay to the boat ferrie in OKC which could be called a ferrie to nowhere.
As for the bike paths and pedestrian walkways that might not be a bad idea. If the US was more bike friendly or walker friendly there could be a savings in energy. Also since the US is one of the most obese countries on the planet it wouldn't be such a bad idea for people to bike or walk to work. It all comes down to where the paths and walkways are built.

Barry Hussein Soetoro Dunham, Tulsa (7/30/2009 12:55:41 PM)

Check It Out;

The economy is not being stimulated. The stimulus was a failure.

Barry Hussein Soetoro Dunham, Tulsa (7/30/2009 12:58:44 PM)

TW,

Coburn is a Senator from OK, not Muskogee. Just pointing it out.

upinarms, (7/30/2009 1:01:21 PM)

The linked article says a total of $243 billion was spent. So about $2 billion was spent on bicycle paths & walkways, less than 1% of the total. Of the $78 billion NOT spent on roads, where was the rest of the money spent? Article cites only smaller amounts spent here & there. I do wonder where the other $70 billion + was spent??? It was NOT spent on roads, and NOT spent on pedestrian walkways or bicycle paths or ferry rides. Where is the rest of the story?

I think spending around 1% of our roads budget on encouraging healthier ways to get around is fine. I wonder why our senator is focusing on this amount, doesn't he realize our state has one the highest obesity rates because we are very sedentary? Part of that, is because it is very un-friendly to pedestrians, or people trying to get around without using a car.
* * *
Case in point: right now, I need to go after groceries at a store less than 1 mile from my home. I dare not walk, as traffic is so heavy and there is not a good sidewalk for most of the way. If there was, I'd walk for my bag of groceries, and I'd make more trips in order to do that. As it is, I'm going to drive, to avoid possibly getting run down. Many others make these decisions every day, when they can and would prefer to walk! These decisions have a direct impact on our use of foreign oil and our healthcare costs.

hmmmmmmm, (7/30/2009 1:06:16 PM)

Let's see, Dow is up 11% since Obama took office. NASDAQ up 28%. S&P Up 15%. Stock markets are a forward-indicator of the economy. Since Obama took office, everything is looking up.

Yes I know jobs are still being lost, but job loss/creation is a lagging indicator of the economy.

Point is, the economy is slowly headed in the right direction. This takes time and can't happen overnight. This is something the Republicans don't want to admit...or maybe they just don't understand.

zzx375, BA (7/30/2009 1:26:02 PM)

"lets spend money meant for roads and bridges on roads and bridges"

Lets!

And the stock market is up. Great. Spend road and bridge money on roads and bridges.

human1, A change is gonna come someday (7/30/2009 1:35:35 PM)

Mr. Coburns month got stimulated, but that is the only thing!

just passing through, (7/30/2009 1:37:48 PM)

Something that is lost on most people is that bike paths are a strong generator of small businesses. How many older buildings sit empty as there is little or no parking at their location?

Bikes are, however, fair weather transportation and we only have about eight months of that in Oklahoma each year. Bike paths would work here, but not as well as they would in other parts of the south and southwest.

Have you been to Austin lately? A very friendly place for both bikes and small businesses.

born okay the 1st time, tulsa (7/30/2009 1:38:42 PM)

outspoken,
Right you are,
I stand corrected.

Guillermo, (7/30/2009 1:38:57 PM)

The stimulus bill for transportation is about how to get people from point A to point B. People do ride their bikes to work,pleaure, exercise they take ferries.

Bicycles are transportation and so are ferries.

These two people are picking at fleas when they address what is wrong. Why not provide some alternatives or solutions to problems, it is always easy to pick apart someone elses work or recommendations.

Oklahoma get your self new Congressman, Inhofe has got to go also, they continue to have an old "thunk" process and it is time for new progressive thinking.

Galilarm, Keys (7/30/2009 1:39:25 PM)

Without bike trails where would underprivlidged youths have to go to commit rapes and robberies?

just passing through, (7/30/2009 1:42:24 PM)

I can understand why McCain is against bike paths since it gets to be over 100 degrees a great deal where he comes from. Sure, it may be a 'dry heat', but it is still over 100 degrees.

But is that any reason to deprive the areas of the US where bike paths do work from building more bike paths?

Perhaps the answer is to issue plates for bikes like we do for cars and motorcycles. That would raise some money.

WWRD, Bixby (7/30/2009 1:42:36 PM)

Consider we may all be riding bikes and taking the ferry with some of the policies that Washington is craming down our throats.

Guess I'll have to go dust off the Huffy.

just passing through, (7/30/2009 1:46:11 PM)

One last thought: For every bike being used as transportation a car is off the road at that moment.

This makes my drive easier as it does yours. It also helps with our balance of payments since every bike trip is equal to one less dollar going to a petro-ocercy.

WWRD, Bixby (7/30/2009 1:47:54 PM)

Yeah right. When has that ever happened? The government installing bureaucracy and then dissolving it and making it free.