Two bills critical to the continued operation of our state parks were introduced in the Michigan Senate on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 388 and Senate Bill 389 were both referred to the Natural Resources and Environmental Affairs committee. This committee will hold a hearing on them next Wednesday at 1pm.

[EDIT: The hearing has been postponed.]

These bills are a reflection of years of studying various options by our Citizen’s Committee for Michigan State Parks, but especially under the guidance of committee member Dr. Chuck Nelson from MSU.

What do these bills do? From the new Citizen’s Committee web site, www.OurMichiganParks.org:

These bills would ask every Michigan driver to pay an?optional?$10 fee each year when renewing their Michigan vehicle registration on non-commercial vehicles. While non-residents would still have to purchase a non-resident motor vehicle permit, worker time in entrance booths at most parks would be drastically reduced, resulting in cleaner bathrooms, less litter, better resource stewardship, improved security and increased education and interpretation programs. In addition to providing support for state parks and boating access sites, this would also provide funding for our outstanding and underfunded state forest recreation system including more than 140 rustic campgrounds and almost a thousand miles of non-motorized pathways that serve hikers, mountain bikers, cross country skiers and equestrians. Finally, it would approximately double the amount of grant money annually available to local units of government to renovate or improve recreational facilities in local parks across Michigan.

The Committee is calling on Michigan residents to contact their state senators to voice their support for this legislation. Here’s how you can get your senator’s contact information.

Detroit in 1905, a mural at the Detroit Public Library. This is 21 years before Michigan's first gas tax.

Most cyclists have heard or read it before: bicyclists shouldn’t have equal access to the roads because they don’t pay for them.

Those making that claim assume that fuel tax and vehicle registrations pay for all their road costs.

They’re wrong.

Perhaps the definitive report comparing the total costs of using the roads is Whose Roads? Defining Bicyclists’ and Pedestrians’ Right to Use Public Roadways by Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute (2004).

Although motorist user fees (fuel taxes and vehicle registration fees) fund most highway expenses, funding for local roads (the roads pedestrians and cyclists use most) originates mainly from general taxes. Since bicycling and walking impose lower roadway costs than motorized modes, people who rely primarily on nonmotorized modes tend to overpay their fair share of roadway costs and subsidize motorists.

The automotive industry sponsored reports in the past have claimed motorists overpay their fair share.  According to Litman, these reports conveniently ignore some substantial road costs.  He concludes:

Virtually all studies that use appropriate analysis procedures conclude that motorists significantly underpay the costs they impose on society (FHWA, 1997; Delucchi, 1998; Litman, 2004a).

Some of those ignored costs are external.  One example is all the free vehicle parking.  All taxpayers and consumers pay for that through higher taxes and higher product costs.  Salon.com ran an interesting article that describes this external cost in greater detail.

To Donald Shoup, a professor of urban planning at UCLA, parking requirements are a bane of the country. “Parking requirements create great harm: they subsidize cars, distort transportation choices, warp urban form, increase housing costs, burden low income households, debase urban design, damage the economy, and degrade the environment,” he writes in his book, “The High Cost of Free Parking.”

Americans don’t object, because they aren’t aware of the myriad costs of parking, which remain hidden. In large part, it’s business owners, including commercial and residential landlords, who pay to provide parking places. They then pass on those costs to us in slightly higher prices for rent and every hamburger sold.

There’s also another great summary of this very same topic on the St. Louis Regional Bicycle Federation web site.

We mentioned this a couple days ago when discussing Trust Fund grants, but it’s worth further coverage.

But first, we note that much non-motorized transportation road funding comes from MDOT (e.g. Transportation Enhancements, CMAQ) and the state fuel tax (a minimum of 1% of which must be spent on non-motorized facilities.)  But the bottom line is all road projects should routinely accomodate bicyclists — that is the Federal Highway Administration policy guideline — and facilities such as bike lanes and paved shoulders should be paid for through the same funding sources as roads.

No legal road user group should have to bring their own pot of money to the table in order to get safe facilities.

Now the Transportation Funding Task Force is recommending that the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund be diverted for transportation.

It’s a terrible idea.  Michigan voters changed Michigan’s Constitution to prevents such diversions so it’s difficult to understand how or why anyone would make such a recommendation.

Since 1976, Trust Fund grants have been a fundamental source for funding recreation and parkland acquisition in Michigan.  That funding has been used at the local and county levels, as well as by the DNR. Most of the area’s rail-trail projects are around because the Trust Fund helped purchase the land.  A list of Trust Fund projects is on-line.

We recommend contacting Governor Granholm to let her know you oppose diverting the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund for transportation.

Dennis Muchmore is the executive director for the MUCC also serves on the Trust Fund board.  He certainly doesn’t dance around the issue as his recent press release shows (see below).

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Proposed trail bridge over Telegraph Road in Pontiac

The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF) Board has recommended funding for 81 recreation projects and land acquisitions totaling $48.5 million be funded for 2008.

This was the most ever awarded for Trust Fund grants.  This is due to the higher prices paid for mineral (including oil & gas) leases on state property.

“Michigan is blessed with natural resources and special places that should be protected and enjoyed for generations to come,” said Governor Granholm. “These recommendations represent ways that we can ensure that Michigan citizens and visitors will be able to enjoy outdoor recreation now and in the future.”

A Threat to the Trust Fund

The Trust Fund is set up so that it can continue to fund recreation projects and land acquisition projects after the gas and oil run out.  That’s not the threat.

The threat is the Transportation Funding Task Force who recently recommended that the Trust Fund monies be diverted into the transportation budget.  As a whole, this was perhaps their only out-of-the-box recommendation yet it only shows how out-of-touch they are with reality.

Fortunately in 1985 Michigan voters put the Trust Fund in the state constitution to protect it from bad ideas such as this.

In the words of Dennis Muchmore, the MUCC Executive Director, “Raiding the Trust Fund would be an outrageous and unwarranted attempt to circumvent the public will.”

2008 Recommended Grants – Recreation Projects

Clinton River Trail Bridge (Pontiac), $485,000. This project will construct a new pedestrian bridge, approach and ramps over Telegraph Road.  This is absolutely huge and it almost didn’t make the cut.  This is only partial funding.  Additional grant money will be required.

Bell Creek Park Non-Motorized Trailway (Redford), $450,000. This project includes development of 600 feet of elevated boardwalk across a floodplain of the Bell Branch of the Rouge River, connecting two sidewalk ends. A 75-foot long bicycle/pedestrian bridge will span the river.

Kensington Metropark-Milford Trail Connector, $315,000. The project would include 1.2 miles of paved trail from the Kensington Metropark loop trail to the Milford-Kensington Trail (at the Dairy Queen.)

2008 Recommended Grants – Land Acquisitions

DNR  Southeast Lower Peninsula Land Consolidation, $4 million. This project will acquire various properties within Southeast Michigan, but especially private land within our state parks.

Academy Preserve Acquisition (Monroe), $2,192,500. This project will acquire approximately 128 acres of open space in the City of Monroe with a portion of Frenchtown Township. The site includes an oak savannah, oak-hickory forest, lowland forest, farmland and a forested island in the River Raisin.  There you go, Erie Hiker!

Michigan Air-Line Railway (West Bloomfield), $1,452,500. This project will acquire approximately 17 acres, or 2.5 miles, of railway corridor that connects the existing West Bloomfield trail west to Haggery Road.  This is great news for a trail project we discussed earlier.

Certainly the massive looming issue in Detroit is the future of our Big 3 domestic automakers.  It’s frustrating, depressing and much more.

If there’s any silver lining, this crisis might bring the region together as one.  It really does feel like Detroit vs. 49 other states.  It certainly makes the city-suburb divide look awfully trivial.

But this is a bike advocacy blog, so what does this mean for trails and greenways?

No one knows yet.  We do know that the Big 3 automakers contribute to trail development in the area.  Chrysler is a big supporter of DECC and the Conner Creek Greenway.  General Motors has put significant resources into the Riverwalk.  The Ford Motor Company is a partner in the Rouge Gateway project.

However we should note how the housing fallout was a big hit for trails.  Many of the non-profits developing trails in Detroit are also developing housing.  They rely on income from housing sales or other community development.  With the real estate market in the dumps, the income isn’t coming in like it was.  Many are struggling beyond the imaginable.

But fortunately there is still some funding available for trails.

Today the Detroit Riverfront Conservancy announced a $1 million donation from Wayne County.  It did not come from the county budget, according to County Executive Robert Ficano:

“This award to the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy represents the County’s support of the riverfront and how it positively impacts people’s lives. Through grant funds received by Wayne County for public safety and healthy living and wellness efforts, today I announce a $1 million award to the Detroit RiverFront Conservancy made possible from the county departments of Homeland Security/Emergency Management and Health and Human Services. The funds will be used to support the riverfront’s public safety initiatives and health and wellness activities on the riverwalk and its ajoining parks. While we will continue to explore ways support the riverfront project, there are no county general fund dollars being used in making this contribution.”

The Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan also gave $500,000 for work on the near east-side neighborhoods, which includes the East Riverfront and Dequindre Cut.

Some huge Detroit trail funding announcements are expected in 2009.

Stay tuned, but in the meantime, pray for good news for the Big 3.