Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters, a 2006 Bush appointee, argued against a proposal to raise gas taxes to assist in repairing U.S. infrastructure.

Instead, she wants a higher percentage of gas tax dollars going to infrastructure. (Note: In 2006, state DOTs returned about $1 billion in unspent bridge funds to the federal government, according to the Federal Highway Administration.)

Currently, 60 cents of each gas tax dollar goes to highways and bridges; 30 cents goes to public transit, and 10 cents to everything from building museums to bike paths, trails, repairing lighthouses.

The secretary said projects like bike paths and trails “are really not transportation,” and thinks those monies should go to highways and bridges.

This comment irked bike enthusiasts and groups like the League of American Bicyclists. This organization points out that only about 1.5 percent of federal transportation dollars go to fund bike paths and walking trails, although it is estimated that 10 percent of all U.S. trips to work, school and the store occur on bike or foot. Bicyclists and pedestrians, however, account for a disproportionate number of annual traffic fatalities?EUR??,,????'??+about 12 percent, according to the Federal Highway Administration.

LASN editor Kevin Burrows was recently hit by a car as he rode his bike home from work. Fortunately, he was only bruised and scraped, although the bike was bent. There is not a dedicated bike trail Kevin could ride. He had to take his chances on the busy roads of Tustin and Irvine in Orange County, Southern California, and that is a very dangerous proposition. Several other LASN employees have indicated they would ride a bike to work if they had a dedicated bike trail.

When LASN visited Minneapolis in 2006 for the ASLA Show, editor Steve Kelly rented a bike and road along trails around the lake district southwest of the downtown area, enjoying miles of trails that don?EUR??,,????'???t compete with vehicular traffic.