Peddling some false numbers on bicycles

Good news and bad news. We’re getting a $12 million bike bridge from the Active Transportation Program. We’re also going to have to pay the money back. See, our former City Manager left without telling the ATP about his little “user number” mistakes. He grabbed a wrong number (800) off a computer program and called it new cyclists Chico would pick up if we got the bridge. Only the program can’t create new cyclist numbers that high here, and only assigns a handful of new cyclists to places without many current ones, like East 20th Street. All it expected there were about 20 more cyclists. That does add 2% to the city’s total, just not 84% like 800 would. Those are actually mostly current cyclists, and mostly not in the bridge area. The program says that, just not the City Manager.

Luckily there is a backup number. The City did counts at MLK and 20th Street and at the Humboldt freeway undercrossing, both averaging about 14 cyclists and 7 pedestrians an hour. Not a lot, but not nothing anyway.

The ATP’s money comes from taxpayers, and it isn’t allowed to engineer taxpayer swindles, which this is. We can call a halt until Mr. Orme gets his numbers straight. Or, we can just accept that he’s walked, we have no evidence for $12 million worth of new cyclists, and lying to state agencies isn’t our strong suit. City Council OK with returning the ATP’s money, plus penalties? Do we have it?

— David P. Smith, Chico