Yes, Poet, I would and already do, in part, through membership in local bike advocacy organizations.
I also pay automobile fees and taxes, if it matters.

This makes a lot of sense. I live in Los Angeles, which is in dire need of better public transportation. I recently analyzed the difference between taking public transportation here and taking a bike. The bike actually edged out public transportation for a rush-hour trip, assuming an average bicycle speed of 10mph (which is an accepted value for urban cycling during rush hour). Different destinations may take more or less time, but as an example, this shows how pathetic the transportation planning is in one of our major cities. Oh, I should say that bicycle lanes have been showing up more here lately, and if you want to risk life and limb riding in a 4-foot-wide strip between the vehicle lanes and the parked cars, one is welcome to it!

Right on Neal. I am a cyclist and commute by bicycle when I don't have to come home after dark. I can't think of an easier and more fun way of reducing CO2 emissions.

I remember back in the 70s after the first oil scare. Lots of people started bike commuting, but that movement pretty much died after the era of sanctioned energy waste was inaugurated in the 1980s.

Of course today, as evidenced by the persecution of the big bicyle group in NYC (can't remember the name of the group, maybe Mass Start?) cycling is seen as a subversive activity.

I lost my last used car in 95 after it used up all my savings on repairs. I said to hell with cars after that, got a mountain-bike, and I've been biking ever since.

In warm weather, I take it everywhere. I attached a milk-crate to the back and so i can even take it shopping. In the winters, when it gets too cold and snowy, I use the bus or walk.

There are only two problems I have with biking. One, there aren't enough bike racks around to lock it securely and not have to worry, and two, most girls aren't interested in dating guys unless they own automobiles. :( An American cultural flaw.

I, for one, certainly hope not. Experience has shown me that bicyclists are among the most arrogant, nasty people on earth, along with my fellow poets. When I pass a bicyclist on the road, I take my truck out of gear and hit the gas while yelling...'get a car!' I swear. What a bunch of mymemine fools.

You people go ahead and pedal for all your worth. I'll be in full gallop behind ya, swingin my rope for a good catch.

I work too far from home for bicycling. I would do it if I worked closer but I would worry about getting run over by folks like imors!

I favor public transportation as it is more feul effecient and works for the mobility impaired as well.

I've been a year-round bicycle commuter for going on 20 years now. I'm a professional in Silicon Valley with a 6-figure income but I still love to ride my bike to work.

A little ironic that imors calls cyclists "the most arrogant, nasty people on earth" while he's the one expressing nastiness and arrogance and threatening harm to his fellow human beings just because he's delayed a few seconds.

In Jacksonville FL the buses have racks on the front for hauling bicycles of passengers. It is an inexpensive and practical way to encourage more cycling. Here we have bridges mostly built for motor vehicles and trying to cross them on bike can be hazardous for your health.

Portland, Oregon is a bike town - I went to the Filmed By Bike film festival last night. It ran three days and was packed with fellow cyclists for every showing.

I say the more cyclists the better for everyone: more bikes on the road mean less congestion and cleaner air. That's on reason why I've created a new web series called The Bicyclist about the bike culture of Portland, Oregon: www.thebicyclist.tv

"Competition for limited roadway space can be furious."

Not only furious, but irrational as well. Our car culture bestows a sense of entitlement upon drivers who regard sharing the road with bikes as a mortal threat.

"Experience has shown me that bicyclists are among the most arrogant, nasty people on earth, along with my fellow poets. When I pass a bicyclist on the road, I take my truck out of gear and hit the gas while yelling…'get a car!' I swear. What a bunch of mymemine fools."

This is a joke, right? How can anyone who is driving a car, despite all we know about the cumulative effects of auto emissions on the environment, even to the point of threatening the planet, call bicyclists "mymemine fools"?

Americans, what's not to love???

Rick in SF writes:

"Competition for limited roadway space can be furious."

Not only furious, but irrational as well. Our car culture bestows a sense of entitlement upon drivers who regard sharing the road with bikes as a mortal threat."

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Okay Rick, I love the bicycle culture and think it a preferrable way to get around(espcially in conjunction with public transit as I explained in my post earlier).

In defense of motor vehicle drivers though, they pay considerable taxes for tags and gas for the privilige of their sense of "entitlement". Would you be willing to pay similar licensing fees for the upkeep and maintenance of bike paths?

Biking is a wonderful liberating sensation, especially in places with safe bike lanes. One of the best is between Ojai, California and Ventura, 15 miles each way and the "return" trip is mostly uphill. As a writer, biking is the activity that joins left brain (all the logic that executes ones arguments) with right brain (sheer "trips" into imaginative creature venues). It can be zen. It beats therapy in price and benefits; it saves gas, it trims the body, and it links you with place. I have to drive, too, and my little Toyota gets 45 MPH... what amazes me is the lack of respect for speed limits. At best they seem to have become suggested MINIMUMS. That wouldn't be a big deal if 40,000 plus people were not killed a year on the roads, and road rage (since it gets people to act in incredibly selfish, dangerous ways) is a definitive factor. To me, it's a form of manslaughter. There are just too many manic maniacs on the roads these days (hence when on a bike, cities with bike lanes are great investments). Americans want everything fast and easy... and look at the obesity epidemic! So many leave their motors going while a family member goes shopping; or they park on one side of a mall, then get into the car and DRIVE to the other. If the eco-doo-doo hits the fan, how in shape will these couch potato carbon burning persons be if they need to walk miles for food or water? If fuel runs dry.

Would bikers be willing to pay fees for bike paths? Of course. They do already since the funds for them come from everyone's taxes including bikers'. Also, in quite a few places where I have lived, licenses for bicycles are required.

What has to be taken into account, however, is that bike paths are a heck of a lot cheaper to build in the first place, and then to maintain in the second place. They aren't nearly as big and don't need the extensive base of crushed rock. Nor do they need as thick a surface which degrades a lot slower than a road because cars weigh a bit more than bikes.

Hi Poet! Jax, Florida?

Jax is my home town, but I've been expat more years then I care to count.

Did they really do something smart like put bike racks on the busses? Out of sight!

In Denmark, you can take, for a modest fee, you bike on the S-trains in Greater Copenhagen(in certain cars that have thingies where you can stand them.

Also, in the inner city they have bikes you can use free (you have to put a $3 deposit and the bikes have solid wheels)

Hey Poet, don't forget the majority of cyclists who contribute plenty to the tax base—the same tax base that pays for the infrastructure to which a vocal minority of motorists feel solely entitled. I've been a year-round bicycle commuter here in Wisconsin for about 18 years, and during that time my wife and I have owned an automobile and a home. We have paid, and continue to pay, state and federal income, and fuel taxes; local property and sales taxes; motor vehicle registration and licensing fees; and bicycle registration and recreational trail fees. Using my bicycle for transportation does not magically relieve me of the responsibility of paying taxes. I'm happy to pay them for the good infrastructure available in my locale.

Let's also not have the old "but fuel tax pays for all the roads" myth gain any more traction. Fuel taxes pay for less than half of road infrastructure in most places and contribute nothing the ancillary cost of our dependance on motor vehicles. General tax revenues pay for well over half of transportation infrastructure and for the entirety of the related costs.

If you'd like to defend motorists, please join me in praising the majority of patient, courteous drivers who recognize the right of responsible cyclist to use the public roadways, and those who recognize cyclists' role in reducing congestion, pollution and carbon emissions.