The House Transportation Committee voted 4-3 to kill a bill that would have forced the Utah Department of Transportation to spend 3 percent of its annual road improvement money -- about $2.5 million -- on bike and pedestrian paths.
HB67, sponsored by House Minority Leader Dave Jones, D-Salt Lake City, would have required UDOT, which opposed the bill, to include facilities for bikers, walkers and other alternate transportation modes in new construction projects.Jones argued the bill would save state money by reducing wear-and-tear on its roadways through the increased used of bike and pedestrian paths.
"If we provide more facilities for people to bike and walk, they will do it," he said during Thursday's committee hearing. "We need a true department of transportation and not just a department of roads.
The proposal, which would have made state matching funds available to local governments, would not have taken effect until the year 2002.