This interesting tidbit came across my Twitter feed today: Portland’s entire bike network costs about as much as a single mile of urban freeway.
Portland mayor Sam Adams estimates that a single mile of 4-lane urban freeway costs about $60 million—which is about the replacement cost of his city’s bike network. (Note that the actual cost of building the city’s bike network was less than $60 million, since some of it was repurposed from other projects.) Politifact looks at the numbers and backs up his claim.
Alternatively, $60 million would buy just 247 feet of Seattle’s deep-bore tunnel—or just the length of one city block.
