decorahnews.com reader: Bike lane markings "are a waste of money"

decorahnews.com reader William Kuhlman e-mails: "These white bike markings all over the streets of Decorah appear to me to be totally stupid and a waste of money.....whose dumb idea was this?  If this is a marking for a the bike trail that's one thing, but if its just to enthuse people about bike riding, this becomes another thing."

You have several questions and comments, Bill, so let's try to tackle them separately. 
 
First of all, the bike markings on the street are the idea of an advisory committee that worked with the City of Decorah.  decorahnews.com first reported on this effort in March.  You can read our story at http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2011/03/9244.html

We also carried a story last month about the bike markings which had a link to the map that shows which roads will get the markings: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=103851744352476753030.00047eb8139b2b07ef038&ll=43.303851,-91.790299&spn=0.017302,0.04931&z=15

OK.  That's some background on the project.  But the main point of your e-mail is that the bike markings are "totally stupid and a waste of money."

We will throw open this statement to other decorahnews.com readers--do you agree with Bill?

Let me state that I think the best statement about this so far comes from Stan Fullerton.  You can read his plea for an effort to make Main Street the main bike thoroughfare by visiting http://www.decorahnews.com/archived-stories/2011/06/111.html