BikeWalkLee: A good time to invest in bikes

BikeWalkLee Column ‘Go Coastal’
The News-Press, October 22, 2020
by Ken Gooderham

Government revenue is down. There’s no clear end to the pandemic. Uncertainty reigns, with confusion close by its side.

So why is it a good time to invest in bike/ped infrastructure? Let me tell you why.

• Demand is high, and the need should continue to grow.

The pandemic pushed people outside as a safe place to meet and move. That pushed bike sales to record highs, as well as getting people out walking and running in growing numbers. And now, even as governments strive to force open the economy by relaxing Covid clampdowns, a lot of people are keeping up their open-air exercise routines… both out of habit, enjoyment and health concerns.

More users need more paths and lanes on which to safely ride, run and walk. That can accommodate them today and encourage them tomorrow to turn something healthy into a habit even when the pandemic panic subsides for real.

• It’s a good economic jolt, growing jobs by building something that adds value to communities.

There are a lot of people out of work, a lot of companies struggling. An influx of infrastructure spending could counter that at a time when the economy needs a lot of encouragement… and too many parts of our local, state and national infrastructure is aging and in need to repair or replacement.

So let’s make some of that infrastructure bike/ped focused. Why? Because people will use it, which creates value in the neighborhoods it serves, which boost home values, which increases property taxes, which helps to fund local government and build local businesses. There aren’t a lot of investments that can claim that.

• People are rethinking how they live, increasing the focus on fitness and family. Bike/ped suits this new normal.

The pandemic has shown some people which community amenities are necessities vs. extravagances. At a time when people are spending more time together (families) and apart (friends), amenities that won’t close but will allow distancing (and which can get you from Point A to Point B to boot) and which are nearby and accessible become more attractive – and more essential.

• Money is as cheap as it will ever get… so use it, don’t hoard it.

Investing in infrastructure usually means borrowing the funds you need now to build now, and paying it back by creating value that generates revenue (see above). This equation works best with the cost of borrowing is lower rather than higher… and right now, interest rates are as low as they can go (perhaps). So investing in things a community needs and which enhance values makes a lot of sense.

• This is a great time to make this area into a place that draws people, not just tourists... that creates assets, not just attractions.

Southwest Florida has a number of things working in its favor… beaches and boating, natural beauty and world-class weather (if you like it on the warm side). It’s a natural fit for bike/ped as well, with the terrain and climate that should draw people from around the globe. But those people need more than just flat land and sunny skies – they need places to safely ride, run and walk. And those have been hard to find over the year in Southwest Florida.

A positive note: When communities have invested in bike/ped facilities that are safe and functional, people have come to use them. Sanibel Island is a prime example, of course, but the growth of bike/ped facilities in Cape Coral and Estero (among others) and the investment in networks that connect paths and lanes into a viable recreation/transportation system throughout Lee County is an asset in attracting visitors and residents who want to be more active and less tied to motor vehicles.

Are we there yet to make this a cycling/walking destination? No, but at least you could argue that we can see that off in the distance now, as opposed to it being a speck on the horizon 20 years ago. A serious and focused investment in bike/ped infrastructure that builds on the current improvements to enhance access, safety and function, could give this area an asset that would build on its outdoor attributes in a very positive way.

There may be an opportunity to do something special here. Let’s give it some thought..

EVENTS: 

Below is what’s scheduled for organized running and biking events locally… but confirm with the organizers and be flexible in case conditions change and large-group activities are limited. Of course, wear a mask and act appropriate to your age, condition and concerns.

FORT MYERS TRACK CLUB (ftmyerstrackclub.com):

• Sanibel Island 10K Race 4 F.I.S.H., Aug. 18-Oct. 31 (virtual)
• Cape Coral Turkey Trot 5K, Sept. 17-Nov. 26 (virtual)
• City of Palms River Run 10K, Sept. 17-Dec. 5 (virtual)
• Lazy Flamingo Half Marathon & 2-Person Relay, Sept. 17-Dec. 20 (virtual) 

GC RUNNERS (gcrunner.org):

• Halloween Monster 5K (Naples), Saturday, Oct. 31 (virtual)
• Old Naples 10K, Saturday, Nov. 7 (in-person & virtual)
• GCR Thanksgiving 5K, Thursday, Nov. 26 (in-person & virtual)
• Naples Daily News Half Marathon, Saturday, Jan. 17 (in-person & virtual) 

ELITE EVENTS (runeliteevents.com):

• Fall Classic Half Marathon and 5K, Naples, Saturday, Nov. 21
• Thanksgiving Day 5K Run and Walk, Estero, Thursday, Nov. 26
• Naples Christmas Glow Run 5K, Saturday, Dec. 5
• Naples Distance Classic 5K, 10K and Half Marathon, Sunday, Dec. 6 

OTHER RUNS:

• 2020 LCEC Goblin Gallop 5K, Oct. 31, Jaycee Park, Cape Coral (in-person) (active.com)
• Run for Foster Kids, Oct. 1-31 (virtual) (runsignup.com)

CYCLING:

The Caloosa Riders are offering member rides, but some are open to non-members (and it wouldn’t hurt you to join the club); check their ride calendar (caloosariders.org) for a description of the distance and speed, and to see if the ride is open to all.

SW Florida Critical Mass is offering their usual slate of family-friendly rides, although the NE Lee ride seems to be lacking a leader and thus is not on the calendar. The options are below, and you can check out their line-up online (http://www.meetup.com/Biking-SWFL/events/) for details and times.

• SW Florida Critical Mass ride, first Friday of the month. A family-friendly slow night ride through Fort Myers. Front and rear bike lights required. Helmet and lights required, meet in the parking lot at 2180 West First Street, Fort Myers. 
• Sanibel Critical Mass night ride, second Tuesday of the month. Gathers at Jerry’s Shopping Center, 1700 Periwinkle Way, on Sanibel. Lights required, helmets recommended.
• Cape Coral Critical Mass ride, fourth Friday of the month. Gather at the Southwest Florida Military Museum parking lot at 4820 Leonard Street for a family-friendly night ride through the Cape; helmets and lights required.
• Saturday Morning Slow Roll, fourth Saturday of the month. Meet-up at 2160 McGregor Blvd., Fort Myers. Recommended for inexperienced/young riders. Distance is 6 miles, includes group ride instruction.

If racing is not your thing but you’d like to support their return nonetheless, consider volunteering to help out at the few in-person offerings ahead. With Covid concerns still corralling some of the club’s usual volunteers, a few new helping hand would certainly be welcomed. 

TELL US ABOUT YOUR RIDE:

Have a favorite route you like to bike, or a unique walk you’d like to share with others? Tell us about it at info@bikewalklee.org, and maybe we can feature it in an upcoming column.

# # #

Ken Gooderham writes this on behalf of BikeWalkLee, a community coalition raising public awareness and advocating for complete streets in Lee County — streets that are designed, built, operated and maintained for safe and convenient travel for all users: pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders of all ages and abilities. Information, statistics and background online at www.BikeWalkLee.org.

 

 

BikeWalkLee's Letter to County Commissioners in Support of 100% Impact Fees

 On Tuesday, March 6th, the County Commissioners will be considering whether impact fees should return to the 100% rate or continue its impact fee reduction policies, which has resulted in the loss of $83 million in revenues over the past 5 years.  BikeWalkLee strongly supports returning to the 100% impact fees and has shared our comments with Commissioners.  Make your voices heard before or at this important meeting on Tuesday. Here's the Link to this Letter.

March 1, 2018

Lee County Board of Commissioners
2120 SW Main Street
Fort Myers, FL 33901

Dear Commissioners: 

BikeWalkLee, a coalition working to complete Lee County's streets, works for a more balanced multi-modal transportation system that values transportation choice, connectivity, economic opportunity, livable communities, community character, safety, and quality growth.  Over the past six years, we have steadfastly opposed the suspension or reduction in impact fees.  We believe that providing public infrastructure should be a shared responsibility; that investments in public infrastructure necessitated by growth should be paid for by those creating that need;  and that infrastructure investments should keep pace with permitted development so that the quality of life for all residents does not erode as a result.

At your March 6 Board meeting, we urge you:

·        To take no action to extend reduced impact fees, so that the full base rate (100%) is automatically reinstated effective March 16, 2018, as called for in your March 2015 ordinance;

·        To adopt the recommendations in the 2018 Duncan Associates impact fee studies (roads, schools, parks, fire/EMS), updating the 100% rates reflecting current costs;

·        To oppose any efforts to lengthen the impact fee update cycle beyond the current long-standing practice of updating the fees on a three-year cycle. 

When the Board enacted the reduced collection rate (20% for two years) in 2013, and then extended it in 2015 (with a reduced collection rate of 45% for three years), the ordinances stated that these reductions were to provide temporary relief to the building and construction industry in recognition of the downturn in the U.S. economy. The downturn in the economy is long over, with employment and growth booming in Lee County, and it's past time for the "temporary relief" to come to an end.

This "temporary relief" has come at a high cost to the taxpayers. As a result of this Board's policy decisions (supported by all Board members with the exception of Commissioner Mann) to reduce impact fee collection rates over the past five years, $83 million in revenues has been lost (approximately half for roads as well as parks; and the other half for schools). Public infrastructure costs due to permitted development are determined by state-mandated impact fee studies which establish the base impact fees. According to these studies (e.g. Duncan Update studies), $128 million is necessary to cover the public infrastructure costs associated with these developments, yet the county collected only $45 million of that amount, creating a $83 million unfunded liability for the taxpayers of Lee County. [See Attachment 1.]

Now the Board is considering a proposal to extend this 45% collection rate for another five years, which would result in an additional estimated loss of $122 million ($24 million a year), bringing the 10-year revenue loss to over $200 million (half for schools and other half for roads and parks). [See Attachment 2.]  If this 45% collection rate becomes permanent (as the majority of the Commission clearly intends), by 2040, the County will have lost an additional $400 million in revenue...for a grand total of $600 million (half for schools and half for roads and parks)! It is fiscally irresponsible of the Board to give away a vital revenue source necessary to meet the public infrastructure needs of this growing county, even more so because no replacement revenue sources have been put in place to cover these costs. 

During the 24 years from when road impact fees were instituted (FY 1990 through FY 2013, when slashing of impact fees began), this revenue source constituted about one-third of all revenues funding transportation projects. As a result of the Board's impact fee reduction policy decisions over the past five years, that share has dropped from 36% to 10%. It is time to re-assert the community compact of shared responsibility that served the county well for the previous 24 years, and return impact fees to 100% of the base rate. [See Attachment 3.]

In addition to the detrimental impacts from the past five years' $83 million revenue loss, there has been an even more lasting casualty: In the Board's attempt to justify slashing impact fees, it has created a false narrative that there are sufficient revenues to meet the transportation needs of this growing community. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

The countywide long range transportation plan (2040 LRTP) approved in 2015 by the MPO Board (consisting of all 5 Commissioners along with elected officials from each of the 6 municipalities), clearly sounded the alarm about the growing transportation funding shortfall. Less than half of the projects in the approved list can be funded with the estimated revenues coming in through 2040. For the LRTP projects that are solely the responsibility of Lee County, there is a $1.2 billion shortfall over the next 22 years, with 55% of the need left unfunded. This is half of the $2.3 billion shortfall  in the overall Plan. Furthermore, as the MPO's LRTP made clear, the upward pressure on project costs coupled with worsening downward trends on almost all revenue sources, the transportation funding shortfall with be significantly higher when the 2045 LRTP is adopted in 2019. [See Attachment 4.]  

The County Administration has argued that it has "solved" the funding shortfall problem with its Growth Increment Fund (GIF).  This is not true.  First, no new revenues have been raised.  GIF simply shifts approximately $11 million/year in already collected property tax revenues (from all residents) to the transportation CIP every year; thereby shifting who is paying for this infrastructure.  Second and most importantly,  even with these GIF revenues, the funding shortfall has only been reduced to $864 million-- with  41% of the funding shortfall remaining.  

Restoring impact fees to 100% will make a big dent in the shortfall (closing half of the gap), but the County will still be faced with  a remaining 23% funding shortfall ($481 million).  As has been discussed by the MPO, new revenue sources are needed and it is the responsibility of local leaders to come up with solutions; yet nothing has been done. Through its actions to reduce impact fee revenue collections, this Board has made an already dire funding situation much worse. [See Attachment  5.]

The Board's exclusive focus on the Transportation CIP's five-year window is very deceptive. In order to create the impression that no additional funds are needed, it simply pushes the true costs of completing these projects into the outyears beyond the "visible" five-year window, hiding the fact that sufficient revenues are not available to complete these projects. 

Using the County's own numbers--the FY 2017-18 5-Year Transportation CIP (adopted in Sept. 2017)and its revenue estimates (provided in Feb. 6, 2018 workshop), just to complete construction of the projects already underway in the current 5-year CIP (totaling $244 million) an additional $225 million is needed, as shown the County's "6-10 year" column on its detailed CIP spreadsheet. This means that over 80% of the revenues coming in for the next 5-year window (FY 22/23-26/27) are already committed for the completion of the projects now underway.  Only $55 million will be available to spend on all the unfunded Tier II and III projects, which have a $165 million price tag.

The reality is that it will take over 15 years to fund all the projects in the current five-year CIP and on the county's approved Tier I, II, and III priorities list.  No funds will be available for any new projects until  FY 2032/33 -- 14 years from now, by which time Lee County will have another 182,000 residents on top of our current population of 700,000. [See Attachment 6.]

In addition to these "big picture" transportation funding concerns, BikeWalkLee is particularly concerned about the consequences of this funding shortfall on the growing backlog of stand-alone bike/ped retrofit projects, as well as road projects that incorporate a complete streets approach. In 2017, Lee County was ranked the deadliest metro area in the country for pedestrian safety. [The 2016 Dangerous by Design report released by Smart Growth America.] This report demonstrated the urgent need for increased investment in pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure to make Lee County roadways safer for all users. A year ago, BikeWalkLee challenged the County along with the six local municipalities, to step up their investments to make our roadways safer for everyone. Without these additional investments now, we are likely to see our "worst in the country" label stick when the next report comes out next year, hurting Lee County's reputation well beyond this one issue. Safety is essential to one's quality of life, and without it, our economic vitality cannot be sustained. 

While the County has provided some increased funding for bike/ped projects, much more needs to be done. As of January 2018, there are $105 million in bike/ped stand-alone projects that have been approved and prioritized by the County's Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee waiting to be funded. In addition, there are $38 million more in approved projects that are currently on hold until other issues are resolved.  The list of approved projects has grown from $68 million in FY 2015, essentially doubling over the past 3 years. To eliminate this backlog, and to make our existing roadways  safer for pedestrians and cyclists, significant additional revenues are needed in the transportation budget over the next 15 years and beyond. [See Attachment  7.] 

The Board needs to be honest with the citizens of Lee County about the growing transportation funding shortfall rather than pretending it doesn't exist so the Board can squander much needed revenues by only collecting a fraction of impact fees due to the county and school district. The Board's actions on this critical issue over the past five years have misled the public about the true transportation funding situation and undermined the long-standing social compact of "shared sacrifices" that is critical to the public's trust in its elected officials, making it even harder to gain public support for these efforts in the future.

Economic prosperity comes from quality investments in community infrastructure. We urge you to vote to return impact fees to the full 100% rate, as updated by the 2018 Duncan impact fee update studies. 

Sincerely, 

Darla Letourneau

On behalf of
BikeWalkLee

cc: Roger Desjarlais, County Manager

Attachments:

Attachment 1:  Impact Fee Revenue Losses to date (March 2013-Jan. 2018)

 Attachment 2:  Impact Fee Revenue Analysis: 2015 vs. 2018 (base vs. collection rates)

Attachment 3:  Historical and Projected Transportation Revenue Sources by Share (2005-2040)

Attachment  4:  Lee County/BoCC Approved Projects in 2040 LRTP

Attachment 5:  Transportation Funding Shortfall

Attachment 6:  Funding Analysis of County's CIP projects: Costs vs. Revenues using County numbers

 Attachment 7:  BPAC List of Approved and Prioritized Bike/Ped Retrofit Projects (as of Jan. 2018)

Link to this Letter

Action Alert: Three bike/ped legislative issues that need YOUR attention

Your action is needed on 3 complete streets/bike/ped legislative issues:

1.  Federal Transportation Bill--Immediately!

The FEDERL TRANSPORTATION BILL includes important legislation that can improve bicycle and pedestrian safety and education and ensure the implementation of Complete Streets planning.

The Transportation & Infrastructure Committee in the House of Representatives passed their version of the bill and referred it to the House floor. Committee leadership has indicated that they expect to pass the bill through the House, reconcile it with the Senate bill, and pass it by November 20.

Get background and details from League of American Bicyclistsfrom Rails-to-Trails Conservancy.

WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS AND ASK THEM TO:

• Support federal funding for walking and biking trails
• Maintain the Transportation Alternative Program (TAP) at its current level
• Fund the Vision Zero efforts under the Highway safety Improvement Program (HSIP) to create a source of funding for bicycle and pedestrian safety education programming
• PASS THE SAFE STREETS ACT THAT REQUIRES STATES TO PASS COMPLETE STREETS POLICIES

Click on a name to go to the email Contact for:

Senator Bill Nelson

Senator Marco Rubio

Representative Curt Clawson

 

 

2.  FHWA rule: Before December 7, 2015!

The FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION (FHWA) is proposing a rule that will ease outdated, federally mandated standards and allow communities to design and build Complete Streets. 

Learn more:

Feds propose major rule changes to eliminate barriers to safer streets

Read the regulation:

http://www.regulations.gov/#!documentDetail;D=FHWA-2015-0020-0003

PLEASE SUBMIT A COMMENT IN FAVOR OF THIS RULE! The deadline is December 7, 2015. 

To Mail comments to the U.S. Department of Transportation, Dockets Management Facility, Room W12-140, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE., Washington, DC 20590,  fax comments to(202) 493-2251, or submit to the Federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov. All comments must include the docket number FHWA-2015-0020

 

3.  Passidomo Bike Safety Bill: Before January 1, 2016!

The LEE COUNTY LEGISLATIVE DELEGATION held its annual public meeting on Oct. 14th to hear from local leaders about their priorities for this Legislative Session.  BWL testified that its top priority is bike/ped safety and passage of the Passidomo bill (HB 253). We also stated our support for anti-texting bill (making it primary offense) (SB 328).

 

Read BWL's letter to the delegation.

Learn more about the Passidomo Bicycle Safety Bill  - HB253

Learn more about the anti-texting bills (SB 328 and HB 25)

WRITE TO MEMBERS OF THE DELEGATION and remind them how you are counting on them to make significant progress this session and PASS THE PASSIDOMO BILL that provides better protection for vulnerable road users. 

Click on a name and go to the email of: 

Honorable Matt Caldwell

Honorable Kathleen Passidomo

Honorable Garrett Richter

Honorable Lizbeth Benacquisto

Honorable Heather Fitzenhagen 

Honorable Dane Eagle

Honorable Ray Rodrigues

 

Lee MPO debates critical road projects and need for expanding transportation revenues

The Oct. 16th Lee MPO Board meeting focused on two major issues--the annual FDOT 5-year workplan and the 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).  The topics were of sufficient interest that 16 of 17 Board members were present...including all five county commissioners (something that hasn't occurred in years). The Board elected Fort Myers Councilman Flanders as Chair, serving out the term of Councilman Leonardo who resigned in Sept. The Citizens Advisory Committee's package of recommendations stimulated an extensive discussion about the urgent need for expanding our transportation revenues.  

Report by Darla Letourneau
 Lee MPO Board Actions Taken on 10/16/15
 

FDOT 5-Year Work Plan

The Board had extensive discussions about the draft FDOT 5-year workplan, expressing deep frustration with the lack of funding and the delays in moving forward on urgently needed projects.  The most critical need is widening of SR 82, given the alarming rates of crashes and fatalities (21 fatalities and 1,011 crashes with 610 injuries over the past two years).  The Board voted to ask FDOT to change the planned construction from concrete to asphalt and use the $20 million savings to come up with a Design/Build financing approach that would allow the roadway to be built in 4 years vs. 8 years. 

 

 Darla Letourneau made BikeWalkLee's comments on the draft FDOT plan, and called the plan disappointing, with an overall 17% reduction in the 5th year "new funds" as compared to last year's 5th year funding level. ·She stated that Lee County is not getting its "fair share" of state funds, primarily because SWFL is not participating in the State's top priority transportation investments--the port system, East Coast rail investments, and SIS investments in the I-4 and I-95 corridors.  This year's FDOT workplan is one more piece of evidence that the revenues coming to Lee County from all sources are continuing to decline and is the new reality. 

In terms of bike/ped projects, Letourneau expressed disappointment that the study for a shared use path between Cape Coral and Pine Island, which was approved last year for funding in FY 2020, has now been delayed another year.  She also expressed disappointment that FDOT once again failed to fund the joint Lee/Collier #1 priority for the Regional Enhancement project: Old US 41 in Bonita to Collier shared use path. In total, the Lee MPO requested funding for 32 bike/ped projects and FDOT is only funding 7 of those projects (22%). Last year, 35% of the MPO's request was funded.  Of those 7 funded projects, 5 of them only received planning money--not construction money as requested.   On the upside, bike/ped spending represents 7% of all transportation funds, up from 6% in last year's workplan.  So, while the overall pie is shrinking, at least bike/ped's share of the pie is holding its own.

 Given the Board's many concerns with the draft FDOT workplan, they decided to table a vote on it until they could see a revised plan.  [Note: the FDOT workplan does not require MPO approval.]

2040 LRTP draft projects list

 

MPO staff presented the Board with the recommendations that came from their Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and their Citizens Advisory Committee (CAC):

• The TAC recommended that the Corkscrew Road and Veterans/Santa Barbara projects be moved up on the list. 

• The CAC made three recommendations:

• ·         That impact fees be raised to the full amount.

• ·         That the MPO include road projects that widen existing roads before new roadway alignments on the list; and

• ·         that the timing of the Corkscrew Road project be moved up.

Public comment focused on the request to move up the Corkscrew project, to push for an I-75 interchange in Cape Coral, and the need to collect 100% of impact fees as well as find other sources of revenues for transportation projects.  Both the News-Press and Naples Daily News articles capture the Boards discussion about these issues. 

Letourneau endorsed Mayor Nelson's comments that what has been lacking is the political will to raise more revenues, and argued that multi-modal transportation expenditures should be viewed as investments in our economic future.  Given the significant shortfall in transportation revenues, the county's decision not to collect the full road impact fees has worsened the situation and will make it difficult in terms of equity and fairness to go to the voters and ask them to pay more taxes to meet the county's pressing transportation needs.  Letourneau applauded the Plan's focus on giving priority to maintaining and improving our current infrastructure before investing in expanding facilities, with the first 14 projects on the list being bridge replacements.

The MPO Board voted to amend the 2040 Plan’s Cost Feasible Projects list to make the following changes:

·         The Board approved a motion to move up the Corkscrew Rd. project

• ·       Begin the construction of the Corkscrew segment between Ben Hill Griffin and the entrance to Corkscrew Preserve five years earlier by moving the funding from the 2026-30 to 2021-25,

• ·       Accelerate the funding of the Planning and Engineering and Right of Way acquisition for the segment between the entrance to Corkscrew Preserve and Alico Road by 5 years from 2026-30 to 2021-25, and

• ·       Accelerate the construction of the segment between the entrance to Corkscrew Preserve and Alico Road by at least 5 years from 2031-40 to 2026-30

• ·         In order to fund these changes the MPO Board had to delay the extension of Three Oaks Parkway from Alico Road to Daniels Road. They decided that it is more important to solve traffic safety problems on existing roads than to build new roads.

As a result of the extensive discussion on the need for more revenues to fund the county's multi-modal transportation needs, the Board adopted a motion by Sanibel Mayor Ruane that the MPO Executive Committee (which has one member from each jurisdiction) undertake an effort to explore all financing options that can be brought back to the Board for consideration.

Next Steps:

The next step in the process is a public hearing on the 2040 LRTP, which is scheduled for the Nov. 20th MPO Board meeting.  Then at the Dec. 18th MPO Board meeting, they will take final action on the 2040 Plan.

Recent Articles re: LRTP Transportation Issues:

1.  News-Press Oct. 8,2015:  The CAC's recommendation on impact fees was covered in a News-Press 10/8 article.

2.  Link to Impact Fee Revenues Report and Analysis--Oct. 2015 (actuals for 30 months, through    end of Sept. 2015)

3.  Oct. 10, 2015: Naples Daily News article: Corkscrew improvements not likely for awhile.

4.  News-Press Oct. 13, 2015: Bonita, Estero push for fees rapped

5.  Naples Daily News Oct. 14, 2015 Editorial:  With construction booming again, do roads fit into the equation? 

6.  News-Press Oct. 17, 2015: Estero's Corkscrew Road inches higher on road list

7.  Naples Daily News Oct. 17, 2015: Fixing traffic woes proving a headache for Lee officials

Recent BWL-related blogs

1.  October 9, 2015:Action Alert: Important votes on Long Range Transportation Plan at Oct. 16th Lee MPO Board meeting  

2. Oct. 8, 2015: FDOT proposes 5-year funding plan for Lee County and provides opportunity for public comment

3. August 12, 2015: Invite to August 25th Public Workshop on Lee County 2040 Transportation Plan

4. May 4, 2015: Time to participate in development of Lee County's Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP)

5. April 17, 2015:Lee MPO Board reviews framework for 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan decisions

6. LRTP Resource Document: BikeWalkLee put together a resource document for the 2040 LRTP Process (with lots of links) based on our many related blog posts. (5/13/15)