Council Will Sunset TBD If City Ignores Pedestrian Plan

The Spokane City Council on Monday approved a sunset clause on the city’s $20 vehicle license fee. Council member Jon Snyder brought forth the ordinance, which mandates that city administrators must create a pedestrian master plan that gets council approval by the end of 2015, otherwise the transportation benefit district will fold.
 
The TBD is a corporation that funds city street improvements with the vehicle fee, and is supposed to fund pedestrian plans. He says it’s time the pedestrian master plan get attention.
 
Snyder: “10 percent of the trips in this town, or somewhere in that range, are done by biking, walking, or some other means than a personal car. If we were to take all those trips and force every one of those people to drive a car, our whole transportation system would collapse.”
 
Snyder also says pedestrians die every year, and while making a plan won’t solve all the fatalities, it will make for a safer Spokane. The ordinance passed with what’s become a common four-to-one vote, with Mike Fagan giving the no vote.
 
Mayor David Condon has said he is confident city leaders will come up with pedestrian plans.
 
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