Support the National Bicycle Greenway?
(See our Poster!)
been working hard to promote alternative transportation as a way to get
people to and from the workplace. Some, like Santa Cruz, CA and Boulder,
CO have even had much success with a program called Bike-to-Work in
trying to establish awareness for the two-wheel travel option. Here, on
one day out of the year, those who ride their bike to work are treated to
a free breakfast.
And yet according to the United States Nationwide Personal Transportation
Study, commuting to work only accounts for about one-fifth of the trips
people make. The largest share of travel in this country is done for
family and personal business needs such as shopping and appointments while
social and recreational trips such as visiting friends and trips to restaurants
and movies and other outings make up an astonishing 25% of the time
people use to move themselves about.
Given this awareness, and the fact that our planet cannot sustain this, is
it not time that we capitalize on the credibility transportation planners
have given us, as cyclists, to promote the bicycle for as many other trips
as possible? It is crucially important that both cyclists and those
institutions that serve our travel needs campaign to accomplish this. We
can start with public events such as fireworks displays, downtown
festivals and parades, rodeos, craft and antique fairs, sporting events,
and Farmer's Markets, etc. Why must we continue with the old paradigm of
pouring all of our resources into smoothing out the commute while trips
that don't take one to or from the workplace or entertainment events that
encourage people to drive are rarely discouraged?
Can we not, as a bike community work with our local Transportation
Commissions to effectively address this senselessness? In making their job
easier, however, we need to make it a joy for people to choose the bike
travel option. We need to quit trying, as do some cities, to get respect
for cyclists by only giving them a free breakfast if they ride their bike
to work one day out of the year. We need celebrate the cyclist who uses a
bike to replace ANY car trip.
As communities of cyclists we can start by showing shoppers the power of
the bike trailer. We can encourage its use, for example, by asking
our transportation commissions to subsidize those merchants who give
discounts to those who use cycle carts to transport purchases from their store.
Through them, we can even organize a county-wide financing program that
will let cyclists buy trailers with low interest loans. And once these
people discover the joy of moving loads both heavy and light under their
own power, rarely will they want to be in a car to move things about as
per:
http://www.bikeroute.com/WhyTrailer.htm
In addition, instead of petitioning our traffic planners for bike lockers
and showers and the like for only 20% of the trips people make (going to
work or
school), we genuinely need their help in making it fun and safe to be on
a bike whether on or off of a road intended for cars. We need to demand
better recreational trail systems so people can build their confidence
well enough to want to go more places under their own power. We need to
show them that their
use of the bicycle in this way matters by not only making our bike paths
attractive but also rewarding them with safe bike lanes once they graduate
to the street. We need to make it safe for people to get on and off of
bike paths wherever it is that they join up with roads.
Because as we do, as we make two-wheel infrastructure a travel draw we
enrich the coffers of local business merchants. As our allies, they will
in turn make our voice for even more improvements to both our recreation
and travel needs a far louder one indeed.
In my bike travels across the US, I have found hidden treasure, a sense of
wonder and great peace buried deep within the bowels of cities both big
and small. On bike paths! And rare indeed is it the city or town that does
not have natural such surroundings that it cannot make available for a
whole new world of cyclists to see!
This is what we here at the National Bicycle Greenway (NBG) see for
communities across the nation as they fit into our network of multi-use
recreation and transportation bicycle highways that will, in time, connect
the coasts.
Next summer this vision will capture the attention of the nation as many
thousands of cyclists fill America's roads for their journey to Washington
DC and the NBG's Cycle America 2000. Cycle America 2000 organized by a
retired Colonel, will feature a 4-Hour mass ride around our lawmakers in
the Nation's Capitol as we ask them to make people powered infrastructure
one of their top priorities.
And to get there, many will begin, on their bikes, from cities and towns
all across the nation. They will join those innumerable cyclists from
all over the world internet community who have helped us to build this ride
for the last several years at www.bikeroute.com We need to act
locally as we also act nationally!
Please contact us with your ideas, your energy and your enthusiasm::
