Legacy Rider(s) Wanted to Bike USA on NBG Route, the Back Story

For ten years, beginning in 1998 we supported a number of scouting treks across the United States. During that time, however, it was extremely difficult to communicate what we had learned with the technology that was available at the time. While MapQuest and Yahoo maps existed, they only served the needs of motorists and you could not interact with them.

It wasn’t until 2009, four years after Google entered the playing field with their own maps in 2005, that that the pubic could interface with their maps. Anxious to get the information that had come to us through email and telephone conversations on to an online map we recruited programmers. We assembled a small team of developers to build our own API (Application Program Interface) to use the Google base map. 

By the time we launched our mapping interface in 2007, a small number of other interactive map planning sites had already begun to kick in. They had applied for and received keys (password numbers) of their own that also authorized them to use the Google map platform for everything from bike routes to running and hiking routes to real estate tours, etc. Over the next two years, we collected hundreds of routes from the public as our engineers learned the limits of the Google system. And our Internet Service Provider, located in India, struggled with all the new storage demands

Then in 2010, Google added bike mapping. Many businesses such as ours, that relied on Google for custom bike routing, faded away. One of the ones that stayed around however, Ride With GPS, has grown into a force  that has become an important part of the bike industry. Along the way, they have taken interactive bike mapping to a whole new level.

While we have had our SF to DC Google map at BikeRoute.com since 2014, it got little attention because it was hard to work with. Having just contracted with Ride With GPS, however, our mission is now plainly evident on the landing page of our website and our route is easily navigable. To announce this development, instead of our annual Mayors’ ride program, in 2022, beginning in San Francisco, and ending at the Nation’s Capital, we will run our first annual NBG Builder Certificate Ride on our route.

There are many programs that will key off this map such as – 

NBG Passport Licenses
NBG Mile Markers
Flagpost Sales
TransAm rider blog
TransAm Hall of Fame
NBG Magazine 

All of these will appear in the book I am writing about the National Bicycle Greenway, but this  coast to coast ride on our route will get the NBG ball rolling. 

We also foresee other nonprofits using our route for fundraising efforts of their own.

Year in, year out, as people cycle our route for various charity causes, and/or for themselves, the more it is used, the more the merchants along the way will want to support it. As they see increased activity at their own cash registers, they will push to make it easier for cyclists to get to them. This will obviously take the form of better and safer road passage for bike riders.