Colorado Bicycle Summit: Where do We Go from Here?
As I have detailed in the past two blog entries, I was overwhelmed, in a great way, by all the presenters at the Colorado Bicycle Summit. I learned not only an abundance of information but also enjoyed a positive revelation; There are many other people out there as passionate about bicycling, trails, and alternative transportation as I am.
Jeff Miller of Alliance for Biking & Walking
One of those people was Jeff Miller. Jeff is the President/CEO of Alliance for Biking & Walking. He is an incredible speaker with an obvious enthusiasm for all things bicycle & pedestrian. He truly cares about issues such as fitness, the environment and alternative transportation. And he expresses it in an enthusiastic and eloquent manner. He shared many eye-opening facts & figures. Some of those I shared in previous blog entries and some I will share in future entries.
So I decided to share some information about trailsnet with Jeff. Below is a copy of the email I sent to Jeff. I know he’s a busy guy, but I hope he gets a chance to read the letter. I would love to enlist his help in making trailsnet a website that truly serves the same lofty goals as Jeff and the Alliance share. In addition, I hope the rest of you also get a chance to read the information and share some responses:
Dear Jeff,
Thanks for the excellent & informative presentations at the Colorado Bicycle Summit. You had some real eye-opening facts and figures and an obvious passion for the future of bicycling in America.
I am also a huge fan of biking with an extreme emphasis on biking (& hiking, running, recumbent riding, inline skating, Trikking, backpacking, etc.) trails. Upon retiring from an extremely rewarding career as a teacher, I decided to channel my love of trails into a website called trailsnet.com. When I first came up with the idea for trailsnet, there was an extreme lack of information on the internet or anywhere else, about trails. Since then, a proliferation of trail-related sites have blossomed. These sites range from the big ones like Traillink (RTC), Everytrail, AllTrails, & Trails.com to numerous regional and specialty trail sites.
However, even with all the trail-based websites, we still don’t have one central location for every trail in the country. We also don’t have a trail website that covers the broad spectrum of trail users. I am still frustrated whenever I attempt to add information to biking and trail websites only to find that they limit their entries to two categories of biking: road biking & mountain biking. Yet from my experience, the vast majority of trails and an even larger majority of trail users fall into neither category. Take for example trails like Maryland’s C & O Canal Trail, Georgia’s Silver Comet Trail, Florida’s Withlacoochee Trail, Louisiana’s Tammany Trace, Mississippi’s Longleaf Trace or Colorado’s Santa Fe Regional Trail. None of these trails are mountain bike trails. Nor should they be classified as road biking since they are not on roads. (In fact they are popular because they allow us to avoid roads.)
Although you offered wonderful and heartening statistics about bicycling that included the fact that America has 50 million cyclists, I have also heard the statistic that less than 3% of Americans ride bikes on a regular basis. When you consider the health, environmental, transportation and recreation opportunities that bicycling affords, this is a shame. But it is also completely understandable. It seems to me that the entire cycling world has conspired to discourage the average American from riding bikes. The whole biking world seems to revolve around racing, competitive road riding, and competitive or risky mountain biking. Don’t get me wrong; as a resident of Boulder County Colorado I fully understand the allure of the adrenaline sports. I am a life-long mountain biker, I sponsored one of the first mountain bike clubs in the Boulder Valley School District, and literally every one of my neighbors is a current or former bike racer. However, when I travel the country to ride long-distance trails, I see two other trends; one of them is positive and the other is a shame.
I see and talk to legions of riders who just love getting out on a flat trail and riding for joy, relaxation, fitness, scenery, camaraderie, and family time. These people have no desire to race, to risk their lives, or to deal with dangerous roads. Some of them live right alongside the trails and others come from all over the world to ride our incredible trails. Unfortunately, there are millions more out there who have no idea these trails exist. I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have visited communities like Keene, New Hampshire and asked how to find the Ammonoosuc Rail Trail or the Cheshire Trail only to be met by blank stares and shrugged shoulders. I asked coffee shop owners, bicyclists, and runners. I asked people who worked or lived right across the street from the trailhead. They had no idea these trails existed… right in their own communities. We have to do a better job of getting the word out. The more people who use these trails, the more funding will come available for adding trails and lengthening trails and connecting trails.
So this is the point in the letter where you may expect me to say, “So the bottom line is that I need some money for this website.” Nope! I need help, guidance, and direction. Oh sure, if you’ve got some extra cash just sitting around gathering dust, don’t get me wrong; I could build trailsnet even faster and better. But I’m at a point with trailsnet where I could use some connections to help me build the network. Obviously, I can’t find, explore, and enter information about all the hundreds of thousands of trails by myself. I am just adding a new feature on the website that will allow all trail users to enter trail information. I know, that’s nothing new. There are hundreds of websites that already allow that. I would actually like to encourage not only individuals to add trail information, but also larger trail groups such as cities, counties, states, and federal trail entities to enter information.
I hope to end up with the following information on trailsnet.com:
- basic trail statistics for every trail in the country, no matter what kind of trails they are
- the ultimate safe routes to school information that shows paths & trails near schools & neighborhoods
- information about all types of personal transportation vehicles that are allowed on the various trails so that we not only share information about which trails allow bikes but which trails allow and work for wheelchairs, recumbents, inline skates, cruisers, Trikkes, Eliptigoes, StreetStriders, skateboards, snowshoes, nordic skis, etc.
- destination trails for those folks who want to plan their vacations around America’s premier trails such as the Trail of the Coeur d’ alenes, the Great Allegheny Passage, The Katy Trail, the Mickelson Trail, etc.
- bike trails near bike sharing stations such as all the great Washington D.C. trails that could be used by the Capital BikeShare program (Mount Vernon, W & OD, C & O, Capital Crescent, etc.) or trails that can be used by Denver BikeShare (Platte, Cherry Creek, Highline Canal, Sand Creek Greenway, Clear Creek, C470, etc.)
- a blog that includes such features as the trail of the week, alternative transportation reports, trail legislation, trail vacation destinations, international trail news, trail heroes, and trail commuting tips.
- links to other great trail websites such as TrailLink, American Trails, National Park Service, Forest Service, community trail websites, and state trail websites.
- news about such great organizations as Alliance for Biking and Walking, People Powered Movement, Bikes Belong, Pedal the Plains, Boulder B-Cycle, Denver Bike Sharing, People for Bikes, the Colorado Bicycle Summit, Bicycle Longmont, New Hampshire Rail Trail Coalition, etc.
If you have made it this far, thanks for sticking with me. I know that you are already a huge fan of bicyclists and pedestrians, so I don’t need to sell you on the need for improving the infrastructure to accommodate walkers and riders. But there is an equally great need to educate the public about the opportunities and facilities that already exist. There is also a need to unite all the disparate coalitions that exist out there to directly or indirectly serve those of us who embrace recreation, alternative transportation, and fitness.
Needless to say, I would love trailsnet to be the source of both information and unity. It is currently in its infancy. It has unlimited potential. I am hoping that you can help me get the word out. I am contacting as many people and organizations as I can. If each person I contact can help me reach a couple more people, the momentum will grow and we’ll end up with a world class website that serves the needs of commuters, recreationalists, environmentalists, and citizens in general.
Thank you once again for your Colorado Bicycle Summit involvement and for your work as President/CEO of Alliance for Biking & Walking. Any information or connections you can share with me would be greatly appreciated. We share the same goals; I hope we can work together to achieve those goals.
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