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I spend a lot of time bike touring. When I started, I had no clue what to take, how to get my bike there, where to rent, where to store my bike, and all those basic bicycle travel questions.
Recently, thanks to Stumble Upon, I found a website called Bike Lane. It is a wealth of information for bike travelers. It is an active travel website with information about airports, airlines, trains, bicycle containers, bike storage, bike rentals, and more.
Traveling to trails by train is the way to go.
In addition to providing invaluable information for the bike traveler, bikelane also makes it easy to submit tips. I was happy to add a couple tips about traveling on a train for bike trips and bicycle shipping when on a bike tour.
Check out this video and comics drawn by Philippe Guillerm. Talented artists are good; talented artists whose subjects involve bicycles are even better.
We all hope that bicycling is a priority in every town. But the reality is that we’ll probably have to work toward that goal one town and city at a time.
With that in mind, here’s your chance to make bicycling a priority in one city. Denver, Colorado will soon be electing a new mayor. The previous mayor, Hickenlooper, was a big supporter of bicycling and biking infrastructure.
In a preemptive move, a Colorado biking coalition is collecting signatures on a petition to give the new mayor when he takes office during the summer of 2011. It is the hopes of this coalition that the new mayor will be as supporting of bicycle initiatives as the previous mayor. (who is now governor)
Budget Travel is hosting their annual America’s Coolest Small Town contest. My choice of Louisville, Colorado didn’t make it, but that’s okay.
They want a town w/ character. But we all know that no town has true character w/ out a world class trail.
Now I’m looking for any town that has a major trail running through it or near it. So far, I don’t recognize any of the towns as being famous trail towns.
Maybe you trailsnet readers recognize some. Visit the Budget Travel Coolest Small Town page and cast your vote. Then contact me (via comments would be the best way) and let me know if any of the towns are American trail towns.
The following information about bicycle touring and bike trails confirms what most of us already knew:
Bikers enjoy the fall colors on the Great Allegheny Passage trail.
There is growing evidence that touring cyclists spend more time in the towns that they visit, lingering (and spending) more than the average tourist. Wisconsin released a report earlier this year that out-of-state cyclists generate more than $530 million in economic development annually. And according to a 2008 study done along the Great Allegheny Passage (a nearly 150-mile bike trail situated between Cumberland, Maryland, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), bicycle tourism has become a major economic force. Business owners reported that a quarter of their gross income comes from trail users and two-thirds of the businesses saw an increase in their revenue due to their location on the trail. Despite the economic downturn in 2008, businesses saw an increase in gross revenue attributable to the trail (from $32.6 million in 2007 to $40.6 million in 2008) and paid nearly 20% more wages as a result.
This information is especially pertinent in light of the recent attacks on bike trail funding from organizations such as AAA. This shows that an investment in bike trails will be repaid many times over in health benefits, decreased pollution, stronger families and economic benefits.
I was disappointed to hear that not only has the Mid-Atlantic office of AAA called for a decrease in trail funding, but now the national AAA office has sent out the same message.
I thought that we were on the same page. I thought AAA realized the importance of multi-modal transportation.
