Why our SF-DC connection is important to cyclists everywhere
All too often, when cyclists hear that the National Bicycle Greenway is a San Francisco to Washington, DC connection, they think that is great but that it has nothing to do with their own pedaling efforts.
W R O N G !
There are many reasons why this is incorrect reasoning as I will show you here.
To begin, the National Bicycle Greenway will set the precedent for the highest and best ways any city can encourage bicycling as it meets the needs of its pedaling populace. When any population center, anywhere, is looking for ways to make it easier for its non-motorized users of the road to move about, they will be able to take example from what we have done. With ours as a Best Practices model for how to make a downtown people centric and not car centric, this will put a subtle pressure on the city leaders of off-route cities to copy what we have done. They will also feel called to commission their planners and Public Works people to follow our example because of the pictures they won’t be able to help but see. These will get to them from their own constituents who will be circulating photos on social media of what any one of our Anchor Cities will have done.
This will be combined with the steady drumbeat of stories about how any of our Anchor Cities in question are enjoying dramatically increased tourism numbers. As well as greatly enriched coffers from the sales taxes they will have collected from their prosperous merchants. All this as their much envied quality of life will be my much studied,
As catering to the needs of cyclists shines a brilliant spotlight on the great prosperity in our Anchor Cities, more and more cities all over America will want to copy what we have done. In addition, our Anchor Cities will give a sense of dignity to the act of moving oneself about under their own power. Instead of such activity being marginalized to the edge of the road or what is left over, our Anchors will show that when pedal power is given priority, everyone benefits.
When it becomes widely understood that our Anchors are heaven like sanctuaries because of the bicycle, this will go a long way toward dispelling the notion that we belong on the sidewalk or out of the motorist’s way. When our Anchors show that bikes are a needed part of the downtown mix, this sentiment will be will be felt all over America.
The people who live in our Anchors will happily embrace pedal power because of all the jobs it creates. Many of their neighbors and friends will have jobs because of the many cottage industries that will crop up. There will be an abundance of juice bars, bike rental, repair and sales shops, locker facilities, shower hubs, delis, coffee shops, ice cream stands, etc.
An abundance of work opportunities will also be found in the busy eateries and lodging purveyors that service all the quiet traffic that results. For those business concerns that are not on the actual Greenway itself, because bikes don’t require parking, as they work to get cyclists in their front door, they will push city leaders to make it safe for bike riders to reach them.
In such a way, they become allies to our effort to more securely move about. This way of thinking will spread to off route cities as well. This is so because when shopkeepers in cities anywhere see the increased business that honoring its cyclists brings about, we, as pedal pushers will benefit. This is because these merchants will not only honor the cyclist, but push for better conditions for them in their own markets.
Because off route cities will see that better cycling conditions increase the money making capacity of their own dealers of goods and services, they will work to make biking easier and safer right where they live, work and play. In using our Anchor Cities as a model, they will want to lay the groundwork for similar revenue engines for themselves.
With regard to employment on the National Bicycle Greenway itself, there will be work in everything from groundskeeping, to kiosk and street furniture maintenance, to lawn mowing, to sign making, to the special crews that will form for grading and paving the pathways and then for their maintenance. Overpass and underpass construction will be another source of employment. The adjacent gardens will also draw the attention of people who specialize in their upkeep.
When it also becomes becomes a widely known fact that the NBG is synonymous with employment opportunities, communities will clamor for our services. Similar to how cities appealed for a position on America's first coast to coast road, the Lincoln Hwy of 1914, when we expand our Anchor Cities to the feeder lines, there will be a huge push to be considered. In cities north and south of our route, whole committees will be established to petition for their inclusion.
Art will also be one of the features handsomely positioned along the way. Because this is so, a plethora of grants will become available to us. With such monies we will be able to beautify our passageways in such a way that they will become known the world around from all the photos they engender. As memory factories, people will flock to them from every corner of the globe. And when they do, this will give them a working understanding of the message that the bicycle is the cause of all of the wonder they are privy to. When they return home, it will be this newfound appreciation that they will place before their city mothers and fathers.
Corporate America will also take notice. Sections of our Greenway will be dedicated to sponsors who will also maintain them. Here, their names will also appear on kiosks, benches and mileage and direction posts. And when this happens we will have garnered their support. When they promote their part of the right of way, by default, they will be promoting bicycling.
In the same way that the Cultural Trail is the heartbeat of Indianapolis, with Downtown Greenways of their own, all of our Anchor Cities will rally around them. Because its many employment opportunities put food on the table of so many of its residents, the people there will feel like they have a stake in its success. They will want to see as many people as possible enjoying it.
As they share their source of pride, they will also want to show off the unique way in which their Downtown Greenway celebrates their city. As they send this call out to their neighboring communities, this message will reverberate far and wide. Embedded in this communication, of course, will be the power of pedal power.
This will also give cycling a sense of place well beyond the white line at the edge of the road. In the same way their stadiums and arenas have used the baseball, basketball and football played in the city parks and on its streets to legitimize such sport, Anchor Cities will accomplish this for bicycling.
And finally, as pedal power rejuvenates our Anchors, as this awareness spreads far and wide, we will have a bigger presence in the motor user’s awareness. As this consciousness grows louder and larger, no matter where they are, they will feel more and more called to watch out for us. They will have increased respect for us. They will see that we are not in their way but that we are good for wherever it is they may happen to see us.