Have you ever thought about "deep travel" or ridden the "most popular rail-trail in America?" How about traveling by bike from Harlem to Prospect Park and DUMBO via the Brooklyn Bridge? I had the chance to do this and much more while traveling through New England and New York City to meet members and advocates this past week. It was truly awesome to see how much bike-friendly activity is happening in the Northeast. Here are a few impressions and inspirations:Deep Travel: I got together with an old friend, Tony Hiss, for breakfast near Greenwich Village and discussed his new book, In Motion: The Experience of Travel. Tony is a former writer for the New Yorker magazine and wrote this compelling volume about how travel -- whether epic or from your front door -- taps a unique and ingrained way of thinking in humans. Tony and I talked about how his ideas mesh perfectly with the way bicycle travel stimulates new ways of thinking (and occasional hallucinations). I recommend it!
Four Great (and Very Different) Rides: All four rides were a matter of serendipity -- on borrowed bikes in unique places. On a single speed loaner, I enjoyed the multitude of new bike facilities in Brooklyn and Manhattan, ranging from DUMBO (not the elephant -- rather the district Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass) to Wall Street to Harlem. You could do a great multi-day bike vacation in NYC today (plus the commuting seemed cool, and only getting better). In Lexington, MA, I joined Adventure Cycling supporter Tom Fortmann, one of the three principals who created the 11 mile Minuteman Commuter Trail linking Bedford, MA, and Cambridge, MA. It's a great urban ride and a tribute to 17 years of tenacious work by Tom and many other citizens and public officials, working collaboratively. Down in South Wakefield, RI, I rode with my close friend (and Adventure Cycling member), Michael Mutschler, on a new, short, and critical trail link from the town to the Atlantic Ocean. It now opens the way for thousands of people (including families) to enjoy a safe, enjoyable bike tour to Naragansett Bay -- and it's a reminder that the smallest transportation link can sometimes have the greatest impact. Finally, on our last day, we enjoyed a perfect New England countryside loop, thanks to Adventure Cycling supporter Clyde Kessel of Carlisle, MA, (who I met last year on the Columbia Gorge as we both rode to the Pacific on the Lewis & Clark Trail). It was perfect in that we experienced sumptuously hilly terrain and all 16 types of New England weather (except snow), plus rainbows, apples, pumpkins, curvy roads, and stone walls. After seven days of planes, trains, and automobiles, 45 miles on a bike was bliss.
Donors ... Far, Wide, and of All Ages: I traveled with our new development director, Amanda Lipsey, and we met with a host of generous people giving anywhere from $500 to $33,000. As we described what Adventure Cycling does with their dollar support -- inspiring and empowering people to travel by bike -- they generally increased their gifts. (And it should be noted, these donors give more than just money -- we had a great brunch with Joe Golden, who had urged us to do a tour on our new Sierra Cascades Bicycle Route -- the result ... we're doing it and Joe is signed up for this epic tour!) I was hugely inspired by a couple of younger donors, in their early 30s, who gave "stretch" gifts and expressed their love for bike travel. Steve Leibman described his recent 40 mile bike overnight with his 4 year old son, who rode a Wee Hoo trailer (that's endurance!). Noah Lansner, a recently appointed principal at a Brooklyn Prep High School, has already cycled twice across the country and is dreaming of trips he can do soon with his nearly two-year old daughter (we told him about our growing Bike Overnights website, with great family trip ideas).
Advancing Bicycle Tourism: In New York, I had the pleasure of checking in with Paul White and Noah Budnick, the leaders of Transportation Alternatives, NYC's top cycling and walking advocates. We brainstormed about how we could get an economic study of bike tourism and travel in New York State, similar to the powerful study in Wisconsin (pdf), which demonstrated that bike tourism generates $1 billion a year. (I'll also be talking with leaders in California about something like this next month at the California Bike Summit.) In addition, I checked in with my Arlington, MA-based friend and colleague Lauren Hefferon, who owns the touring company Ciclismo Classico, about working together to get more tour operators to next year's National Bike Summit to advocate for better biking. Lauren has been a real leader in trying to boost the prominence of bike travel in the travel industry. Maybe we can get an economic study going in Massachusetts too!
Linking Trails, Routes, and Places: Finally, I kept seeing evidence that the bike renaissance is booming in the Northeast, including loads of new bike facilities in big cities (like NYC and Boston) and small cities (like Wakefield and Barrington, RI). I was really excited to meet with local advocates regarding the Northern Strand rail-trail through the northern suburbs of Boston, a critical link in the East Coast Greenway and ultimately the U.S. Bicycle Route System. Like the Minuteman trail, it's taken nearly two decades to reach the first groundbreaking (in late October) -- but it's coming soon, along with many more improvements for biking in New England and beyond.
Photo Captions: at top, Jim (right) and Michael Mutschler at the Atlantic Ocean in Rhode Island; in the middle, on the Minuteman Trail with (l to r) Marc Mastrolia, Tom Fortmann, Amanda Lipsey, Jim, and Lauren Hefferon; at the bottom, the inimitable Brooklyn Bridge, Jim's gateway across the East River. Photos courtesy of Jim Sayer and Transportation Alternatives.
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JIM SAYER is executive director of Adventure Cycling Association.
Source: http://blog.adventurecycling.org/2011/10/new-york-new-england-medley.html
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