This Seems Promising!

It seems to be that a reoccurring theme on my blog is Bicycle friendly infrastructure, and reasonably so as more and more municipalities and towns are looking seriously at the benefits of bike and pedestrian friendly paths and routes. But in an effort to trump my consistent news is this gem of a story that is actually a few days old...

According to www.bicyclenewswire The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials or (AASHTO) ha been mulling a plan for 50,000 miles of bike routes through corridors that would connect urban, suburban and rural areas. The plan has been under construction for a pretty considerable amount of time, and there have been a number of revisions since they started. At this point though, all the members of the association have signed off and it's go time!

John Horsley, executive director of AASHTO, praised the adoption of the national plan: "Bicycling is an increasingly popular transportation option that helps our environment and improves the quality of life for many Americans. AASHTO is pleased to be working with Adventure Cycling to foster the development of a national system of bicycle routes. State departments of transportation can now collaborate with local agencies and neighboring states to begin establishing these routes throughout the United States."

The great thing about this plan is it offers states and non profits the opportunity to work together with a common goal, that of creating more expansive infrastructure that's bicycle friendly. This will work to increase the amount of bicycle trips people take on a regular basis. In Europe, as well as various cities throughout the US like Portland increases in bicycling infrastructure have led to significant increases in bicycle trips taken as opposed to car trips which helps the local businesses.

Anything that's pro bike right now is good stuff, and this plan really appears to be pro bike. There seem to be a lot of things in the work not only at the local level, but also at the federal level, and now what we need to do is get everything to coordinate so we're working together, and not against each other