This Google map interface is similar to the others that are beginning to spring up all over the web. Many of the the features and ways in which you plot, zoom and undo at other map routing sites are all in place here.
You may still use our maps to plan your training and/or recreational cycling routes, if you so choose. However, the purpose of this site is to collect bike routes to public destinations. As the first phase of a bigger mapping program that will connect cyclists to cities and all those place they go within them, the inventory that will result here will be used to seed the next level of this effort. Once we locate funding capital for the next edition, web browsers will enter a site where bikeable roads and paths will stand out on the screen and not freeways, expressways and boulevards.
When we bring our Phase Two level of service on line, cyclists will be able to plan door to door bike routes in the same way car drivers use the web to locate the fastest way to get places in their motor vehicles. In time, Google and other map services will offer Bike Road coding for their maps based on those roads that our maps will have identified as being acceptable for cycle travel.
Besides establishing the bike rider as a valid user of the roads, being a built in part of the maps used mostly by motorists will also give face to those rights of way used by cyclists. And when this happens, those of us on two wheels will be less and less marginalized as an afterthought to the side of the road.
As bikes and those on them become a growing part of the public consciousness, it will bring a a subtle pressure to public officials to make bike riding an easier thing to do. It will become harder to ignore the improvements needed on our roads so we can feel safe when moving about on them under our own power. It will also be harder to neglect the needs our children will bring into the future.
By making it safer for them to get to school and play on their own two legs, we are showing them how they can make that gift available for the generations that follow. When planetary conditions soon force us to realize that we need to find more ways to replace more of our other car trips, our leaders will look even harder at our site for answers.
When they do, local jurisdictions will understand that in order to make the roads safe for bike riders, they must meet the spec we have set here at the National Bicycle Greenway. And as this happens, the coast to coast network of bikeable roads and paths we have long envisioned will gently emerge into form. As services such as lodging and food which speak to the special needs of bike travelers spring up along the way, more and more Americans from all walks of life, social backgrounds and socio-economic levels will be able to feel the brother hood of love that holds this Nation and this world together.
When our maps show people how to safely leave their cars behind, metal boxes will stop being the preferred travel conveyance. As people then begin seeing, hearing, smelling and feeling this country at the slower speeds found on a bicycle, their connection to the Mother Earth that sustains us will deepen. The inner peace that this will give way to will make the welfare of the planet our priority and not the seemingly endless need we think we have to keep up with those we perceive as separate from us. When a critical mass of people then realize what is meant by the notion that, WE ARE ALL ONE, the National Bicycle Greenway will have helped to create heaven on earth!
For Firefox or Safari users only -- if you can help us synch with Internet Explorer: nbgATbikerouteDOTcom ....
Enjoy our MAPS!!
Here is how to build routes