Establish a coast-to-coast network of NBG Hubs in our NBG Anchor Cities. For the most part, our Hubs will serve the local transportational cyclists in the cities which they serve. Set up to also serve as two wheel travel destination centers, as beacons calling out to one another, the people they attract, as well as their energy, ideas, connections and other enthusiasm will give irrepressible authority to the NBG message of interconnecting America with a network of bikeable roads and paths. As the much talked about bike central for each of the regions they serve, the excitement these bike centers create will also bring a plethora of new resources from the great numbers of non-cyclists who will have returned to bicycling because of them.
Our NBG Hubs, an average of 10,000 square feet in size, will be built around high ceilinged meeting halls. They will be designed to serve the public at large. Toward that end, its hardwood floor covered main room will feature dances, talks, mixers, seminars, lectures, conferences, yoga symposiums, movie nights, conditioning classes and bicycle swap meets, etc. It will be big enough to rent out to a plethora of different bike and community organizations for events of their own.
Our hubs will also house a community bike shop for the rehabilitation and sale of old bikes. There will be workshops that teach locals how to work on bikes along with certification classes.
In addition, the hubs will have a bike taxi operation as well as rental bikes, a bike library and museum. There will be a showroom featuring bikes for sale as well as a skylit recharge area with a jacuzzi, sauna and showers that will be attract long distance cyclists. All of the above is explained in greater detail below.
As our bike centers bring the cycling and non-cycling communities together under one roof, as we are soon embraced as an important part of the communities they serve, our NBG vision will set the lead in other areas as well. By building our Hub business model around the recycling of two wheel resources, making older bikes worthy and rideable, more of America will realize it’s not what or how we ride but that that we pedal places to replace car trips (genuinely lighten the footprint all of us leave on the planet). The bike industry that makes new products will benefit because as our offerings help people stop worrying about whether they have the right bike or bike clothes, as they feel less intimidated to get back on a bike, more people will turn to cycling. As this happens, increasing numbers of them will also seek out the closest bike shop for the higher quality bikes and higher profit margin accessories and upgrades they will soon desire.
The NBG Indianapolis Hub will house the main headquarters of the NBG to include separate rooms for TransAm Register Licensure, NBG Publishing, NBG Sales/Marketing, and the NBG Hall of Fame., as well as be big enough to also provide office space for a handful of local environmentally aligned nonprofits.
Inside each hub, one will find:
NBG Coffee Shop/Juice Bar Meeting/Activity Halls | Bike Repair Shop (w/bike repair classes) | Recycled Bike Sales | Bike Rentals | Bike Taxi Service | Bike Visitors Bureau (NBG-BVB) | Library/Computer/Yoga Room | NBG Ped Ex | Museum/Show Bikes | Services for bike travelers | Home for other Bike Organizations | Human powered power plant | NBG Recharge Rooms | Lockers | NBG Terminals |
Indianapolis
NBG TransAm Register Licenses | NBG TransAm Hall of Fame | Anchor City Coordinator | NBG Sales/Marketing | NBG Publishing | NBG Cartography (w/map monitoring) | NBG Mile Markers | NBG Membership
NBG coffee shop/juice bar
At the street level, the doors to the NBG coffee shop/juice bar will serve as the main entrance to our building. Its customers will be able to look out upon the antique bikes and other pedal machines our volunteers, staff and youth in training will have restored as well as built for the show bike area. Cyclists like to be around other cyclists to exchange ideas, learn about the cycling conditions in various areas, as well as find out about new hardware and tips and tricks, etc. This is why group rides are so popular and why our refreshment center can be such a powerful magnet.
This is so because a comfortable place does not exist where bike riders can put their feet up and relax around other cyclists. Especially when the weather is too hot or too cold. This is why our warm in the winter and air-conditioned in the summer, coffee shop/juice bar will stir up a buzz that gives added purpose to coming to our Hub. This as they mix in with the general public who will also feel called to know more about our facility as they themselves get caught up in the bicycle energy at hand.
Meeting/Activity Halls
As a way to increase the visibility of cycling, our bike hubs will also serve as mini conference centers with one main room (a minimum of 60 x 40 = 2400 square feet) capable of holding as many as 425 people, where bike clubs, bike organizations and other planet benefiting organizations can hold meetings and lectures. A twice yearly bicycle swap meet will be held here with offerings from the general public as well as from its Recycled Bike Sales division and the NBG Bike Repair Shop.
An Activity Director will also be brought on full time to book and oversee activities such as yoga, tai chi, aerobic and other exercise groups as well as wedding receptions, business mixers, booksignings and lectures by adventurers and youth activities such as dances and the like for the local community. It will also be in the Meeting Halls that NBG Day mayoral ceremonies will take place.
Each hub will be the same size as most of the American Legion centers, Vets Halls and/or Moose Lodges and other service clubs found in cities and towns across America. Here, for example, the Santa Cruz, CA Vets Hall is pictured above and its meeting hall and specs are here.
425 standing plus balcony (behind the camera)
335 seated theatre style
160 table seating floor only Floor: 60 x 40
Floor to Ceiling: 24 feet
Stage: 17 x 24 feet
Balcony: 40 X 15 feet with 85 fixed seats
Warehouses are another option. However, retrofitting them to our needs is a more expensive option. Here is the general layout we foresee:
Bike Repair Shop
A full shop capable of servicing four bikes at once will be staffed 40 hours a week by a professional bike mechanic*. Joined by a volunteer staff (made up of a team of 5-10 such qualified mechanics who donate 4 hours each per week), they will be responsible for:
Bicycle rebuilds
Besides building bikes for sale to bike shops as well as individually to visitors to the Hub, bikes will also be built for the rental marketplace. Instead of relying on the newest and latest machines for this application, in keeping with our theme of recycle and reuse, as the NBG also teaches that recycled bikes are deserving as well as important for saving the planet, the Hub rental fleet will only be made up of used two wheelers.
Community bike repair
A weeknight and Saturday bike shop schedule will also be maintained by the Hub Activity Director (described in the Meeting Hall section above) so that the community can also participate. Besides bike repair classes. this schedule will also show volunteers when they can help with bike rebuilds, stocking of parts and preparing excess bikes for shipping overseas to third world countries.
Bike parts warehouse
A used parts station will be maintained where designated bikes are broken down and the components are filed for later use on other bikes. Inventory will be tracked by a computer program.
New Parts
Items that regularly wear out on bikes will also be purchased at wholesale and kept on hand for sale at a discount to NBG Hub member cyclists. This stock will include basic level tubes, tires, spokes, brake pads, brake and derailleur cables and housing, chains, derailleur pulleys, etc, as well as those new accessories that are often purchased to improve the functionality of the bike. Examples of the latter include basic quality bike bells, racks, baskets, locks, lights, flashers, grease, chain lube, and frame pumps, etc.
Bike Shipping
Community members will be able to come to the Hubs to get their bikes packaged up for air shipment whether for traveling or to fulfill a sale. The Hubs will also regularly ship excess stock overseas to third world countries.
Maintenance of rental, taxi and museum bikes
The rental, taxi and museum bikes that the Hub circulates in the community will all be maintained by the Hub Bike Shop
Hardware Needed
Truing stand, vise, workstands (4), headset wrenches, etc. See
http://www.parktool.com
* Such mechanics will, of course, be granted member privileges as well as the same discounts on parts as the bike couriers. They will have bike shop experience and can be joined by inexperienced mechanics who have demonstrated a willingness and capacity to learn quickly. These prospects can also apprentice with more experienced volunteers
Recycled Bike Sales
Rebuilt used bikes will be made available for the bike shops so they have something in the price range that will compete with the cheap Walmart, Target and Costco bikes that are built of such low quality that they have a very limited life cycle. It is here that bikes donated from the community (of which there is a plethora in most big cities, so much so that most police departments are always looking for places to deposit abandoned bikes) will serve as much of the engine for youth education. Sales of rebuilt machines will be geared to bike shops and to the local community, so that most everyone can be in possession of an affordable bike (the truly needy can do a pre-specified number of hours of miscellaneous work around the Hub or help build a predetermined number of bikes for sale as payment for one of their own). Excess or unsalable goods will be regularly shipped to third world country recipients.
Those bikes that are missing components not available from existing parts stock, and deemed not worthy of a rebuild, will be broken down for their parts. The inventory that results will be catalogued for use on future bike rebuilds as well as for sale to the public.
The stock of bikes and bike parts available for sale will be regularly posted and kept current on the Hub’s web page. In such a way, area cyclists shopping for such items can see whether or not a trip to the Hub is worth their while.
Bike Rentals
Bikes will be available to rent for local NBG Members at discount as well for our business and recreation traveler members.
During the summer, Hub rental bikes will also be shuttled back and forth to popular hotels and other downtown locations (so that they do not have to be warehoused by these businesses and so we can keep them maintained) by PedEx cyclists. This will be a part of the PedEx job description as special bike transport carts will be used for this purpose.
Brochures with rental rates that also explain our philosophy and how our customers are helping us lighten the planet’s load by riding one of our bikes will be left at hotels, convention/visitors bureaus and select public gathering places.
Bike Taxi Service
Staffed by summer PedEx cyclists, available on an on call basis (where there will be a waiting list of “cab” drivers anxious to do sub contract work for the NBG for tips, a small wage and exercise), a small fleet of bike taxis (number will vary on a hub by hub basis) will move tourists around in popular areas such as along waterfronts, in old town areas, in historic business districts and in large city parks, etc. They will also be used as shuttles to get event goers to and from their cars and those staging areas that service sporting events, beaches, concerts and the like. The charge to ride in these taxis will be nominal as there will be two revenue streams utilized to help these people carriers do their work as they also help to spread the NBG word:
1 – City governments, music and sporting venues, and business districts looking for ways to lessen the impact of traffic and noise and to increase tourist or other visitor pleasure and safety, will pay a monthly fee to have our drivers and their two, four and six passenger taxis present.
2 – Another source of income will be the advertising that will occupy the small billboards mounted on the back of the covered canopy in which the driver and his or her passengers sit.
The sides of the canopy will be handsomely decorated with our logo and website, phone and address. They will also be outfitted with literature dispensers for NBG information that people can take when the vehicles are waiting for new patrons or switching existing ones. Rate Card and Hardware requirements available upon request.
Bike Visitors Bureau (NBG-BVB)
A small display area with brochure racks (stocked with the offerings of local merchants and kept orderly by NBG Sales & Marketing) will show the touring cyclist where to ride, eat, sleep, shop and play once he or she arrives in town. Here, two wheel tourists can sort through handsome brochures which explain the goods, services or places of interest each Anchor City area has to offer. There will also be NBG-One Sheets. These will list those vendors out who support our mission with an overview map of where they are on the reverse. Also known as NBG Flagposts, how to get to them can then be found on our on line maps.
Library/Computer/Yoga Room
All NBG hubs will have a 300-500 square foot room where local as well as traveling NBG member cyclists can just hang out. A large couch will overlook enough floor space for as many as five people to do any stretching they may want to do comfortably. Along one wall will be books about bikes and biking. While along another will be a bank of five computers.
The PCs themselves will give those bike riders passing through a way to stay connected to their on line worlds with a large screen and big keyboard. They will give these long haul cyclists a way to more quickly offload photos, keep their blogs current or just stay in touch with family and friends, etc.
NBG Terminals
Local cyclists will be able to use our computers as a way for them to join the NBG mapping community who are working out of their homes, offices or on the road in building our maps as well as in keeping them current. Here three wi-fi connected computers will sit on standing work stations ready for such use.
NBG PedEx
At each of its hubs, the NBG will operate a local delivery service for parcels, small packages, other next or same day errands and for loads of up to 300 lbs per bike and trailer (larger loads can be arranged). Our clients will include restaurants, bakeries, wholesalers, publishers, printers and law firms, etc. Besides ferrying rental bikes back to the Hub for maintenance, other service applications will include:
Bank deposits
Bakery Deliveries
Blueprint Deliveries
Food & Beverage to Business Mixers, Meetings and other events
Publisher and Printer Deliveries
P.O. Mail Pickup and Delivery
Interdepartmental Mail Distribution
Realtor to title company bank transactions
Legal Filings
Certified Process Service
Local On Call Service
A.S.A.P. and Next Day Service
Produce to Restaurant Delivery
Bank deposits | Architectural drawings | Hard drives | Sandwiches | Flowers | Jewelry | Contracts | Clothing | Keys | Tool boxes | Publications | Cakes | Kegs for a party | Pet food, etc
In Indianapolis, rates for pick up and delivery will be charged according to a zone map for parcels under 21 inches and under 20 pounds. Surcharges will apply for oversized items, items up to 750 pounds and wrong addresses, attempted pick-ups, and last-minute cancellations.
Hardware:
The bikes themselves will be supplied by the individual messengers. Delivery cyclists will be given free access to the NBG hub shop and tools for maintenance of their machines. Replacement parts that come from most all of the hub’s recycled stock (some exceptions may apply as determined by the shop manager) will also be free to bike couriers while they will get large discounts on any upgraded or new parts they may want to order (as the Hubs will be able to buy new bike parts at wholesale).
The trailers (4-6 heavy duty trailers with the words National Bicycle Greenway, its logo and web address silkscreened on to the side panels) themselves will be supplied by each of the Hubs. Besides trailers, NBG PedEx will also have cargo bikes that will keep loads waterproof and/or secure in extreme conditions as well as the for loads up to 700 lbs.
Museum/Show Bikes
A small 500 square foot museum will be established to display bikes and other memorabilia representative of each of the decades from 1880 to the present. Here everything from velocipedes, Penny Farthings and the early two wheel push bikes to 3-speeds and ten-speeds, load carriers, bike trailers, fully loaded tour bikes, army bikes, folding bikes and mtn bikes and recumbents, etc, will all be on display. Voice recorded tours will explain each of the exhibits and stress the importance of cycling to the needs of the people in the day in age in which they served as well as for a healthy planet and full, complete and more stress free life today.
The bikes themselves will be donated for this purpose from the local community. Such bikes will be on loan to the hubs on a contract basis in exchange for free membership privileges and/or a tax deduction. Those worthy pieces gifted on a permanent basis for the collection will be annually cycled throughout the national NBG Hub system.
The bikes themselves will be regularly cleaned by the Hub mechanics and their display will include photos and other memorabilia from the time they roamed the streets. Handsome placards, set on wooden easels, describing the bike, will define each machine.
Each month, two to three new custom bikes built by local designers, will also cycle in and out of the museum.
These museum will be regularly visited by school children in each of the cities they serve and there will be an admission charge for people over 18 (free to NBG Members). These museums will add to the value of each our Hubs as important destination centers for touring cyclists as well as for local two wheelers.
Services for bike travelers
Long distance cyclists will also be able to use hub facilities, if they have a membership, to get a $2 shower and use the Recharge Room facilities.. There will also be beater bikes they can rent to explore the city if they don’t want to lug their gear around with them or use bicycles oftentimes made practical only for the open road.
NBG members will also be able to use hub addresses to receive mail while on the road. Packaging materials and postage will also be on hand so they can also send unneeded items or film or the like back home. Directions and rates to local camping, NBG member lodging providers such as select hotels, YMCAs and hostels and NBG Warm Showers Guest homes will also be provided.
Home for other Bike Organizations
The NBG Hub will make office space available to local bike organizations at below market rental rates. This will serve to concentrate the amount of bike energy in one place adding the perception of number strength to each of the separate groups. It will establish the NBG Hub address as bicycle central, bring traffic to our operation, firmly establish us as a leader in bicycle advocacy and encourage those groups involved to help us advance our vision of an interconnected two wheel America..
Human Powered Power Plants
20-40 exercises bikes will occupy one entire room. They will be open for anyone to use as a way to buy energy credits (the Hubs themselves will sell such energy to the the local utilities) they can use to buy bike parts from from the recycled bikes store and promotional items from the NBG store (located off site). The stationary bikes will also find themselves in use during the morning and evening community spin classes that will take place at the Hubs. The pedal machines will be hooked up to a battery grid that will store the energy to run the lights and power the steam, jacuzzi and sauna rooms featured at the Hubs.
NBG Recharge Rooms
All Hub facilities will have male and female locker rooms, complete with the all important shower stall for weary road travelers. They will be attached to a skylit community hot area in which a large jacuzzi sits in the center. Other doors that look out on the soaking pool will include steam and sauna rooms. There will also be a small room where massage can be scheduled.
Lockers
At our hubs, bike lockers will be available for traveling cyclists to use to secure their bikes and gear should they desire to go and explore the city on foot or public transportation. If they want to use public transportation to explore NBG Hub cities. such as their museums and points of interest, go for a cable car ride, if in San Francisco, for example, etc, they can secure their bikes and gear in a bike locker at the Hub free for a day.
Indianapolis Hub/Main Office
NBG TransAm Register Licensing
One of the ways we will drive business (cycle tourist visits) to merchants along our route is by offering NBG TransAm Register licenses to them. This will show up as an increased font size and bolded out line item on our on line maps for their area. This designation will also appear as a small window decal they can display to show their local community their commitment to the bigger quality of life picture.
Cyclists who sign their visit in with these businesses, will get a picture of themselves with their bike there. They will also receive a sticker with the words NBG/(City or town, year and merchant in question) on them.
Every month during the riding season, their photograph will join the many hundreds of other TransAm seekers who will be out there with them in our magazine. The photo and rider sign in will in turn be forwarded to our Indianapolis main office for log in there.
A TransAm cyclist can decorate a wall or poster board with many dozens of these and have a way to prove he or she rode across America. This will also give bike riders a way to say they have ridden across the USA by doing so in sections. Kind of like how in the 1960’s cars used to have bumper stickers for all the various national parks a person visited. Maybe these could even become sew on patches for panniers??
It gives participating businesses a way to be a part of the NBG rock. Recognized accordingly on our maps, they will be proud to be known as NBG TransAm Registers as this designation also helps us to promote our route across America. It also gives businesses on our route that do not serve cyclists (realtors, florists and appliance repair, etc) a way to be a part of the National Bicycle Greenway.
Similar to the treks (many are religious in nature) that occur every year across Spain on the 485 mile Camino de Santiago, where little towns are quietly visited on foot and by bike, our route will become the well worn way to really see America by doing so without a car. In the same way, motor courts sprung up to service the lodging and R&R needs of Lincoln Hwy travelers, in the smaller towns along the way, Pedal Courts to accommodate cycle tourists will spring up along the National Bicycle Greenway.
Cyclists who ride all or parts of our Greenway can also receive a certificate of accomplishment, a ‘compostela’ similar to what Santiago trail users receive. These will be issued from our Indianapolis office for riders who satisfy certain requirements in getting a form signed off by participating merchants (those who renew their NBG TransAm Register Licenses every year) along the way. This will give bike riders a way to say they have ridden across the USA by doing so in sections. We also foresee other nonprofits using our route for fundraising efforts of their own.
Year in, year out, as people cycle our route for various charity causes, and/or for themselves, the more it is used, the more the merchants along the way will want to support it. As they see increased activity at their own cash registers, they will push to make it easier for cyclists to get to them. This will obviously take the form of better and safer road passage.
NBG TransAm Hall of Fame
Those who have ridden a bicycle across America, need to be honored. Because they do not stand out or have a way to call attention to their accomplishment, we need to recognize them. We need to know they are walking amongst us.
Far more than the sports stars and movie actors whose opinions we seek when our communities or the Nation seek answers, we need to have a way we can call upon TransAm cycling veterans. Blessed with an outsized accomplishment few can equivocate, they understand America and its people at a core level that goes deep beyond what can be taught in traditional learning environments. Like a journey to the mountaintop, the only instructor for them has been the actual experience of interfacing with the people along the way.
They have learned, first hand, how our brothers and sisters all just want to help each other get to our next destination. Unlike the motorist who needs to minimize their contact with other humans to get to where they are going, people are a huge part of a long distance bicycle ride. For their very survival, those out for the long-haul have come to understand how much we need each other no matter the role any of us may happen to play. As anchors for an expectation of the best, in situations that present difficulty, it is the presence of TransAm cycling vets amongst us that can have the potential to bring comfort.
This is especially important as the nation struggles to once again place a premium on truth, a truth that has been marginalized by the nation’s media in recent years. George Orwell warned against this when he wrote –
the more it will hate those who speak it
By celebrating TransAm vets, making them honorable parts of our society, the same way we do for our professional athletes and Hollywood personalities, we are assigning worth to those who genuinely walk (bicycle) their talk.
By giving TransAm vets a way to stand tall, we are using their example to remind us that talk does not move one’s own body from one coast to the other. We are affirming the fact that, in any endeavor, no matter how often we repeat it, mere words do not get us the results we desire. We are acknowledging the importance of building grit, goal setting, inner strength, belief, trust and hope into any winning formula.
As attributes that have come into possession of these gentle warriors, it was the long distance road that brought out the best in them. It was connecting the coasts with their own two legs that gave them a blue print they could use for the rest of their lives. As such, it has built the mix of humility and pride they have needed to go forward in life with love, purpose, inner peace and a greater ease. It is this we need to promote.
As a right of passage, we need to encourage TransAmerica cycling. Especially amongst our youth. We need to make this something they aspire to. When they leave college, for example, instead of traveling to Europe as a way to broaden their horizons, they need to have the TransAm cycling option before them.
We need to be able for them to put NBG TransAm Hall of Fame Member on their job resume. In trying to understand why we have made this such an honor, potential employers will quickly learn the value a TransAm cycling vet can bring to their place of employment. They will see that these are prospects who can work with a lot of variables and people to get a very large job done. They will know that these job candidates do not substitute excuses for accomplishment.
In the game of life, coast-to-coast pedal veterans are a better different for many reasons as well. When on the long distance road, stuck in a desert with headwinds and no services for miles around, they have learned they can go inside for the strength to continue. When the mountain ascent in front of them cannot be conquered in a few minutes time, but requires much exertion for hours on end, a deep understanding of perseverance has become their very nature. When forced to drink warm water, put on the same clothes day in day out or wipe their face with a dirty rag, instead of complaining, they have acquired a profound appreciation for the simplest of things.
When the next camping is miles away, it is getting dark, and before they can sleep, they have to make camp, make a meal and and tend to their many nighttime chores, they resolve to become better planners. As a skill they perfect with each new riding day, away from the road they feel called to spend a few moments thinking through any of the challenges that lie ahead. This as they become more fulfilled and productive human beings.
Armed with a working knowledge of the principals of success, these are people who have come to know themselves pretty well. Comfortable in their own skin, this is who we need leading us. We need to be shown the way by those who know that whatever they can do, is possible for anyone willing to do the work required to build themselves. We also need to be reminded by their example that any accomplishment is measured one day at a time.
NBG Anchor City Coordinator
Because businesses come and go and addresses change, etc., we will employ someone to keep the NBG Anchor City Biking Report Cards current. Such a person will also need to interface with the local Public Works people in keeping the Biking Report Cards up to date.
NBG Sales/Marketing
NBG Magazine Display Ads
Display Ads on:
Maps | Biking Report Cards | NBG Anchor Cities | Biking Report Cards | TransAm rider blog | NBG Magazine | Mtn Mover Podcasts – bikeroute.com/NBGPodcasts.php
Map Flagpost Sales
Online Map Flagpost salespersons for sales to the places to eat, sleep, shop and play along our route. As users look at our map, they will see different sized listings, some in bolded out type as well as icons, according to a map key, that symbolizes the different services cyclists need (food, lodging, drink, bike shops, sporting goods, etc). The level of prominence for these offerings will be based on how notable of a presence these merchants choose to buy.
Note: Volunteers can help ID NBG Anchor City businesses. We will add a line item on each of our NBG Anchor Cities that asks locals to suggest places to eat, sleep, shop and play in their city. This will help generate leads for our Map Maker salespeople.
NBG Publishing
NBG Magazine:
An online publication, with print on demand copies available at Visitors Centers, news about our route will be covered. This will include stories about new construction, features about the attractions, towns and NBG Anchor Cities along the way, status of the campaigns and/or programs we are running, group use, new installations such as signage, kiosks and gardens, etc, as well as profiles and human interest stories cross referenced from our TransAm Rider Blog about actual riders, etc..
Every year, there will be a roster of each year’s TransAm riders. Contact information will be provided so the media can contact them and as a way for them to build community amongst themselves.
TransAm rider blog From our home office, a writer will stay in phone dialogue with those riders who choose to have reports written about their riding day. In addition to a description of their day’s activities, our blogger will also collect photos and determine any needs they may have from people along the route ahead or from our community at large. Where applicable, area history and points of interest will also be scribed.
Being able to have a writer assigned to the efforts of our TransAm cyclists is an important service. This is so because long haul cyclists, at the end of a riding day, usually have barely enough energy to feed themselves, get packed in for the evening and then ready for the day that follows. Most will happily substitute a 10 or 15 minute phone call for trying to summon the energy to write for half an hour, to an hour or more, about what happened during their day
NBG Cartography
Coast to Coast Map/Field Coordinator, a person who will keep the BikeRoute.com map current with construction advisories, warnings (rumble strips, bridge washouts, etc), possible detours, water locations in remote areas, summits (with elevations) to ascend and points of interest. Such a person will also add applicable pictures and area travel story links they will have collected from NBG cycle tourist/user blog reports. Such a person will need to be well-versed in Google map programming (mobile/phone maps a priority) and be able to load map ad placements as well as map marker icons as they become available from the Sales/Marketing efforts.
NBG Mile Markers
Since most of our route across this Nation will take place on back roads, especially once its travelers move between America’s more densely populated cities and towns, NBG Mile Markers will mark the way. Set at one-mile increments, these will let cyclists know where they stand on our route. To find out what services, attractions and points of interest are close by, all they will have to do is use their phones to key in the mile marker in question.
In 1928, the Lincoln Highway people, commissioned Boy Scout troops to place 3,000 markers along every mile of America’s first coast-to-coast road (2,436 markers were actually placed). 220 pounds of concrete, reinforced with steel rebar, they were built as a memory to Abraham Lincoln. A rectangular head on top of a hexagonal shaped post, the markers featured the Lincoln Highway logo, a bronze medallion and arrows to indicate the route of the memorial highway.
Besides marking the way, NBG Mile Markers will also provide the National Bicycle Greenway with a revenue stream (talked about below). And a way to make sure these passages are kept tidy. At 10-mile increments, these markers will change from a nondescript 2-foot tall, black and green metal post with a number on it, to a 4-foot tall concrete pillar that bears a sponsor logo.
In our first order of business, using the USBR 35 (hopefully enjoining their support) alignment, we will mark the route from Indianapolis to Chicago. Toward that end, we will put the job of designing the markers and then manufacture, permitting and placement out to bid (discussed below). In order to compensate for these jobs, we will begin our NBG Membership campaign.
Mile Marker Administration
An important part of the Indianapolis main NBG office, one person full time will augment, qualify and track each of our markers. This person will keep current the cross referencing a team will initially qualify each marker with. It is here that each will have been outfitted with data points so users can look them up on their phones to see where they are at, and where services, landmarks and points of interest are in relation to each one. Since they will be equipped with solar powered cameras, damage or vandalism will be easy to spot and rectify from the home office.
Marker Fabrication, Placement & Security
2,835 Mile Markers plain (3,150 total miles minus 315 logos)
Graphic Design
Fabrication Design
Manufacture
$125/unit (2,835) $354,475
315 Mile Markers (logo)
Graphic Design (for replaceable vinyl shrink wrap)
Fabrication Design
Materials
4’x4’ Site Retention (Buy, Rent, Lease per jurisdiction parameters)
Manufacture
$3,000/unit (315) $945,000
Site prep/installation (all 315 logo markers)
Emergency phone (where applicable)
Security camera (where applicable)
Solar cell (where applicable)
$11,000/site (315) $3,465,000
Misc $235,525
Total $5,000,000
Coast to Coast Marker Schedule
Beg No. 1 No.
Leg Const Markers Poles Notes
Indy-C’go 4/23 18 162 On USBR 35 w/Mayors’ Ride
Indy-Cincy 8/24 11 99 Starts NY St/Pennsy Trail
Cincy-Pgh 4/25 60 540
C’go-SF 5/26 226 2034
Total 315 2835
1 One logo marker every 10 miles
Mile Marker Logo salesperson(s)
The actual cost figure we get back will allow us to bring on direct commission salespeople to sell logos for the 315 mile markers (one every ten miles) that will be available for such messaging. Armed with three dimensional computer renderings and/or physical models from the designer, they will have something in hand to professionally circulate this level of our vision. Using $5 million as a guide, if these logos were to sell for the amounts noted, all of the markers would be paid for in the number of years detailed per this schedule:
Annual
Fee Years
3,968 4 (3968 x 315 markers x 4 years = 4,999,680)
1,984 8 (1984 x 315 x 8 = 4,998,680)
992 16 (992 x 350 x 16 = 4,998,680)
Armed with the authority of markers on the ground from one coast to the other, we will then work to turn this route into a national asset that will one day become Car Free.
NBG Membership
As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, our mission long has been to connect the coasts with a safe, contiguous, easily accessed bike way that connects cyclists with cities. Toward that end, offline, on the actual ground, we will work to improve upon and promote the route we have had on-line at BikeRoute.com since 2013. It is here that we will build up the war chest needed to get the first leg of our route surveyed, so we can then outfit it with NBG Mile Markers. The money needed for this plotting work will come from our charter NBG Membership campaign.
To make this happen, we will be giving as many people as possible a piece of the NBG rock. Through our charter membership campaign (NBG Member Benefits) for as little as $5, we feel pretty much anyone can be a part of the National Bicycle Greenway family!!
Since a rough approximation of the cost to get 18 markers in the ground from Indianapolis to Chicago (18 logo x (3000+11000) + 162 plain x 125 = 272,500) rounds up to $300,000 after the cost of admin, we will set 60,000 members at $5/ea as our NBG Charter Membership goal,
NBG Membership Ongoing
What they get:
- NBG Membership Key Fob (plastic laminated w/bar code for 10% discount at participating NBG merchants. This will become available once we reach our first 1000 members).
- Listed on NBG Donor web page (optional, old page HERE)
– NBG magazine (online 9 times a year)
– Mailing list advisories
With something people can feel and touch, an NBG Hub and mile markers on the ground, there will be traction for all of the programs (and the jobs they will engender) we talk about below such as:
Anchor City Biking Report Cards & monitoring
NBG Travel Courts
Greenway maintenance
Greenway infrastructure construction
Map monitoring (keeping what’s on ground current w/online)
Sales – (many positions per our revenue streams discussed elsewhere in this document)
NBG mile marker logo renewals
Display Ads on Maps
Mtn Mover Podcasts
Corporate Sections
NBG Magazine Display Ads
Flagpost Map listings
Bike Taxi advertising
Greenway route signage
Online Mapping Monetization
NBG Magazine Publishing
Google Ad placements on all NBG pgs
Ride blog editors (embellishing rider reports w/history, pictures, points of interest, etc)
TransAm Rider Blogs
Mile Marker Administration
Foundation grants
Corporate partnerships
Joint ventures,
Govt programs
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