NBG Biking Report Cards 

In order to help our NBG Anchor Cities merchandise themselves, to help them give cyclists an idea of what their city looks like before they get there so they can plan accordingly, we will resume production of our yearly scorecard. Called the NBG Biking Report Card, this will also help these population centers show off the enhancements they will have made on an annual basis (we suspended these reports in 2017 when we transitioned our home office to Indianapolis). In order to paint a picture with this analysis, we have broken it down to these questions:

# of bike lane miles | # of off road trail miles | # Bike Racks | Bike Coordinator? | Bike Maps? | Hazard Report Form?  | # of bike rack equipped buses | Bikes on Trains? | # Bike shops | % of trips by bike? | Bike to Work Day? | # Colleges | # of Rain/snow days  | # of days below 45 degrees | Recycled Bike Program? | Bike bridges? | Bike Boulevards? | Bike undercrossings? | Ctty Bike Repair? | Population | Local Bike Activist Organizations? (Please List) | Planned? | Airport bike accessible? | Prepared by _____

Here for example is how the bike pro-active city of Reno answered the above questions in 2016 – Reno Biking Report Card

Answers to the questions above, will help to describe our Anchor Cities from a bicyclist’s perspective. This is information cyclists, no matter how long they plan to travel, will use to determine what they can expect once they get to these population centers. They will also be seen as a way for anyone looking to inventory the bicycle infrastructure in each of our Anchor Cities. A much anticipated document, every year, they will give Public Works departments  a score card they can use to show off their work. Once fully operational, they will have the effect of placing our Anchor Cities in friendly competition with one another. 

A public document, it will also give them a way to sell themselves to prospective employers interested in locating there. Much cited and referenced by the media, these documents will serve as a Wikipedia type resource for tourists considering a visit. And finally, since cyclists of any stripe will use them to determine whether they want to visit on a bike, it will not be long before they are known about to the public in general in travel guides such as “Fodors” and the “Let’s Go” series.

Within the city itself, these reports will also give city leaders a way to showcase the quality of life work they have done amongst their constituents. It will be this register of achievements for the cycling community that will give them an analytic they can use to see where they stand and where attention is needed. This as in giving their local Public Works people a way to shine, they will then feel compelled to push for more such work. Politicians can also use them to boast about the work that often goes unnoticed, that they have helped to advance in their districts.

In time, our Biking report cards will become the gold standard cities all across America (we will charge non NBG Anchor cities to develop their own Biking Reports cards according to our spec) will come to rely on. Well beyond our 20 NBG Anchor cities, they will become a tool other cities can use to get their own population centers up to the kind of speed that will attract out of the area bike visitors as well as encourage more of their own residents to travel by bike.

All this as long haul cyclists from out of the area bike to our Anchor Cities, they will be regularly enjoying  the roads and paths that connect our Mayors’ Ride cities to one another. And as they do, businesses in the smaller population centers along the way will benefit from all the activity that results. When these town leaders then see the increased dollars that result from hotel stays, restaurant meals and visits to their own attractions, etc., they will have a vested interest in improving the bike roads that get to them. They will become a voice to lobby their regional legislators to make it safer and more enjoyable for out of the area pedal visitors to reach them.

Business travelers will also use the scorecards as a way to figure out ahead of time how they can move about on two wheels once they reach these cities. They will be a way for them to see if they can get the exercise they need by being able to bike in them. It will also show them if they can use their bicycle infrastructure as a way to decompress from their meetings and other work they are there to do.