NBG Map Excitement Put on Temporary Hold

Armed at long last with an on-line route from one coast to the other for the National Bicycle Greenway, outdated software has tripped us up. Just as we were starting to flesh our map out with area histories, and other color from “How America Can Bike and Grow Rich, the NBG Manifesto” as well as info from our NBG Biking Cities program, our new service provider killed the National Bicycle Greenway part of our site site because they do not support the old software it relied on. As it turns our, the once cutting edge web pages that developers from all over the USA built in 2003 to help us research our route, didn’t make the transition from PHP 3 to PHP 5, when we moved it with BikeRoute.com, it’s parent directory.

Since returning to the limited Addr.com environment is not an option, and PHP 5 is the only software Blue Host supports, we have suddenly ended up with many hundreds of dead NBG pages. Pages that will need to be rebuilt before we can market our exciting new maps. As such, before we can start getting them known about to cyclists, as we also add the where to eat, sleep, and play purveyors along the way, we must turn our attention to fixing this problem

In order to do so in a way that we can reappear as a strong, forward going movement, I reached out to Lori Yung. Lori has been our ace in the hole for making a worthy on line presence possible for the National Bicycle Greenway since 1996. In fact, it was Lori who helped us get on line with one of the web’s first few hundred pages back at a time when few people even knew what ‘WWW’ meant.

Fortunately for cyclists everywhere, we found a cheerful Lori in between jobs and ready and willing to not just get our 16 years of work back on line but to hopefully get it to the Internet’s leading edge once again. Understanding the urgency we feel, and being very familiar with Word Press, she has already begun the work of moving our sadly ameliorated NBG site to that platform. Nor can I be happy and excited enough!! This is so because she also tells me that as she shops her own amazing skills around, while new potential employers consider her resume, that she will also clean up BikeRoute.com!

In going forward, we are excited that Lori will be deploying her many talents to add consistency to our sites as she also makes them easier to navigate. This as our blueprint, our recently completed manifesto, “How America Can Bike and Grow Rich, the NBG Manifesto”, will be the new glue that holds it all together as we use it to chart the course for her efforts. And once an exciting new facelift soon evolves from our present setback, we will be able to present our long history with a freshness that will surely catapult the NBG movement to the next level. This as we stand tall before American business concerns in calling for their support to help make our coast-to-coast bicycle highway route as powerful as it is real!!

To give you a sneak preview of what kind of look Lori is bringing to our effort, HERE is the blog she is working on that transitions our limited WordPress Dot Com site to a full blown WordPress/BlueHost Dot Org site.

All too too exciting.

Coast to coast National Bicycle Greenway here we come!! No Doubt!!

Yahoo!!

Rapid Transit Cycle Takes First Position on NBG Map

Rapid Transit Cycle, the bicycle giant of Chicago, whose business we have grown with starting with our production and long-time maintenance of their very first web page, has moved to the next level of their long-time National Bicycle Greenway sponsorship.

 Rapid Transit Podcast

In following the tradition of other American cycling leaders from Chicago, such as Schwinn and others in the former king of American cycling as this <link>  shows, Rapid Transit took the very first position on our coast-to-coast NBG map per this <link>. Soon in addition to their handsome logo we will introduce this part of our map with (as we add all of their shops), I hope you can see all the possibilities for your business as we go on to build the community of where to Eat, Sleep, Visit, Play and. Shop purveyors that support Rapid Transit Cycle. This, as we repeat this process all across America to build the National Bicycle Greenway.

As we also make the West Coast Greenway <link>  real in the same way, we are now open for business. If you would like to get on either of our maps, contact us at NBG@BikeRoute.com.

THX 4 all of U!!

Mr. Greenway, Ray Irvin, to Help Build National Bicycle Greenway!!

Ray Irvin (podcast interview with Martin Krieg and pictured at left above with NBG TransAm Scout, Scott Campbell), the man who transformed the state of Indiana through many elected official cycles, with  hundreds of miles of Greenways while also  grooming greenway managers and  executives all over America, wants  to help me build the National Bicycle Greenway! A hugely accomplished man, Ray and I have been talking by phone and email the last few weeks. We have been discussing the five-year time-line he foresees for making the route we now have on line into the coast-to-coast multi-use bikeway that will also be fed by greenway arterials from all the states in the Union.

With infectious enthusiasm, Ray wins at everything he does because he wants for everyone to win with him.  From being a Captain in the Marines and now the the Coast Gaurd,  a city councilllor, and the founder of the much emulated Indy Greenways, to his also being an  airplane pilot, FAA licensed A&P mechanic and  big-rig truck driver, he knows how to inspire people to act. This as he  also knows how to lead by example; how  to roll up his sleeves and get  down to the nitty gritty.

Toward that end, Ray wants to tour all the  State Houses  in the lower 48, rallying support from bike, environmental, health care, fitness, equestrian and service clubs, etc, for an inter-connected Greenway network that feeds our San Francisco to Washington, DC connection. If that’s not enough, we are hoping that we will also be able to pay  his marketing powerhouse wife, who will be travelling with him, enough money to have the full attention of the consulting work she does. A former adjunct professor of marketing at Indiana University, on a free-lance basis, she now coaches businesses on how to maximise the bang they get for their marketing buck.

With this new breakthrough, my Eagle ride across America will have maximal impact for the National Bicycle Greenway. Not only will it advertise our main coast-to-coast route, but i will be joined by the daily day-rides Ray’s bus tour will also have recruited cyclists  for to expand the reach and influence of what will be a festive and exciting journey. This as the Busycle rides at the State Houses and Mayprs’ Ride city halls along the way also capture the imagination and attention of an America looking for ways to clean up our transportation habits as we build community and just have good, healthy fun.

Nor can Ray wait to get to work. He looks forward to following in the footsteps of another great Hoosier who changed the way this country moves about. Carl Fischer, the man who led the charge for the first coast-to-coast road that would go on to change the landscape of America, the Lincoln Highway, first built the world famous Indy 500 motor-raceway before he turned his attention to the rest of the Nation. Just as the Brickyard still  endures as a rallying point for motor enthusiasts, we look forward to the day soon ahead when the example Ray has set with  Indy Greenways also becomes a national phenomena that changes the way we recreate, commute and exercise. !!

Ray  and I tossed around a lot of ideas for how we can get his position funded. Excited about his ability to deliver I can’t wait to start looking for ways to get Ray’s plan underwritten.

Thx 4 all of U!!

– btw. The legendary cyclist, Steve Stevens, who is helping me route bike riders across Utah and CO, has proposed an alternative to Trairidge over the Rockies  which is open only during the summer. As such, ours will be a national connection open year round!!

The Coast-to-Coast National Bicycle Greenway Route!

Coast-to-Coast NBG Routed & 2002 Santa Cruz to DC Visualization

After many hours of pretty focused map work, we now have a coast-to-coast route for the San Francisco to Washington, DC greenway we long have foreseen! By combining the work of our NBG Scouts with the crowd sourced bike route data that Google has on line, the connection that has resulted signals a new direction . Toward that end, in mirroring what Carl Fischer did with the Lincoln Highway (America’s first coast-to-coast road), as I describe in “How America Can Bike and Grow Rich, the NBG Manifesto”, we no longer have to look for the best route, we have to now work on getting cyclists on it. And the more it gets used, the more there will be a demand for it to become the perfect world National Bicycle Greenway we long have foreseen!

As we celebrate our 20 Mayors’ Ride stops along the way with also our NBG Biking City Reports, we will be making them popular biking destinations that many cyclists will be using our route to access. This as we will giving life to the route itself with excerpts from my book and those riders reports we will be blogging at our site. Besides benefitting all those businesses along the way that service people power, the growing numbers of people using our greenway will also reawaken all those small towns the automobile has forsaken as well as parts of the country our interstates have caused people to abandon.

Soon, we will have all the separate connections merged so we can present the overview at our site. In the interim, I just got this from the former Mayor of Santa Cruz (located on the coast 100-miles below San Francisco), who was clearing up some files. Indeed Chris Krohn long has seen the big picture:

—————————————————

Dear Mayor Williams,

On Sunday, August 11, 2002, the first annual Santa Cruz National
Bicycle Greenway (NBG) Fest will be held in the City of Santa Cruz and
will serve as the final destination for a ten-city relay that will
begin in Washington, DC, and is expected to bring cyclists from all
over the United States.  The purpose of this event is to offer America
a solution to its transportation woes with a nationwide network of
interconnected bike roads and pathways called the NBG. For additional
information, the website address is www.bikeroute.com/SCNBGFest. As
Mayor of the City of Santa Cruz, using this as a medium, I am inviting
you to connect your city with ours.

The promoters of this event, the same group that sent a significant
number of cyclists to you in 2000, would like to bring bike riders
from you to us armed with your official decree-a mayoral proclamation
stating your support for safe bikeable connections from one coast and
major metro area to another.

In 2000, the riders that visited Washington, DC, area were armed with
two resolutions, one from Mount Rainer, MD, the host to the street
fair that followed the NBG ride around the Capitol, and the other from
Santa Cruz, CA, drafted just before the NBG sent riders to you from
our lighthouse.  Set up as a national relay, your proclamation will go
up the Chesapeake and Ohio path toPittsburgh, PA, for a reception and
send-off before it is then passed off and carried by another rider to
the next destination.  This sequence repeats itself in eight more
major cities on its way to us, where it will, once again, be read in
my opening remarks that kick off the Santa Cruz NBG Fest.

In conclusion, I believe that this could be a great promotion for both
of our cities.  Can the City of Santa Cruz look to you for support?
The relay will begin near the end of May, and the NBG group has a lot
of coordination to do in the interim, so your timely response is much
needed and appreciated.  Thank you in advance for your consideration
of this request.

Sincerely,
Christopher Krohn
Mayor

Nation’s Top Greenway Mapped to NBG Coast-to-Coast Route

Our San Jose/San Francisco to Washington, DC map leaves Folsom tomorrow on our way to Reno. With the Bay Area complete, along with the bike route  all the way to Davis and Sacramento , we just finished the American River Parkway, Sacramento State Capitol to Folsom City Hall, passage per the below:

The National Bicycle Greenway has been doing the above ride since 2002. Once you get to our Google on-line map, not only do we show you what parts of the trail to ride, but we show how to get you and your bike to  it from the San Francisco Bay area by train. And how to get you and your bike from Folsom back to the Capitol by light rail  no matter where you came from to get to the start.

HERE is the Audio – Visual Podcast you will also find at out map. Along with the following excerpt from “How American Can Bike and Grow Rich, the NBG Manifesto”

 […]

And it was easy to understand why. A true bicycle heaven indeed, we all looked forward to riding the American River Parkway. Perfectly smooth asphalt, it offered the ultimate two-wheel escape. Tomorrow we would all be on a path that felt miles from nowhere even though busy freeways and the life of small cities lay just beyond the river bluffs. We would look out on a peaceful summer-time river that gently poured over the rocky bottom it often exposed.

 Along the way, we would ride through a few tree shaded, lawn covered parks, cross the American River on an historic metal bridge and be entertained by all the people frolicking in the many different swimming holes along the way. As the trail neared the base of the Sierras we would find ourselves passing through miles after mile of untouched open space where even the occasional tell tale sign of human life, such as a far away building or road, almost as instantly disappeared from sight.

[…]

 

NBG SF to DC Map Progress | Eagle in Irish Colors

Per the overview map below, in synthesizing all the notes our NBG Scouts have compiled since 2002, our National Bicycle Greenway coast-to-coast route will soon be available on line! While this would have been possible with the maps we used to run at our site, the resources needed for maintenance and upkeep would have continued to draw away from the National Bicycle Greenway effort itself. As such, Google’s map creation feature has evolved enough to make this a job that can be done  with a lot less man power. 

 

Each of the NBG Mayors’ Ride city stops below will have a link that details how to get to it from the previous Mayors’ Ride city. In addition, the intra state detail will also be flagged with the  those history and vision excerpts from “How American Can Bike and Grow Rich, the NBG Manifesto“, that are applicable to those parts of the map through which the route passes.

 

 

Not a good idea to stop cycle tourists from Germany outside of a bar. I wanted to find out about their recumbents and their ride, but everyone in the pub, having seen my picture in the paper, wanted to talk to me.

 

I was dressed in the County Mayo, Ireland colors for a Gaelic football game on Sunday…

 

 

btw: The 2014 Mayors’ Ride will introduce the West Coast Greenway to the world. Seattle and San Diego and all the major cities in between will all converge on San Francisco. In 2015 (or 2016), it is our hope that this ride will be replicated as a two-week prelude to my  ride from San Francisco to Washington DC on the Eagle.

 

World Duathlon Champ & Palo Alto NBG Supporter Re-invents the Shoe!!

George Pierce, a humble bicycle friend, champion, father of two, and long time supporter of the National Bicycle Greenway effort, just launched a Kick Starter campaign to introduce a powerful new athletic (and biking) shoe to the world.  Teaming up with a leading manufacturer from Busan, South Korea, the shoe making capital of the world, and a local Palo Alto bike shop, 7Even Dynamics  is sure to become the fashion and athletic statement of the soon ahead future.

Click HERE to see the KickStarter offering which includes the video pictured below to see these amazing shoes.

Eagle Visits with (Bicyclist) Leader of Ireland’s Staff

Here during this atypical Irish heat wave, where temps have been in the low to mid 70’s for the last few days, I stopped in at Taoiseach, Enda Kenny’s Castlebar office to show Teresa, his office manager, at the far left, my bike. I finally made good on the promise I made almost two years ago to show them the Eagle, when Virginia and I brought Cayo in to meet Enda when our little guy was just two months old. Though Enda, a genuine cyclist, was not there, the reception my bike and I got was an enthusiastic one!

Marilyn Hayward Bringing Laughter & Love to Her Recumbent Shop

We just had the honor of finding out what makes one of America’s most loved recumbent bicycle minds  tick. Through Coventry Cycle Works, Marilyn Hayward is gaining widespread acceptance for the supine position in the Pacific Northwest. In the words ahead, you will hear some of the near insurmountable obstacles she has had to overcome on her way to also becoming so widely revered.

[audio http://www.radio4all.net/files/NBG@bikeroute.com/1680-1-MarilynHPod.mp3]