The end of April marked a monumental agreement between our national parks and the Adventure Cycling Association. On April 30th, National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Adventure Cycling Association that formalizes “a partnership to promote collaboration between bicycling interests and the National Park Service,” according to the ACA.

More specifically, the collaboration is a five-year agreement that enables the ACA to work directly with the National Park Service to build a bicycle route through national parks that span across the country. Here’s the scoop, via the Adventure Cycling Association:

“Nationwide bicycle routes connect Americans to their national parks in an environmentally friendly manner,” Jarvis said. “Our partnership with the bicycling community presents an opportunity for us to foster connections between national parks and cyclists of all ages.”

The agreement will promote user etiquette and safety while providing well-managed recreation and tourism opportunities. It preserves the National Park Service’s authority to determine where and when bicycling is appropriate on park lands. The agreement will also help leverage resources, expand volunteerism, and tap expertise in providing best management practices for bicycling activities.

“This agreement could not come at a better time,” said Adventure Cycling Association Executive Director Jim Sayer. “Bicycle tourism is surging in America and around the planet. Bike networks are being developed at a rapid pace. It’s important that the National Park Service is a key player in this effort to make biking safer and more enjoyable, especially in our national parks.”

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Just a little over one year ago, Adventure Cycling Association teamed up with Blanche van der Meer and her WorldCycle Videos group on Vimeo and launched their first-ever Bicycle Travel Video Contest. The premise of the competition was simple: “to celebrate the booming trend in bike touring and travel documentaries.” The result, thanks to some fantastic volunteer judges, is several fantastic videos that capture the essence of cycling.

This beautiful video won for Best Portrait of a Traveling Cyclist. Adventure Cycling Association explained its win in these words:

“It’s an upbeat, humorous video focusing on Erin Inglish’s preparation for her Earth*Bike*Banjo tour down the California coast. (One judge’s take: “Fun, and funny!”)”

The film synopsis itself goes something like this: “One new album. One Bicycle. One banjo. One Month. One thousand miles. “Mama Like” is truly a one-of-a-kind comedic homage to Mother Earth through music and Charlie-Chaplin-esque cinematography.”

Watch and enjoy the lighthearted nature of this delightful short film.

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The following is an urgent message from Jim Sayer, executive director of American Cycling Association.

“Today, the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives is releasing its long-term federal transportation bill. Cycling groups expected the bill to be bad news for biking and walking, but we didn’t think it would reverse all progress made in this country in the past twenty years.

The House Transportation Committee will vote Thursday, February 2, on whether to approve this bill or amend it to include biking and walking programs. Find out if your Representative is on the committee by clicking here — and if he or she is, then take action right away.

Why the urgency? House leaders are pushing hard to completely cut bicycling and walking out of transportation. Lawmakers seem to have gone through federal law line-by-line to gut programs that make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians. They haven’t done this to any other transportation sector. Among many terrible provisions, the House bill:

• Destroys the major bike/walk funding program (Transportation Enhancements);
• Repeals the Safe Routes to School program, which helps create safe ways for kids to walk and ride bicycles to school;
• Allows states to build bridges without safe access for pedestrians and bicycles;
• Eliminates bicycle and pedestrian coordinators in state DOTs; and
• Strips language which ensures that rumble strips “do not adversely affect the safety or mobility of bicyclists, pedestrians, or the disabled.”

But there’s still a chance to save federal bike/walk programs. This week in the House Transportation Committee, Representative Tom Petri (R-WI) plans to offer an amendment to restore dedicated funding for key programs. Please click on the action alert to see if your Representative is on the committee — and if they are, contact them asap and ask them to support Mr. Petri’s amendment.

This is as urgent as it gets. Even if Mr. Petri’s amendment succeeds, there will be a long road ahead. But if we lose here, we risk losing decades of progress for a more bike-friendly America.

Please pass this along to all your local friends and contacts – particularly high-level contacts like mayors, school board members, and business leaders — and ask them to weigh in, too. Thanks so much for your quick action and we’ll keep you posted.

Photo from iStockPhoto.com.

Every Wednesday on Ditch Your Car we’ll be bringing you just another reason to spend more time on two wheels. Be it a photo, a statistic or an inspirational video, we want to keep reminding you about why riding is great!

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On October 4, Adventure Cycling announced the receipt of four new grants totaling $100,000 to support its efforts to create the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS).The grants came from a number of prominent foundations and a leading cycling business: $45,000 from the Tawani Foundation; $30,000 from the SRAM Cycling Fund; $15,000 from the Surdna Foundation; and $10,000 from the Lazar Foundation. The grants from Tawani, Surdna, and Lazar focus on the U.S. Bicycle Route System. The grant from SRAM will support Adventure Cycling’s work on the USBRS, as well as its efforts to help understand and organize the bike-travel industry. Read more.

Louisiana progress is clicking along with the help of the Baton Rouge Advocates for Safe Streets. Resolutions of Support for USBR 90 are steadily being passed by parish governments. Check out their website devoted to the project.

To stay up-to-date on the USBRS, follow the conversation on Facebook or Twitter,@usbicycleroutes.

New to the U.S. Bicycle Route System? Read our U.S. Bicycle Route System 101 blog post to get the basics and follow our weekly blog posts on Building the U.S. Bicycle Route System to stay up-to-date on USBRS developments.

Don’t forget, the USBRS is on Twitter and Facebook — show your support, follow our tweets and become a fan!

Photo via: Adventure Cycling Association

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We just got word of a great new resource for the bike-travel community the Adventure Cycling Association: BicycleTravelBloggers.org.

From ACA:

It’s a simple site that will aggregate bike-travel and touring blogs into one place. This is pretty cool. It will allow you to tap into a steady stream of inspiring posts by different traveling cyclists and adventurers from around the world.
On a bike trip and blogging? Submit your bike-travel blog and, once approved, your posts will appear in the feed. To submit your blog now,visit the site and click on “Submit Your Blog” in the top menu.

Touring bicyclists — and other passionate cyclists who want a daily dose of inspiration — can subscribe to BicycleTravelBloggers.org via RSS feed, or follow the feed on Twitter @BTBloggers.

Something to fuel your bike travel wanderlust!

Every Wednesday on Ditch Your Car we’ll be bringing you just another reason to spend more time on two wheels. Be it a photo, a statistic or an inspirational video, we want to keep reminding you about why riding is great!

Image: joiseyshowaa

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Welcome to Pedaling Change! There’s a lot of good work being done in the world of bikes, from alternative transportation advocacy to international development. To highlight some of the great action that’s going on out there, once a month we’ll be profiling a non-profit in the bike world to look at just how they’re working to make positive change.

There’s nothing quite like bicycle travel. With your panniers packed full, a map stuffed into your back pocket and plenty of spare tubes, you’ve got the whole world in front of you. But inspiring people to travel by bike takes work, and that’s where the Adventure Cycling Association (ACA) comes in.

Started in 1973 as Bikecentennial, over the last several decades, ACA has been working hard to ensure that more people travel by bike, and has made a name for itself as the premier bicycle travel organization in North America. In fact the organization has over 44,700 members nationwide.

Thanks to the organization’s Adventure Cycling Route Network, over 40,699 miles are routed and mapped to help cycling enthusiasts explore the world via two wheels. If you’re looking to do some cyclo-inspired adventuring, ACA is the place to start. Publishing a magazine, organizing rides, running a yellow pages for cyclists and raising money to fund more bike routes, it’s no surprise that ACA is a resource and a leader in the industry.

We caught up with Winona Bateman, Adventure Cycling Association’s Media Director to learn more about the organization and some of their current campaigns.

What are your top three reasons for getting people out on bikes?

Adventure Cycling’s mission is to inspire people of all ages to travel by bike for fitness, fun, and self-discovery.

There is obviously a strong travel component integrated into ACA. Why is travel by bike so special?

Traveling by bicycle is powerful and inspiring. You get to experience a place up close and at a human pace. You can also eat a lot of ice cream, if that’s something you enjoy! Last summer more than 1,000 cyclists visited our headquarters in Missoula — we’re always so amazed at the diversity of people who drop in: students, retirees, groups, solo riders, with every age and level of experience represented. Bike travel attracts all sorts of cyclists and when you’re out on the road you will surely meet a wide range of other bike tourists. Pretty fun!

Tell us about the Build It. Bike It. Be Part of It. Campaign.

The Build It. Bike It. Be a Part of It. campaign is an annual social media fundraiser for the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS) that takes place during National Bike Month. We’re hoping to raise $30,000 this year. These funds will support Adventure Cycling Association’s ongoing organizing role in helping states create U.S. Bike Routes. We’re asking cyclists across America to donate $10 to support this visionary project, they can learn more and donate here.

Read more…

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Since it’s National Bike Month, we’re celebrating all month long with our Where’s Your Adventure? Photo Contest. Congrats to this week’s winner, Bill Church, who submitted this shot from Sundance, Utah. He not only scores a yearlong membership to Adventure Cycling Association, but also a brand spaning new Raptor 6 hydration pack!

Want to enter the contest too? Give us your most adventurous cycling photo; it can be from a gnarly section of single track or bombing down an urban hill on your single speed. Just upload your photo to our Flickr pool and tag it with “adventurecycling.” Every week during the month of May we’ll be picking our favorite to win an ACA membership and a Raptor 6. At the end of the month we’ll leave picking the winner up to you, getting our fans to vote and choose our People’s Choice Winner.

Note: Osprey will retain the right to images for future use in blog posts. And please note that we can ship to U.S. addresses only.

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It’s the month to celebrate cycling! May is National Bike Month and to get you excited about getting out and riding, we’re partnering up with one of our favorite causes, the Adventure Cycling Association.

Where’s Your Adventure? That’s what we want to know.

Give us your most adventurous cycling photo; it can be from a gnarly section of single track or bombing down an urban hill on your single speed. Just upload your photo to our Flickr pool and tag it with “adventurecycling.” Every week during the month of May we’ll be picking our favorite to win an ACA membership and a Raptor 6. At the end of the month we’ll leave picking the winner up to you, getting our fans to vote and choose our People’s Choice Winner.

Note: Osprey will retain the right to images for future use in blog posts. And please note that we can ship to U.S. addresses only.

Image: notfrancois

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