Last week I traveled to Oklahoma City for the first-ever
Oklahoma Bike Summit, hosted by the
Oklahoma Bicycle Coalition.
The two-day event started off strong with a great showing for
John LaPlante's Bicycle Facility Design workshop. John is the Director of Traffic Engineering at T.Y. Lin International and was with the City of Chicago for 30 years. He is involved in several national committees (AASHTO Green Book Technical Committee, NCUTCD Pedestrian Task Force, and the TRB Pedestrian Committee) and was principal author of the 1999 AASHTO Bicycle Facility Guide. His excellent credentials drew a nice crowd -- with city and state planners, engineers, and cyclists all blending together seamlessly.
If participants were skeptical about integrating bicycle designs into the streets and roadways of Oklahoma, John soon put them to rest with his vast knowledge and down-to-earth approach. After a morning packed full of effective bike design practices, we took to the road to see what Oklahoma City's streets and roads were like for cyclists.
Leaving the beautiful
Chesapeake Boathouse facility (pictured above), we immediately were challenged by road construction and concrete barriers that put us through a narrow chute, complete with impatient vans surging past us into oncoming traffic. With almost 60 of us to contend with, most drivers used better judgment and waited for us to clear the area before finding ample room to scoot around. Off we went to find Oklahoma City's Katy Trail, a seven-mile paved rail-trail a mere two or three miles from city center.
The locals guided us to the trail -- which was a good thing, since there are no signs or bike lanes leading you there, although once at the trailhead I noticed the path lies along a beautiful park. This could certainly be one of city's nicest features, as I found out later in the week when I took a run to the trail from my downtown hotel. I knew enough about conditions to not be frustrated by the lack of consistent sidewalks, but was surprised to find myself running smack-dab through a city park (see below) -- still with no pedestrian accommodations.
Back at the workshop, attendees sat down and brainstormed solutions to the road and intersection issues we had encountered as cyclists and pedestrians. This was excellent practice for putting John's morning information to use. We were also instructed to keep things on the cheap. It's amazing what innovative ideas came out of this session -- all very feasible and low-cost; paint, signs, signalization, and innovation make a mighty team when it comes down to it.
Saturday brought new faces as the advocacy day of the
Oklahoma Bike Summit got underway. John started things off with a nice overview of the previous day's teachings, followed by a session on bicycle tourism (ah!) with Lon Haldeman (pictured above) of
RAAM (Ride Across America) and
PAC Tours, who spoke on cycling Route 66; Joy Hancock from
Oklahoma FreeWheel, the annual cross-state ride; Sandy Pantlik, director of travel promotion for the
Oklahoma Tourism Department, who talked about the state getting more involved with promoting bicycle tourism (and they are now coordinating the Scenic Byways Program too -- perfect partnership opportunity); and me. I
built the case for bike tourism, especially in light of the recently passed
Historic Route 66 Bike Trail, Adventure Cycling's plan to map
Bicycle Route 66 in the next two years, and the route's incredible international draw. Plans were also laid out to designate Route 66 as a
U.S. Bicycle Route so municipal, county, and state governments will recognize it officially as a bicycle route.
Andy Clark from the
League of American Bicyclists boiled down the bicycling movement, showing us great examples from across the U.S. and abroad -- and inspired everyone in the room to keep working. Since the
Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works had just released their bill, MAP-21 (Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century), Andy talked a bit about what the
consolidation of programs might mean to bicycle and pedestrian funding. (Read the
America Bikes Statement on MAP-21 -- pdf.) And, finally, Kevin Mussett ran through a long list of Safe Routes to School success stories.
It was a great two-day event, and I am happy to report that Oklahoma is brimming with opportunities. On my next visit to Oklahoma City, I look forward to experiencing the bike lanes that are being constructed as part of the city's new bike master plan; however, the earthquakes I could do without.
Photos by Ginny Sullivan--
BUILDING THE U.S. BICYCLE ROUTE SYSTEM (USBRS) is posted by Ginny Sullivan, USBRS coordinator at Adventure Cycling, and features news and updates related to the emerging
U.S. Bicycle Route System. The USBRS project is a collaborative effort, spearheaded by a task force under the auspices of the
American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO). Members of the task force include officials and staff from state DOTs, the Federal Highway Administration, and nonprofits like the
East Coast Greenway Alliance, and
Mississippi River Trail, Inc.
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