NBG Anchor Cities
NBG Anchor Cities
As we have pointed out, since people are what make the lands one passes through, memorable and enjoyable, here is an expanded discussion of the Anchor Cities needed to hold our route across America together. Far more than the social component, however, from the standpoint of giving the National Bicycle Greenway a strong financial footing, they are of crucial importance. This is so because they serve as placeholders for the Downtown Greenways each of them will get that make our revenue engines possible.
Because few resources and even fewer people will feel called to our vision, unless it can generate notable revenue, with Downtown Greenways at their center, here are the main money generating programs that Anchor Cities will spawn:
NBG Membership/Downtown Lodging discounts
Points of Interest Maps (POI)
Biking Report Cards
These funding sources are so unique. in fact, that like our Downtown Greenways that revitalize centers of commerce, they also get whole chapters in this book.
The other sources of revenue that we foresee, some that will be talked about in this edition, others in Book Two, will come from:
NBG Passport Sales | Marking our Route (adoption of sections, benches, mile markers, etc.) | Route Signage Sales, eg History Placard Sponsorships, etc. | NBG Hubs | Website Monetization to include Google AdSense | Map Display Ad Sales for system-wide national ads | TransAm Rider Blog Display Ads | Ride/Event licensure of our route | Sleeping Centers | Fundraising Programs with Point of Sale Campaigns to include NBG Day at Whole Foods, etc. | National Mayors' Ride Festival/Gateway Fest at the National Bike Capital (Indianapolis)
In terms of the spec for our Downtown Greenways, they will have to be built around the needs of the highest level user, the long distance touring cyclist. This is so, because by working to attract cyclists from far away, it will remind all those tuned in that Anchor Cities are national in scope. It will encourage all those following to think big as they spread the word of our coast to coast vision. In so doing, they will expand the resources available to us from individuals and corporations wanting to make a large sized difference with their money contributions. Soon, as financed by seed money, with the help of our Public Relations firm, the mission of the National Bicycle Greenway will spread like wildfire.
Designed for the long-haul cyclist, then, once our pedalers leave California, where there are seven anchor cities in the greater San Francisco Bay Area alone, our Anchors are spaced a good number of miles apart until Omaha, Nebraska is reached. From our last California anchor, Sacramento, after climbing over 100 miles through the forests of the Sierras, our cyclists reach Reno, Nevada. From there, the ride changes completely. For the next 500 miles, it is the resulting solitude of the sagebrush filled, high desert lands that creates character as it reinforces the notion that people are what any ride, and for that matter, the game of life, are all about. As beacons calling to themselves, there are two other stops in what we call the Old West.
After Reno, whether along I-80, where the two directions of travel are separated by many hundreds of yards, or along US 50, also known as The Loneliest Highway in America, it is virtual nothingness to Salt Lake City. From the Mecca of Mormonism, signs of life and green begin to reappear for the next 200 miles to Vernal Utah. From there, the flat of sagebrush returns for another 100 miles to Craig, Colorado.
Craig is where 200 miles of beautiful forests will then begin to fully envelop the touring cyclist’s senses. Whereupon, our third old west anchor city, Boulder, sits at the eastern edge of this Rocky Mountain splendor.
It will be for this Rocky Mountain stretch and the many thousands of feet of vigorous climbing it involves, that West to East touring cyclists will have been prepared. Regardless of which way they traveled across Nevada, they still will have pedaled across the most Mountainous State in the Union. If they chose the I-80 direction, their many thousands of feet of climbing will have been graded. In other words, all of the ups and downs were smoothed out. Massive amounts of earth were moved so that getting through the barren mountains had been made tame by easily manageable grades that climb or descend for long distances. This as US 50, has steeper climbs and a lot more of them all throughout the riding day
While the nights in Nevada will involve hotels (free camping in sagebrush with snakes is not advised), as well as those for a few days east of Salt Lake City, the camping option does return once the Rockies are reached. In the Silver State, lodging is available every 50 to 60 miles whether our cyclists are riding the wide I-80 shoulder or US 50. Along I-80, however, this formula changes when they hit Wendover.
From there, all the way to Lake Point, just before Salt Lake City, for the next 101 miles, there are no services, nor is there any lodging! And by NO services, I mean no water, no rest stops, no food, just pedal as you wonder at the rock sculptures along the edge of the road. This, as light, 70 to 90 mile an hour traffic passes you by a worthy distance away. Nor is there any shade.
Such harshness, however, will have been made worth it by the Rockies. Outdoor supplies such as tents, tent poles and stakes, rain flys, tarps, candle lanterns, camp stoves, camp stove fuel, fuel bottles, biodegradable soap, toothbrush and soap containers, sewing kits, squeeze tubes (for honey and peanut butter), Swiss survival knives, collapsible water bags, shock cords, freeze dried food, etc, will all have been worth carrying once our cycle tourists reach the Colorado mountain wonderland. It is this they will feel as they look out upon the endless carpets of forests that look more like a painting than something that is real. Their every breath will inhale the sweet smell of the Ponderosa pine that make up the bulk of all the trees that explode from the ground all around them.
From Boulder, the Rockies fade away for the next 30 miles all the way to Denver, our next Anchor City. After which, agriculture begins to enter the equation. Fields of corn, soy beans and a light sprinkling of a few other crops increase until corn dominates the fields on either side of the road once Nebraska is reached. For about 400 miles, this is so most all of the way to Omaha.
After Omaha, hilly, farm-filled terrain with little towns every 10-15 miles will demand a lot of the the cyclist’s attention for the next 150 miles or so until he or she gets to Des Moines and then roughly 400 miles later, Chicago. As the frequency of small towns continues, the path forward for about 200 miles is occasionally interspersed with car free pathways all the way to the home of the NBG and the Greenway Capital of the World, Indianapolis. From Indy to the Nation’s Capital, instead of being many days apart, our Anchor Cities all fall within a long weekend of riding away from one another.
In each of our anchors, our plan, as we will show you, calls for Downtown Greenways, similar to the Indianapolis Cultural Trail. Besides serving local cyclists, these across the city amenities will attract cyclists from throughout the region. Since their endpoints will connect to our Coast to Coast route, our Anchor Cities, as we said above, will do well to think of our TransAm cyclists as the design standard for which they will build around.
It is here that because of their heavily loaded bicycles, easily navigable infrastructure is very important for them. This is so because the unwieldy machines they will be on have a bit harder time going up and down curbs, moving through narrow passageways and/or getting around in heavily automobile trafficked areas, etc. By improving the local bike ways for the TransAm cyclist, by making them the standard which they design around, Anchor Cities will also be making their roads and paths attractive to their local cyclists. Doing so will also increase visitation from all those from throughout the region who come for day trips.
Since the TransAm cyclist, the one traveling from one coast to the other, is the highest art form of bicycle touring, in building for them and the heavier loads they carry, everyone wins. As these cities work, for example, to slow the roads down with traffic calming measures, they increase the quality of life for their own residents. As they also work to show their cities off with historical markers, they increase the sense of pride and well-being their local citizenry experiences. Because touring cyclists travel slow enough that they can enjoy such information placards, such tastefully designed signage will add a richness to these areas the experience of which our cyclists will spread near and far with pictures and stories.
Just seeing heavily laden cyclists on Anchor City roads will have an impact on the local citizenry. Not only will the youth be curious, but it will give the local population the inner satisfaction of knowing that their city must be doing something right. They will have the sense that the people who worked to visit them came because where they live is vibrant and alive, worthy of using one’s muscles to come and explore. Seeing them will also remind them to slow down themselves, that they need to take a breath when they find themselves rushing around.
The sense of peace that these cyclists bring will show that there is more than deadlines, appointments, work and having to be somewhere. There will be the inner knowing that they can vicariously travel with them until the time is right to perhaps go on long distance bike rides of their own.
NBG TransAm Hall of Fame
In and amongst the mix of touring cyclists, the TransAm cyclist is the one whose opinion is respected the most, their impression of a given locale is given great weight. Similar to the traveling storytellers of the Middle Ages, their words serve as good or bad public relations for the towns and cities through which they pass. While any touring cyclist, sees, smells and hears the world around them at 10 miles an hour, and they are fully ameliorated in it, the coast to coast cyclist is much listened to because they are seen as being on a mission.
Great respect is conferred upon them because in endeavoring to ride coast to coast, they are seen as goal driven. When a man or a woman knows where he or she is going, everyone pays attention to them. This is so because they want to know what they can do to help them get wherever they are trying to get.
Once our Anchor Cities more and more realize they are stepping stones for our Trans Am cyclists, they will do their best to make sure the image our riders broadcast is a positive one. In putting their best foot out for them, they will help to confer a high esteem upon those out for the coast to coast long-haul. As such, they will add to the honor the NBG places upon the TransAm cyclist with its NBG TransAm Hall of Fame (that it calls attention to in its NBG Biking Report Cards). As these cities work to sell the prestige of their being an NBG Anchor City, they will feel called to raise the profile of our TransAm cyclists.
One of the ways some will do this is to put our TransAm Hall of Fame on the TV infomercials that run around the clock in hotel rooms to describe the city and hotel in question. When more and more cities adopt this practice, our TransAm Hall of Fame will become an institution that grows in stature.
This will plant a seed, it will make being a part of the Hall an attractive possibility for the youth in our Anchor Cities. Instead of feeling pulled to cars, gangs and drugs, kids will be more likely to admire our touring cyclists, see them as role models. When they see that our long haul cyclists are celebrated for something they themselves can do, it will open their eyes to a of new possible future for themselves in the world..
Kids will see they don't need any special athletic skill, a certain height, weight or skin color or that there is a financial hurdle they must clear. They will see they can become a member of the NBG TransAm Hall of Fame just by doing something most anyone can do. And that is ride a bicycle.
In becoming honored in such a way, however, they must be willing to learn the attributes needed to become a TransAm Cyclist. It is here that, if ahead of their trip, they don’t take the time to learn the importance of visualization, organization, goal setting, time management, list making, proper nutrition and the positive mental attitudes required in advance, the long distance road will rough them up pretty bad. They will come to understand that completing their mission as well as the quality of the ride that results, will be directly related to how well they master these skills.
Giving young people role models they can look up to is similar to what the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization does. Instead of a formalized structure, however, we feel that by just having our long distance cyclists on the road, they will set an example the youth will want to aspire to. It is here they will be able to see for themselves the importance of their own word in being able to walk their talk. They will realize that the every day person they bear witness to straddling a loaded touring machine who came from far away, is just someone who is doing what they said they would do.
As they then follow the example our TransAm Cyclists set, they will learn to take ownership for anything they say they will do. In learning the importance of their word, such knowledge will help them develop the grit, inner strength, confidence, trust and hope that any of the formulas winning at the game of life requires.
You can learn more about the NBG TransAm Hall of Fame HERE.
How Greenway building also supports the community
Nor does the cyclist have to be out for the coast to coast long haul to earn appreciation and respect from the people in our Anchor Cities. There are many reasons why being on a bike in them will cause them to be appreciated. In being welcoming hosts, Anchor City locals will know that cyclists, compared to cars and trucks, are good for the planet. They will have been made aware that because those who pedal do not use fossil fuels, their carbon footprint is minimal.
They will know that cyclists do not require parking lots or 15 or so feet of curb space along the edge of the road when they are stopped. When as many as 20 bicycles can fill the space needed by one car, they will feel confident that the right kind of visitors are coming to their city. Since cyclists are not a threat to children or small animals as they jockey about looking for parking spots, but bring quiet and smiling faces, their visits will not only be welcomed but encouraged. The fact they do not introduce noise or add to the congestion on the roadways will be an added blessing.
This is also so because when any cyclist uses the roads and trails that the local populace has worked to maintain and upgrade, bike riders will be seen as the produce of their efforts. When jobs are created building infrastructure for those who pedal, any time bike riders are seen, there is a far better chance motorists in these areas will be more patient with them.
From the excavators, to the pavers, to the outdoor furniture installers, to the signmakers, to the landscape designers, to the gardeners, to the lawn mowers, etc, Greenway building and bicycle infrastructure improvements provide a livelihood for a large number of people. These are people who pay bills, buy food and maintain households, etc., in and amongst the local community.
This as the bike travelers themselves also spend money in their stores, restaurants and lodging purveyors. There is nothing but victory for everyone concerned when the way is made safe for those who move about under their own power. Going forward, a community of workers will always be there to happily welcome the latest building project for two-wheel wheel travel.
Toward the end of making themselves attractive to the regional day use cyclist, day use parking lots can also be built. They can be positioned at the end of trail heads or popular bike ways at the edges of the city. Here, vendor carts can crop up with juice bars to offer energy food and drink, even ice cream to those newly arriving or departing cyclists. A weekend bike repair service can also be brought about that fixes flats, and tunes as well as fixes bikes to make them ready for the trails or roads ahead. This service can also sell tires, tubes and any of the cabling a bike may need.
One of our first orders of business, will be to hire Anchor City Publicists in all 19 of our other Anchor Cities. They will sell the importance and benefits talked about above of each of these cities achieving NBG Anchor City status. They will do this through the Chambers of Commerce and the Convention and Visitors Bureaus for each of them. In these professional organizations they will be very active and where time and resources allow they will also participate in service clubs such as the Lions, Rotary, Optimist, and Kiwanis, etc.