Why does Indy need a bike connection to the airport?
Why do we need a bike connection to the airport?
Because we have the only downtown greenway on Planet Earth, the 10 mile long Indianapolis Cultural Trail: A Legacy of Gene & Marilyn Glick (ICT). we can easily lay claim to the fact that we are this nation’s top Bike City. Nowhere else in the world are five other Car Free Greenways accessible from any other city center anywhere on the globe. In getting this known to the world, in celebrating it as the big deal that it is, we have to make the Cultural Trail safely accessible by bicycle from the airport.
Easily accomplished, as I will be showing you, it is this that would cause a whole new market of tourists to result - day or weekend use cycle tourists. It would fill a lifeless, almost barren part of the Indianapolis landscape with happy smiling people.
Many will be bike riders from Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Lexington, Memphis, Nashville or any of the many larger cites that are less than two hours worth of flying time away, who will feel called to make a day or weekend trip to experience the Greenway wonder of Indianapolis. For those coming in from farther away such as Europe or California, etc., if they don't want to rent an electric cargo bike, there will be a shuttle service, as we will discuss, that will transport their luggage to their hotel so they can ride in to town.
Before we talk about how such a connection can be easily brought about, however, we need to talk about Indianapolis International Airport, the top rated airport in North America.
At the airport then, we need to establish the bicycle as a part of the airport experience. In the same way our flying center repackages itself to align with events taking place in town such as various basketball tournaments and the Indy 500, etc., they can showcase the bicycle in general and Indianapolis Greenways in particular.
From May to October for the cycling season, they can do that with bicycle art and they can work with the Greenways Foundation to position kiosks that call out some of the various greenways that new arrivals will soon discover. They can team up with the Indiana State Museum (they recently did an extensive Major Taylor exhibition) to celebrate Indianapolis bicycle racer, Major Taylor, a black man who was the first American world champion in any sport. Similar to how they have built replica basketball courts to welcome college tournaments and the like, they can even construct a wooden velodrome model like what the Major raced on in the late 1800s near Fall Creek.
In calling attention to the bike link to downtown, at the airport, signs with arrows and the universal bicycle symbol on them can read ‘Bikeway to Downtown’. The safe bike connection they will be calling attention to, will show that Indianapolis International Airport is a friend of the bike community 10 miles away. The staging area where bicycles are rented to get there would be peaceful, not predominated by the noise and confusion of cars, buses and hotel shuttle vans. The bicycles and electric cargo bikes quietly moving about would have a peaceful calming effect not felt in other air transportation centers.
Instead of arriving at some kind of foreign entity estranged from the city it serves by freeways and other high speed roads, when people can be seen leaving our airport on bicycles, those coming to see the city by bike will feel welcome. They will know after leaving the airplane’s artificial environment of recycled air they will not have to endure/sit inside of yet another vehicle before they can enjoy the fresh air of Indianapolis. They will take comfort in the fact that as soon as they get their luggage, they will be able to stretch their legs however much they want to on a bicycle, pedal or electric.
There will be the relief of knowing that once they leave the airplane, they will no longer be on somebody else’s schedule. No hurry up and wait as the only queues ahead of them will be for the baggage carousel and bike rental. Where to stand and at what time for ground transportation will be removed from the equation. They will control their destiny and not strangers in random motor vehicles
In terms of transportation, making the road to the airport friendly to bikes, will also be a large benefits for the many large businesses near the airport and near Minnesota Rd. Their employees will be able to to access them by bicycle.
The above said, half of the bike connection that we foresee, is already built. The 5 miles of Perimeter Road that surround the airport already have a Class II Bike Lane on them! The road it connects to, Minnesota Road, has a wide shoulder that only needs to be paved. And once it is then striped, it will soon become part of a world renowned bike route from the airport to the bicycle heaven of downtown Indianapolis!
It will become a model other cities will endeavor to emulate as they work to make their airports bicycle friendly. In having such a travel corridor so we can showcase all of our greenways, we will establish ourselves as not only the Greenway Capital of America but as its Bike Capital as well. This is a moniker that will not only attract cyclists, but businesses who will want to be able to say they have work operations in the Bike Capital of America - adding authority to Indianapolis being seen, because of its Greenways, as also the Quality of Life Capital of this country.
What will add to the appeal of coming here to bike is the fact that the limited time of a day or weekend trip will be efficiently spent because they will be passing through our top rated flying center. And if there is a safe bikeway into town they will know they won’t be wasting their time negotiating car rentals and/or maneuvering through parking lots if they can use a bike to get in to town.
In addition to the time savings that can be had by coming through our airport, without the need for vehicular transportation, affordability is another reason why a safe bike route to town will generate interest from prospective day or weekend users. It will appeal to those who can afford a plane trip but not an overnight stay. It will leave them with enough money for the fuel they need - the meals they will purchase from the food purveyors along the way.
Not only can our Greenways be accessed from the ICT, but they have recently developed a way that can bring people to it from the airport with their Pacer Bike Share operation. To it, they have added an electric bike fleet. While this is not the case at present, if a safe bike route can be built, service from the airfield can be easily implemented.
Once all the many details are attended to, a concession can be run inside the airport terminal for electric bike rentals. And as we touched on above, they can also rent electric cargo bikes so they can bring their luggage to their hotel. They can even include their kids and swap their freight bikes out for lighter pedal bikes once they reach their hotel and/or the Cultural Trail.
For the majority of visitors who do not have a folding bike, or those who do not want to ride an electric bike once they reach town or after they are done carrying their luggage, there will be a cutting edge bike rental service. From such a contractor, they will be able to choose from a wide selection of different kinds of the latest model pedal machines. They can select from tandems and road and hybrid mountain bikes. With such a system, they can even rent toward the end of possible purchase when they get back home. This is so because they will have been able to road test bikes they may have been considering.
While this may sound like pie in the sky, such a bike rental agency does exist. Such a business concern has been a contributing factor to San Francisco now being recognized as ońe of the top bike cities in the world.
If you build it they will come
In 1998 when the Haas family (they sold the Oakland A’s in 1995) donated $10 million (worth $20 million today) to turning the Presidio, an old army base near the Golden Gate Bridge, into a park, the bicycle became the way to explore this new gateway to the world’s most famous bridge. Soon biking became the dominant theme in the 14 miles of roads and trails in the Presidio.
Administered by the National Park Service, bike companies cropped up to service this new user. From the sale of after market accessories to bike tours and bike rentals, many different bike businesses came about. One would stand out.
Because of a special arrangement Blazing Saddles has made with Specialized bicycles, every year they are able to supply their customers with the current year model Specialized machines. No more clunking around on a well worn rental bike, but being able to explore this part of San Francisco and beyond on a machine often times better than what many have at home. For those in the know, it is this that has made renting a bike from Blazing Saddles the preferred way to experience the Golden Gate city.
Blazing Saddles also has an operation in New York City. Like San Francisco, bicycling has become a big part of the NYC tourism experience. While for cyclists, San Francisco has the Presidio and New York has Central Park, Indianapolis has the Indianapolis Cultural Trail! Adding an Indianapolis midpoint would make for a logical next level expansion of the Blazing Saddles business operation.
With Blazing Saddles setting the tone, the Presidio changed the way large numbers of people would come to enjoy San Francisco. For us, here in Indianapolis, in the absence of steep hills, bone chilling fog and summertime cold, as the blank canvas that it is, a Minnesota Road retrofit can put us not too far behind either of their locations. With the simple addition of a paved shoulder, toward becoming a Class II bike lane, Minnesota/Perimeter can make for a memorable introduction to the bicycle fun our new visitors will soon experience in our city.
What is better is the fact that besides being already blessed with a wide bike lane, 5-mile Perimeter Road travels through well groomed grounds pretty much all the way to the airport terminal. Unlike the hard and often miserable uphill ride to get on to the Golden Gate Bridge, often with the reward of even more cold and fog, the 10 miles of flat Minnesota and Perimeter Roads can become a welcome treat on the way to our vibrant bicycle heaven. With a little bit of imagination and a manageable amount of funding, we can easily put Indianapolis on the world bicycle stage.