Pedal power gains ground by the year
Copyright © 2003 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
Jeffrey Miller, executive director of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, spoke recently with staff writer Betty Adams in the Augusta headquarters of the nonprofit organization. When and why was the organization founded? This is our 11th year, and we're up to over 5,500-dues paying members. Charley LaFlamme, the founding president of the Bicycle Coalition of Maine, was talking with folks and realized there really needed to be a statewide voice for bicyclists. He and others were involved in their communities with bike clubs and doing a lot of fun rides. They recognized the need to educate public officials and motorists about sharing the road with bicyclists.
JEFF MILLER I think one issue that really pushed them over the edge was when the ferries started charging bicycles as much as they were charging cars, which is clearly discriminatory since a bicycle takes up a 10th of the space that a car does, not to mention probably a 50th of the weight. The organization was formed in 1992 and one of the first successes within the year was getting those rates reversed back to where they had been. Lance Armstrong just won his fifth consecutive Tour de France. Do you see that as spurring more interest in bicycling and in buying bikes? Obviously the market of bicycling has been increasing. There was the big bicycle boom of the '70s with the energy crisis and the popularity of 10-speeds. There was the mountain bike explosion of the '80s. They were much easier to use. It was a much more upright and comfortable position. People could be sized a little more easily, so road bikes shrank to about 5 percent of the market. In the past five years, there's no doubt that Lance Armstrong has inspired thousands if not millions of people. He's a very big hero to cancer survivors and families who have been tragically touched by cancer. I have heard from bike shops that road bikes are going like crazy. Some shops have told me that half their bikes are now road bikes. I talked just last week to bike shop owners in Auburn and Searsport and Augusta. What about the new free-bike program, Bike Town, offered in Portland by Bicycling Magazine and Trek bicycles? The goal was to give 50 bikes to people who don't currently have them, and get the story of how bikes change peoples' lives, find out what inspires them and what obstacles get in their way. There's a woman who just had a kidney transplant, and a man whose wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and he wants to raise money for cancer research. They also got helmets and locks and they got a bunch of safety material from us. We're partnering with the project and offering a couple of bike safety courses, a list of all the bike rides happening in the state, and free membership for a year. We also have paired them with experienced riders in a Bike Buddy program. Do you see a resurgence of bike use in central Maine or on the Kennebec River Rail Trail, which goes by your office? The national statistics are showing that there's an increase in bicycling. In Maine actually about 7 percent of all trips are by foot or by bike. It's good that people are using their bikes not only for recreation but to get to work, to run errands or to go visit friends. Any time people can get some physical activity is a good thing, and clearly the trail has been a magnet for that. There's clearly tons of people who walk on it, families with their toddlers on training wheels just learning to ride. We just had a call last week from a family who said their 5-year-old son biked the whole two miles up and back. They were excited. It's a great facility and a wonderful transportation link for folks who want to get down to Hallowell. Having it connect all the way down to Gardiner is going to be phenomenal. Are there similar trails planned in the Waterville-Skowhegan area? Waterville has some projects in the works. The Kennebec-Messalonskee Trails just opened a trail on Mill Island and are working very hard to get a trail developed between Fairfield and Waterville. The eventual vision of a lot of these trails is to link up in the grand idea of the East Coast Greenway which currently exists with an on-road connection to bike paths from Calais, Maine, to Key West, Fla. Are these trails results of federal legislation? The federal transportation bill has congestion mitigation, air quality funding and enhancements funding. We feel fortunate that we have a state Department of Transportation that understands that transportation isn't just cars or just planes. They understand the importance of providing biking and walking, not only for transportation but for economic development and for health. We're working very hard right now on the transportation bond to try to make certain that that money exists. Of the $75 million transportation bond the governor proposed, $2 million is for trails, a few paved shoulders and some programs like Safe Routes to School. Over the past year we worked with five schools, organizing parents to walk with kids to school, Walking Schoolbuses, and bicycle trains so there's that social safety of a parent with the kids. How much money does bicycling generate? The DOT did an economic impact study on bicycle tourism specifically and showed that bicycling brings in $67 million annually to Maine's economy. It is people coming in from out of state and people in Maine going places with their bicycles and the money they spend at restaurants and hotels and campgrounds and gift shops. Clearly there's an economic benefit, it's ecotourism. The impact of a bicyclist driving down the road is negligible. There is no pollution. When you're bicycle touring you eat like crazy. When I bicyclecross-country and around the world, I'd eat like five meals a day. Is it possible for most people to bicycle to work in the winter? I think for many people winter is a barrier. The biggest thing is having appropriate clothing and dressing in layers. Obviously the longer the commute, the more difficult it becomes. For me going a mile and a half, I can just put on my regular coat and have a special headband to go under my helmet and some good gloves and I'm fine. If you're biking 11 miles, you have to dress up a bit more. The public works crew do such an amazing job keeping the roads plowed and cleared that it's just not a problem. How many bikes do you have? Well, I've got more than the average person. I have 10 bikes. I need them all and I use them all. I've got my racing bike, a triathlon bike, a mountain bike, a bike I commute to work on and a couple others. I have a two-car garage which for me is a one car and 10-bike garage. Do you advocate bike helmets for everybody? Oh yes. It is the law for people 15 and under to wear a helmet. It's not just wearing a helmet, it's wearing it the right way. A helmet is a great benefit to be wearing one should you be in a crash, but you're better off preventing the crash from happening in the first place. It's mitigation versus prevention. We put most of our energy into teaching people how to be safe bicycle drivers. Follow the rules of the road. Your bicycle is a vehicle. You have all the same rights, but you also have all the same responsibilities as anyone else. What is the distinction between bike paths and bike lanes? A bike path is off the roadway. It's a rail trail or a shared pathway. A bike lane is alongside the road but it's got stencils and signage and there's no parking in it. Most of what we have in Maine are paved shoulders, which is nothing more than a breakdown lane that bicycles obviously can ride on. Then there are all our roads which are shared roadways, many of which don't have a paved shoulder. But again a bicyclist has all the same rights to be there. Even if there is a paved shoulder, bicyclists may need to be in the travel lane to make a left hand turn or if there's debris or broken glass.
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