Bicycling in the Sierra
Safe Bicycling in the Sierra
The California Bicycle Coalition, will partner with several county to promote safe bicycling in our region. They will identify and analyze priority routes for enhancing bicycle tourism, with an eye to improving travel conditions for all modes, and for residents’ travel needs as well as those of visitors. They will make an annotated map and list of recommendations for priority improvements, basing these recommendations on expert analysis as well as on extensive community outreach to diverse area residents, including business and property owners, travel bureaus, local policy makers, bike shops and bicycle clubs, and other stakeholders. They will also identify strategies for promoting the region’s bicycle tourism opportunities and encouraging economic development around tourism.
This project will cover the counties of Tuolumne, Calaveras, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, and Alpine. The total combined population of these counties is 1,364,141. With the exception of parts of San Joaquin county, all these counties are rural.
These counties have active transportation plans, but these plans do not take full advantage of the opportunities for bicycle tourism to enhance the economies of these communities, nor of improved inter-city bicycle routes to improve the health of residents.
These counties cover a range of terrain ranging from the flatlands up into the Sierras, with a large cultural and economic range from farmlands and wine country to mountain towns that rely heavily upon tourism. All five counties, however, have great possibilities for improvement of existing bicycle tourism infrastructure, and an increased understanding of the opportunities for boosting local economies and health through more opportunities for people, whether locals or tourists, to ride bicycles.