July 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 39

By Melanie Chansky

Publi c hea lth

Cycle of Life
Parks and Bike-Friendly Communities

icycling is one of the most popular outdoor activities in the United

States, with millions of people using bikes for both recreation and transportation. According to the National Sporting Goods Association 2009 participation report, bicycling is one of the top ten sports in which Americans participate, with
over 38 million participants. Parks can benefit from helping to make bicycling an easy,
safe, and convenient choice for park users by making infrastructural improvements
that will draw more of these millions of bicyclists to parks. And in making themselves
more bike-friendly, parks can further contribute to supporting healthy communities
and making physical activity opportunities available to all Americans.

Encouraging more people to ride bikes is linked
to numerous benefits, including the following:
■■ People who ride bikes regularly are healthier.
Numerous studies have shown the link between bicycling and better health. (For a listing of studies that
link physical activity such as biking with better health,
see www.bikesbelong.org.) People who bike regularly
gain the benefits that come with regular exercise, such
as lower rates of obesity, lower risk for cardiovascular
disease, lower stress levels, etc.
■■ Bicycling helps reduce the pollution and traffic congestion that come with automobile use.
The U.S. transportation sector alone produces more
CO2 emissions than most other countries (www.safe
routespartnership.org). Bicycles do not produce any
emissions, and every bicycle trip that replaces a car
trip helps to reduce pollution. Encouraging the use of
bicycles to reduce car trips has the added benefit of
making the roads less congested.
■■ Bicycling saves money on both transportation
and healthcare costs. Riding a bicycle, instead of using a car or public transportation, reduces the amount
of money spent on gas, vehicle maintenance, and transportation infrastructure. In addition, several U.S. and
international studies have shown that greater rates of
bicycle use can also lead to reductions in healthcare
costs due to the populace being more physically active
and therefore healthier.

Parks can be natural partners with the bicycling
community (including regular and casual bicyclists)
in several ways. Parks can be venues for bicycling
by providing bike lanes or mixed-use trails that can
become recreation destinations for bicyclists. In addition, because many Americans live relatively close
to a local park, parks can position themselves as a
nearby recreation choice for those who use bikes
(rather than cars) for transportation. Attracting bicyclists to parks can be further supported by adding
bike-friendly improvements such as bike lanes and
bike racks.
As bicycling becomes more popular, communities and parks across the country are working
to make themselves more bike-friendly. In Pierre,
South Dakota, the parks and recreation department
has leveraged funding from the South Dakota Department of Transportation, South Dakota Game,
Fish, and Parks, and local government to improve local biking and hiking trails. The City of Pierre Parks
and Recreation Department sees itself as a key player in making Pierre more bike-friendly by providing
a supportive environment and infrastructure for bicycling, as well as educating the public on the existence of and benefits of using the biking/hiking trails.
Their goals are to make their existing trails more attractive, easier to navigate, and more accessible to
all residents of Pierre. To do this, they added trail

www.NRPA .ORG

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July 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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