Northeast - West Virginia Bicycle Symposium

Here are pictures. (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasonscottmeans/)

I will leave it to others to discuss the content.

I personally find nothing wrong with cycling in WV. I think you got a raw deal being ranked 50th. I did notice a familiar face in a couple of your pics. I often ride with the Country Roads Cyclists, so my friend was easy to spot. The symposium isn't a bad thing though, and I hope some good comes out of it.

Thanks for sharing the photos,

Denny

The northern part of the state is better than the southern. But with all our narrow, twisty mountain roads with coal trucks barrelling down them at 70 MPH, there are places that are quite scary. And some of our towns aren't very good; we have lots of motorists who don't think that bikes belong on the road. There is only one public school in the whole state where students are allowed to ride bikes to school. Hardly any shopping districts or employment centers have bike racks. There are a lot of neighborhoods where the houses cling to the sides of near-cliffs, and the streets are so steep that cars struggle up them which not conducive to beginners learning how to ride.

I'm advisor to a teen group, and I suggested a bike ride as an activity--and more than half the kids didn't know how to ride. I was shocked, but I am told that this is typical.

And then there are those who know how to RIDE a bike but who don't know how to DRIVE one; that is, people who ride against traffic, on the sidewalk (illegal in most towns), at night without lights, etc.

On the positive side, lots of our parks have good mountain bike trails, and people come from all over--but one loads one's bike onto one's car or truck, drives to the trailhead, goes for one's ride, and then drives home. Similarly with road cycling--one hauls one's bike by car to the starting point, rides, then drives home.