Originally Posted by
rodar y rodar
Please pardon me for laughing- hopefully you can`t hear me! It really is funny, though. Well, it`s funny for somebody who doesn`t ride on those roads
I really have to hand it to the highway dept in my state for an amazing nicety that they pulled off for cyclists. There`s an anual HPV (pedal powered streamliner shells) speed trial series that`s landed several world records on a short section of state highway. About four years back, I read that the state had repaved that section of roadway for the racers. This year, I went to watch and volunteer at that event for a few days and was surprised to see just how nice they had made it up- for about 6 miles they skipped the chipseal and the rumble strips that line both shoulders on the rest of that particular highway. Can ya believe it !?!
Yeah, I can, because someone organising the event was a great marketer who was able to demonstrate that for the cost of doing the paving work, the return on investment by the relevant authority was going to be much greater.
That return is exposure for the town and area. The event brings in people annually, and will likely continue to do so for years to come.
That puts money into the local economy. And the exposure, because of said records, is considerable in national and international media. Even you've participated in that with your post.
Because we are talking about tourism, one of the carrots that DOTs and the like will listen to is the increased revenue that will come to an area with additional tourist trade.
But if the department does take on board the marketing approach and changes its policy, the evidence will be gradual as roads that recently were repaved won't be for another five to seven years. Picking heavily used cycle-touring routes can be helpful in their decision-making, as can be maintaining contact with relevant managers -- building relationships with them can be very beneficial.