Newswire: Oregon Scenic Bikeways program now on the road

Oregon Parks and Recreation Department

Nov. 3, 2009

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Alexandra Phillips
OPRD Bicycle Recreation Coordinator
503-986-0631

Oregon Scenic Bikeways program now on the road
Online handbook tells how to nominate routes for designation

Oregon bicycle riders can now nominate their favorite routes for consideration as State Scenic Bikeways.

Such designated bikeways would follow roads and bicycle paths that connect riders with outstanding scenic, historic and natural settings. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) will accept nominations through Jan. 31, 2010, and annually from Nov. 1-Jan. 31 thereafter.

OPRD’s state bicycle coordinator, Alexandra Phillips, says anyone can propose a route for designation according to Oregon Administrative Rule guidelines. “The program is designed as a grassroots effort,” she said. “Nominations will need to come from local proponents.”

An Oregon Scenic Bikeways handbook now online at www.oregonscenicbikeways.org gives a step-by-step designation process and provides instructions and forms for nominators. The nominations will be considered by the Oregon Scenic Bikeway Committee, an advisory group that will recommend scenic bikeway designations to the OPRD director. The Oregon Parks and Recreation Commission must give final approvals.

“The committee will be looking for proposed routes that offer thetotal experience of sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feelings of landscapes that you can have traveling at the pace of a bicycle,” said
Phillips. “We hope to find the bikeways that offer the best rides in the state.”

According to Phillips, the Oregon program is the first state government-sanctioned scenic bikeway designation process in the nation. The program is a partnership between Cycle Oregon, Travel Oregon, the Oregon Department of Transportation and OPRD.

The Willamette Valley Scenic Bikeway, which was developed as a 2005 pilot project by the partnership, serves as a prototype for the program. The Willamette Valley route has been officially recognized as Oregon’s first state scenic bikeway.

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Alexandra Phillips
Bicycle Recreation Coordinator
Oregon Parks & Recreation Department
www.oregonscenicbikeways.org
725 Summer Street NE, Ste. C
Salem, OR 97301-0792
phone: (503)986-0631
cell phone: (503) 480-9092
fax: (503) 986-0792