Protect the Biking Experience on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Rachael was lucky enough to ride the Blue Ridge Parkway back in June with BikeLaw and a group of fellow bicycle advocates, but your voices are needed to ensure that future bicyclists get the same opportunity.

The parkway is attempting to gain National Historic Landmark status which would make it prohibitively difficult to make any changes to the road to better accommodate bicyclists, and the Draft Management Plan does not look any friendlier to two-wheeled transportation- part of which lists promoting the “driving experience” as a goal. The parkway is overwhelmed and underfunded, and is unfortunately taking a very short-sighted view of the problems they face.

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a beautiful piece of road that should certainly be preserved. However, we think this particular approach would be particularly harmful to both the riding experience and the economic benefits the area sees as a result of frequent bicycle tourism. If you agree, please take a moment to submit either written or online comments on the parkway’s draft management plan. Please hurry, the deadline for comments is on Dec. 16th.