INDIANA - Sitting outside a century-old confectionery in southern Indiana, Jim Schroeder popped a piece of candy into his mouth and laid out my future. After cycling along country roads that could moonlight as an airport runway, we would climb a succession of hills before coasting into Bloomington, the halfway point of our 122.5-mile bike ride.

FRANKFORT, Ky. - Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Secretary (KYTC) Jim Gray and local officials gathered in Berea to celebrate the completion of a four-month roadside signage project identifying Kentucky’s new U.S. Bicycle Route 21 (USBR).

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Imagine starting a bike ride on the Towpath Trail and pedaling all the way to Pittsburgh, Washington, D.C. or even Atlanta.

A new frontier is opening for bike travel. A growing network of designated routes is being pieced together across the nation along low-traffic roads, trails and bike lanes by the same association that designates Interstate highway numbers. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) established the U.S. Bicycle Route System in 1978. However, it’s only recently begun to take shape.

Eighteen new bike routes in five states have recently been designated, adding nearly 3,000 miles to the U.S. Bicycle Route System, a developing complex of officially recognized, publicly-accessible travel paths across the country. The latest routes — in California, Indiana, Ohio, Utah, and Washington State — represent the largest addition to the bike network to date, both in number and total mileage. 

Just as Northwest Arkansas capitalized on built-in advantages to become a mecca for mountain biking, officials both public and private think Central Arkansas and the Delta could benefit from road cycling’s rising popularity. And in the case of USBR 80, the allure of cycle touring.

OHIO - Did you know that Ohio has a strategic statewide bicycling network?
It’s called the State and US Bike Route System (S/USBR), and it’s made up of more than 3,000 miles of on- and off-road bike facilities that connect over 400 communities across the state.

WASHINGTON – The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and the Adventure Cycling Association signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) formalizing their longtime partnership to expand the U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS) for a seamless travel experience across the United States.

Carlsbad, CA is the latest city to approve designation for the 1,000-mile USBR 95 along the Pacific Coast.