The Forgotten Outdoorsmen

As chief forester for the Grand Duke of Baden, Karl von Drais had miles of woodland paths to patrol. To ease his task, he put together a weird contraption with two wheels, a saddle and a steering tiller, propelled himself by pushing off with his legs and coasting. When he rode it into town, the citizens of Karlsruhe hooted and chased him off the streets. One hundred and fifty years later, the plight of the bicyclist is still dire. "People in pickup trucks throw beer cans at us," says Washington, D.C., Cyclist Ray Matthews Jr. "Motorists keep trying to push us off the road. We have to face continuous abuse and mistreatment."

Across the State. That abuse has not kept U.S. cyclists out of their saddles: there are some 60 million regular riders, and annual new-bike sales have doubled to 5,000,000 in the last twelve years. Now the cyclists are demanding rights of way of their own. Their proposal is for bikeways, usually secondary, lightly traveled roads which are marked with blue-and-white signs to guide bike riders along the route and warn motorists to be extra cautious.

Their cries are already being harkened to. There are at present about 700 miles of bikeways in the U.S. During the last year alone, new ones totaling more than 100 miles have been opened or approved in Pasadena, Denver, Coral Gables, Milwaukee; and others are proposed for Los Angeles, Cincinnati and Toledo.

Chicago, which already has 15 miles of paths along the lake front stretching from one end of the city to the other, is considering putting bikeways down the median strips of its entire boulevard system. States are finally taking action too. Last month, Wisconsin's Governor Warren P. Knowles opened a 297-mile-long bikeway that meanders across the entire state, from La Crosse in the west to Kenosha in the east, the first of its kind in the nation.

Cure for the Rat Race. Even Lyndon Johnson has now declared himself the bicyclist's friend. Calling bike riders "the forgotten outdoorsmen of today," he said last March, "I see an America where our air is sweet to breathe and our rivers clean to swim in. I see an America where bicycle paths running through the hearts of our great cities provide wholesome, healthy recreation for entire families." Picking up his cue, the Interior Department now plans to build 10,000 miles of bike paths in national parks in the next decade.

There is no doubt that they will be used. Thousands of middle-aged Americans have been converted to cycling by the example of Heart Specialist Paul Dudley White. In Boston, lawyers and businessmen have found that bicycles are the way to beat the traffic jams on their way to and from work. Radically new bike designs have also spurred the sport. Today's bike (which can cost up to $150 for a fancy French import) is lightweight, comes with ten or more gears, which take most of the effort out of climbing hills, and easily removable wheels that allow the bike to fit into the trunk of a car.

While most cyclists still settle for a modest weekend spin of ten or 15 miles, a growing number are discovering the pleasures of cross-country touring, stopping along the way at American Youth Hostels. The Los Angeles Wheelmen, for instance, with members ranging in age from 14 to 83, set out each year on a 200-mile tour. "It's the only way to travel," says Paul Schwemler, 44, an electronics engineer from Whittier, Calif. "You see so much more. After the rat race of your job, there's nothing like a long bike ride to unwind you."

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