This two-day conference in Oklahoma City in early November, coordinated by the Oklahoma Bike Coalition, will be geared toward engineers, city planners and cycling advocates.
“(Nov. 4) is primarily for engineers and city planners to create the system in their communities to make them more bike-friendly,” said Kevin Musset, summit chairman. John LaPlante, a chief transportation planning engineer for engineering firm T.Y. Lin, will host a bicycle facility design workshop that day, with a casual reception that evening.
The Nov. 4 conference costs $25 to $100, and all sessions on Nov. 5 are free.
Speakers on Nov. 5 will talk about bike safety and how bike tourism could benefit the state. Lon Haldeman, owner of PAC Tour, will talk about how Oklahoma areas of Route 66 could draw in more eco-tourists if the road was more bike-friendly. He said improving the signage along the historic route would make biking the thoroughfare easier.
“The economic impact is going to be if they’d have services along the way where people go to diners, get refreshments and even hotels and things at night,” Haldeman said.
Mussett estimated that a traveling bicyclist spends around $100 a day, and that money could be going into local coffers. Oklahoma could become a riding hotspot because the state has the most rideable miles of Route 66, he said.
LAYING DOWN THE LAW
In order to make Oklahoma a safer place for bicyclists, riders and drivers need to know the rules of the road. Mike Flenniken, Oklahoma Bike Coalition president, said many drivers don’t know the law. The point of the Oklahoma Bike Summit is to educate riders and drivers alike.
“The more bicycling-friendly a state is, the safer it is,” Flenniken said.
Other purposes of the summit are to make Oklahomans healthier and more environmentally friendly.
“More and more people are riding their bikes, (but) we are currently the sixth-most obese state in the country,” Musset said.
The summit will be held at the Chesapeake Boathouse. Professional attendees have the potential to earn eight certification maintenance credits from the American Institute of Certified Planners. To register, visit okbikesummit2011.eventbrite.com.
