US BR 23 ever closer

Ok, so I have not cleaned up the blog and probably won't.  But that does not mean nothing is happening.  Thanks mostly to David Shumaker we now have resolutions or letters of support from Robertson Co, the City of White House, Sumner County, Metro Nashville/Davidson county, Williamson County, Marshall County, The city of Lewisburg, and finally Lincoln County. The only jurisdiction lacking is the City of Franklin with whom we have had well received meetings and are confident of getting support after a presentation to the city officials on Aug 27.  We may make the 2013 Fall filing deadline of Sept 9.

We have yet to get a single negative comment once the concept is explained.  We have had a few "We wish you spent more time in our community." comments.  Jessica Wilson, TDOT Bike/Ped coordinator,  is preparing the formal submission and has requested the promised letter of support from Kentucky.  Alabike, Alabama's state wide advocacy group, recently sent delegates to an Alliance Effective Campaigns workshop and has chosen establishing a north/South USBR as its first campaign.  We only need one contiguous state to support us but having a connection through Alabama will make the route more useful. Not to mention, Alabama also has a lot of natural beauty. (Disclaimer, I was born and raised on Sand Mountain and still have Red Dirt between my toes.)

The recent letter of understanding between the National Park Service and Adventure cycling to make the national parks more bike friendly has given USBR 23 additional impetus.  The Natchez Trace Parkway is a national park and has been chosen as the first facility on which this new partnership will work. USBR 23 will require only a three mile spur over a reasonably bike friendly road to connect with the Northern Terminus of the Natchez Trace Parkway.