Oregon beefing up bike tourism

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The Covered Bridges Scenic Bikeway will entice tourists out of their cars. Photo courtesy of EugeneCascadesCoast.org.

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The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department and the Oregon Tourism Commission's Travel Oregon announced last week two new designated scenic bikeways, part of a push to fuse Oregon's biking culture with a green approach to tourism.

The two new trails bring Oregon's total designed scenic bikeways to eight. They are:

• The Covered Bridges Scenic Bikeway in Cottage Grove, a 36-mile route taking in six covered bridges.
• The Twin Bridges Loop Scenic Bikeway in Bend's Drake Park, 36 miles of high-desert scenery.

"We have really started to push bicycling more, even though it's always been possible," said Linea Gagliano, spokeswoman for Travel Oregon. "For us it's about being a good steward of the land which is one of our pillars."

Travel Oregon commissioned a study in 2009 that showed the size of Oregon's cycling travel market — that is, trips that include cycling — is 1.3 million travelers.

Gagliano said the agency recently commissioned Dean Runyan to research and report on the statewide economic impact of cycling tourism.

"This is an important market to us," she said.

Travel Oregon features car-free itineraries for visiting Oregon, featuring the use of bikes, trains and public transportation.

Oregon became the first in the nation to develop a scenic bikeway program with its launch in 2010.

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