AASHTO Approves New U.S. Bicycle Routes Across America

Reader Contribution by Winona Bateman

Adventure Cycling Association and the American Association of Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) today announced that AASHTO’s Special Committee on U.S. Route Numbering has approved six new U.S. Bicycle Routes (USBR): USBR 1 in Maine and New Hampshire, USBR 20 in Michigan, and USBR 8, 95, 97, and 87 in Alaska — the first official U.S. Bicycle Routes to be established since 1982.

AASHTO and Adventure Cycling welcomed approval of these new routes as a momentous step toward creating an official U.S. Bicycle Route System (USBRS), which will become the largest official national cycling network on the planet.

“We are pleased that the collaboration with Adventure Cycling has resulted in the approval of these new bicycle routes and we look forward to continuing the implementation of the national corridor plan that was endorsed by AASHTO’s membership in partnership with the bicycling community,” said John Horsley, AASHTO’s Executive Director.

The new routes have been under development since AASHTO’s Board of Directors approved the national corridor plan for the USBRS — a template for planning interstate bicycle routes across the country — in October 2008.

“The day after AASHTO approved the corridor plan, volunteers contacted our office and asked if they could start developing USBR 20 from Marine City to Ludington,” commented Josh DeBruyn, bicycle and pedestrian coordinator for the Michigan Department of Transportation (DOT). “Management supported the idea that this project would be a grassroots effort, and it’s worked out tremendously.”

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