Can Adams County Roll With Biking?

By Christopher Trilleras

It is Fall season in Gettysburg. The leaves are turning new shades of yellow and red. The weather is a nice clash between warm and cold. What better way to enjoy the season than a nice bike ride through the borough of Adams county… or perhaps in the historic battlefields… maybe a trip around the college? 

The benefits of bike riding are as numerous as the roads you can find. In the midst of climate change, rural communities are looking for sustainable strategies like biking to strengthen their economies, provide better quality of life, and build on environmental goals. Biking has been a useful tactic in promoting sustainability in many towns. The incorporation of bicycle networks has allowed more locals to go outside and enjoy a nice trip to their destination. Gettysburg in Adams County, PA too can benefit from environmental plans such as integrating biking and bicycle networks to the community.

Jess Stith is a daily cyclist who travels approximately 11 miles everyday just to get to work. He has been cycling since his college days in Salisbury and doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. Passionate about the wonders of biking, he became the owner of Gettysburg Bicycle in 1991. 

 “The cycling community’s presence has increased through the pandemic because since gyms were closed, cycling became one of the major ways people exercised,” says Stith. The pandemic has actually contributed to the best two summer seasons in bike sales for the shop out of its 31 years. This stat shows that the presence of biking in the borough of Adams County has increased now more than ever. Stith voiced that biking to him, “ improves health and fitness, mood, reduces the spewing greenhouse that cars give out and contributes to less parking lots.” 

As kids most of us grew up learning how to bike because it helped develop our physical strength while also improving our moods. Biking was a great way to dispense our energy and get to places much faster. Not only were we traveling at a swift pace, but as kids we can distinctly remember the excitement of getting on our bikes and having the wind brush past our face while enjoying the changing scenery and witnessing different parts of the environment around us. 

As humans, we are natural voyagers and as kids we expressed this through our interest in cycling. So whatever happened to riding bikes as adults? Why don’t we share the same attitudes towards using bicycles to get to places? Well, one factor is that the United States is dominated by cars. 

Consequences of Automobiles and Benefits of Biking 

Between the ages 16 and 18, you can have access to driving depending on the state. In fact, for most American families, cars are a crucial element of daily life. There are approximately 276 million vehicles registered in America according to the US Department of Transportation. In fact, a car insurance statistic shows that  91% of households have access to a vehicle and the average person spends 101 minutes a day in the car (Borrelli 2021). 

In a report of the Environmental Protection Agency, a typical car can produce about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year(Environmental Protection Agency 2018). Carbon dioxide results from burning fossil fuels like gasoline and diesel. Since CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the buildup from this gas from the transportation sector creates changes to the climate we are already starting to witness today. In 2019, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation accounted for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. 

So what can be done to fight against these horrid statistics? You guessed it, we must return to our childhood roots and make bicycling a part of our lives again. 

For every person who switches from a polluting form of transport to a bike, a town experiences reduced carbon emissions with improved air quality in the area. This has been proven in a peer reviewed study in Stockholm which shows that the exposure of Carbon Dioxide that comes from cars is reduced by 7% percent if all drivers living within a 30 minute distance to their destination would change to commuting by bicycle (Johansson et al, 2017). 

Benefits from bicycles also extend to the lane construction. Bike lanes contain smaller amounts of space, less material requirements and are less maintenance. People who bike reduce noise pollution and carbon emissions that come from the generic car (Peach 2020).

Although bicycling has become increasingly popular in the USA with the rates of bike trips tripling since 1977, it is still relatively low when compared with many European cities according to a peer-reviewed study conducting national household travel surveys(Pucher et al., 2011).

Bicycling in Gettysburg Borough

Here in Adams County, the use of biking has increased due to tourism and as a means of exercise. But can people actually depend on biking for mobility and give up their car? 

When discussing biking in the borough of Adams County, Rutherford Platt, a Professor from the environmental studies department at Gettysburg College expresses, “If you are interested in exercise, there are several great bike loops and routes you can take…but having biking be a viable way to go to the store or work, those are the connections that quite aren’t there.” 

When speaking to Pieta Thomspon, a local commuter that relies on her bicycle to get to her destinations, she agrees. “Organizations such as HABPI do a great job in encouraging biking, but there aren’t many bike lanes, the roads are quite narrow and windy and drivers are not so friendly to drive along with bicycles.” These types of factors threaten the safety of Mrs.Thompson and other cyclists which can further disencourage the public from using bicycles.

Interestingly, the borough has been developing an interconnected bicycle loop around the town with the help of HABPI, an organization that focuses on developing bicycle trails or paths in Adams county for recreation and transposition. However, the development has been taking place over the past 5 years and is only partially done. With the pandemic, focus has shifted and since the construction will be costly, it seems that the development of the bicycle loop is an uphill battle. Although bike networks are present in the county, most of them are not going towards stores or areas of employment. 

Gettysburg can still be a great place to be a biker in many ways. There are an unbelievable amount of smooth country roads where you can create your personalized routes. The rural characteristics of the county provide scenic routes through battlefields and Michaux State Forest. Regular bikers such as Pieta Thomoson, Professor Platt, and Jess Stith all commemorate biking for improving their health and fitness, providing positive emotions, and helping them witness beautiful aspects of the rural characteris that the county has to offer.

Biking for the future

So what would it take to make the borough of Gettysburg a welcoming and friendly place for bikers? Focus on infrastructure and safety must be emphasized, says Professor Platt. If Adams County truly wishes to adopt biking as an alternative means of transportation, there must be a network that connects locals to public resources. 

Some of the main roads such as route 30 and route 116 remain heavily trafficked and dangerous for bikers. Hence, alternative bike lanes are needed to stress the bikers safety.  “A huge factor in what determines our routes is how much traffic there will be. We only travel when it is safe.” mentions Mrs.Thompson. 

A peer reviewed study on transit in rural areas throughout the USA found that bicycling is becoming an optimal environmentally friendly way to enhance transit choice as public transportation budgets are slashed and automobile infrastructures remain congested and pollutanting (Lubitow et al, 2016). 

Stith comments on the solution of vehicle congestion through bicycles, “Summertime in Gettysburg, you can get around in a bicycle so much easier than you can in a car. From the congestion in town due to tourism, you can zip around much faster through biking.” 

Discussion around bicycling infrastructure development in America often becomes a community-level choice regarding transit but has to include, through local governance, the placement and implementation of bike lanes for availability. 

Sustainable strategies like biking can help rural communities achieve their goals for development while maintaining their distinctive rural character and contributing to environmental benefits. Now it is more important than ever for communities to begin planning to incorporate plans that will be resilient and efficient. If Adams County continues to add to their environmental infrastructure through biking, it can become a model city for sustainability and mobility. 

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References:

Lubitow, A., Zinschlag, B., & Rochester, N. (2016). Plans for pavement or for people? The politics of bike lanes on the “Paseo Boricua” in Chicago, Illinois. Urban Studies, 53(12), 2637–2653. 

Borrelli, L. (2021, July 6). Car ownership statistics. Bankrate. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/car/car-ownership-statistics/#stats. 

Environmental Protection Agency. (2018, March 5). Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle. EPA. Retrieved November 1, 2021, from https://www.epa.gov/greenvehicles/greenhouse-gas-emissions-typical-passenger-vehicle. 

Johansson, C., Lövenheim, B., Schantz, P., Wahlgren, L., Almström, P., Markstedt, A., Strömgren, M., Forsberg, B., & Sommar, J. N. (2017). Impacts on air pollution and health by changing commuting from car to bicycle. Science of The Total Environment, 584-585, 55–63. 

Pucher, J., Buehler, R., Merom, D., & Bauman, A. (2011). Walking and cycling in the United States, 2001–2009: Evidence from the National Household Travel Surveys. American Journal of Public Health, 101(S1). 

Peach , J. 2020. Why cycling makes sense for environmentally sustainable cities. This Big City. https://thisbigcity.net/environmental-sustainability-and-bicycles-three-reasons-two-wheels-are-gr eat-for-cities/. Accessed October 13, 2021. 

Rutherford, P. November 3, 2021, in person interview

Stith, J. November 2, 2021, in person interview

Thompson, P. November 4, 2021, phone interview