OHIO RIVER TRAIL COUNCIL

In down times I do things like go for a long bike ride or run. The other thing I'm doing in that quiet time is just observing.

—Robin Williams

Whenever I see an adult on a bicycle, I have hope for the human race. 

—H.G. Wells

Ever bike? Now that's something that makes life worth living!...Oh, to just grip your handlebars and lay down to it, and go ripping and tearing through streets and road, over railroad tracks and bridges, threading crowds, avoiding collisions, at twenty miles or more an hour, and wondering all the time when you're going to smash up. Well, now, that's something! And then go home again after three hours of it...and then to think that tomorrow I can do it all over again! 

—Jack London, Author

Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of riding a bike.  

—John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States

Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world. 

—Grant Petersen

People need immediate places to refresh, reinvent themselves. Our surroundings built and natural alike, have an immediate and a continuing effect on the way we feel and act, and on our health and intelligence. These places have an impact on our sense of self, our sense of safety, the kind of work we get done, the ways we interact with other people, even our ability to function as citizens in a democracy. In short, the places where we spend our time affect the people we are and can become. 

—Tony Hiss, The Experience of Place, 1990

Trails have multiple values and their benefits reach far beyond recreation. Trails can enrich the quality of life for individuals, make communities more livable, and protect, nurture, and showcase America’s grandeur by traversing areas of natural beauty, distinctive geography, historic significance, and ecological diversity. Trails are important for the nation’s health, economy, resource protection and education.  

—American Trails, Trails for All Americans report, 1990

Since the bicycle makes little demand on material or energy resources, contributes little to pollution, makes a positive contribution to health and causes little death or injury, it can be regarded as the most benevolent of machines. 

— S. S. Wilson, Bicycle Technology, Scientific American, March 1973

Imagine walking out your front door, getting on a bicycle, a horse or simply donning your backpack and within minutes of your home, setting off along a continuous network of recreation corridors that could lead across the country. 

—President Reagan’s Commission on American Outdoors, Americans and the Outdoors, 1987

The establishment of a nationwide system of trails will be an accomplishment worthy of a place beside other major conservation programs... The fundamental objective of a nationwide system of trails is to provide simple, inexpensive recreation opportunities for all people by having an abundance of trails for walking, cycling, and horseback riding near home, as well as providing some major historic and scenic interstate trails of national significance.    

—Stewart Lee Udall, Secretary of the Interior