fully needed—Sule mentions that the nearby town of Erwin, Tennessee, population roughly 6,000, has more greenway than Asheville. Discouraging as it may seem, solidifying Asheville’s urban biking culture isn’t just applying more white paint and asphalt—progress here depends on putting more people in the saddle.

Sule came to Asheville in 2003 and sold his car soon after. While on a bike tour in Oregon in 2006 he was so impressed by what he saw in Portland that on his return he challenged himself to cultivate a similar cycling way-of-life at home. “I really wanted to establish that culture; cultivate it; and highlight it. That was my initial goal,” says Sule who founded AoB on the logic that urban cyclists should focus their energy at the grassroots level.

One strategy was to promote events and community rides—which are sometimes flamboyant, spirited, and eclectic. The events may draw attention to cyclists that could come across as counterproductive, reinforcing a perceived lack of seriousness and the notion that urban bicycling is a fringe culture and stuck in the same place that organic food was a decade or two ago: the domain of a sub-culture. But Sule wants urban cycling here to reach the mainstream, which is why putting more people—all sorts of people—on two wheels is a key variable to make this town a seriously biker friendly city. “I think our urban biking culture is as passionate as Portland’s; it’s just younger. We want to reign it in and develop it,” says Sule who has faith that the universal connection to bicycles will inspire more people to opt for two wheels as a primary mode of transportation in the future.

Many point to Charlotte, North Carolina as a model. Less than three hours from Asheville and with a metro population of two million, the city has made, perhaps, more progress than any in the south. “There are bike lanes in places I would have bet my last penny that there never would be,” says state appointed North Carolina Bicycle Committee member Dennis Rash. “Some of that has to do with the extent to which the city commits to planning.”

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