Cycling and Conserving South Carolina's Upstate

Recently, Greenville's Upstate Winter Bike League went through the town of Ware Shoals, located in Laurens County. While the sight of large packs of road cyclists has started to become the norm around Greenville County, down in Ware Shoals this pack, led by George Hincapie, was (literally) front page news. Ware Shoals is a fairly quiet town so excitement over a group of 'racers' coming through is totally understandable. The reason I'm excited, however, has less to do with the fantastic sight of lots of people on bikes, and more to do with what the increased presence of cyclists in the southern part of the Upstate can do for rural areas and small towns like Ware Shoals. To begin to understand, you have to ask yourself what cycling represents. When I think of a community with a population who rides I see a community rich in physical and mental health, a community less reliant on motor vehicles, where kids ride their bikes to school instead of being driven, and downtowns thrive with the increase of people riding in to spend time at the coffeehouse, juice bar, local bike shop, etc.. All of these things are what you find in towns where the benefits of cycling has been discovered by the general population. There is one more positive aspect which absolutely can not be ignored that is especially applicable in the case of Ware Shoals and so many places similar. What I'm speaking of is that people who ride begin to really appreciate their beautiful country roads, roads where families can get out and enjoy a view of woods and fields instead of Burger Kings and banks. As anyone who has lived in the Upstate for more than ten years can tell you, this area is being built up at an alarming rate with a severe lack of long term vision, and the effects are not pretty (Simpsonville, anyone?). And anyone who rides a bike on these roads can tell you about the trash, dead animals, and uncomfortable amount of traffic that can now be found on the vast majority of the Upstate's more traveled roadways. So basically the equation works out like this: more riders in the Upstate's countryside means local people getting to know their area more intimately which will hopefully make for greater resistance as suburban sprawl continues to rob the people residing in the remaining rural areas of their safe roads and calming views. Cycling goes hand in hand with conservation and this is why cycling has a huge potential to be used as a tool to get people thinking of in which direction they would like the Upstate to go.