It's too good to be true, folks. Wyoming isn't going car free for a week this summer (July 16-22, 2007). It's a bummer, but the article in the April 2007 issue of Adventure Cyclist, referring to Wyoming's week-long car ban, was a nicely done April fools joke.
In an extraordinary and unexpected move, motor vehicles will be banned from all streets and roads in Wyoming this summer for the entire week of July 16-22 -- with the exception of Interstates 80, 25, and 90. Residents and visitors alike will be compelled to get around by alternative means like walking, bicycling, and in-line skating.
The part of the article that hooked me, had to be the following:
We like to brag about how we're the last of the Wild West -- well, we're gonna let people live the dream. It'll be good for 'em.
Perhaps you too fell for the story and went online to check out how something so cool could have happened (and to see about planning a vacation). In any case, since the URL was available, I took the opportunity to put up a quick site and figure out if I was either the only gullible reader or among good company. (I can't be the only one...right!?)
If you're from Adventure Cycling and would like to have the URL to CarFreeWyoming.com, let me know (I'm a member - so you already have my info), and I'll gladly transfer it over to you.
42 comments:
Hi,
Yes I fell for it and, yes, I was planning on how to fit that week into my summer schedule. I have written books on my bicycling travels and one, currently out of print, describes my first trip on the TransAm Trail in 1999. Here's an excerpt:
NORTHERN COLORADO on the AC TransAm: The euphoria didn’t last. I was rudely startled by a blast from behind. A van driver who had 32 feet of roadway and no other traffic decided I was in his way. The blast was followed by a finger. I was on the traveled pavement and, as usual, hugging the road edge. Apparently, this driver thought I should be on the gravel. Five minutes later, a camper truck nearly ran me down with a similar attitude. Combined with two truck and camper interactions earlier on Hwy 9 and one more to come, the five road rage incidents this day was the equal to the total of the previous four weeks. I was hoping the van was heading for the campground ahead so I could catch and confront him.
I started watching my rear and keeping a constant watch on approaching vehicles until they passed. Then I had another scare, although, I didn’t see it until it was too late for an adrenaline rush. This was a car full of youths coming towards me on my side of the road, to “scare” me I imagine. I had my head down for most of his approach and when I looked up into the young male driver’s eyes, he was already starting back to his side of the road. People in northern Colorado have strange ways of amusing themselves. I wanted out of this State ASAP.
The road went on and on, but there was no KOA or much of anything out there. Finally, I realized I would have to continue on to the next town, Walden. Almost dark, I pulled into town with much the same euphoric feeling I had had three days earlier when I rode 110 miles from Pueblo, missed the “hostel,” and continued onto Hartsel. This time, I had 126 miles, rather much with a full load, a mountain pass, and scary traffic nearly all day, but fortunately, with tail winds. Coming into town, I saw a sign for the KOA which was apparently the correctly listed 14 miles from Walden, but, the other way on Hwy 14. For me that would be past Walden and also not on the A.C. route. Now I understood the confusion on the phone. Sorry lady, I was going to be a no-show. The error, unless I just read it wrong, was Adventure Cycling’s.
Walden had good choices for restaurants and a nice city park complete with sprinklers. Fortunately, the sprinklers were connected to hoses and not permanent installations. I picked a spot far from the spray and hoped nobody would come to move them or to chase me out. I was thinking of Wyoming as I drifted off to the gentle sound of water. The State border was only 22 miles away.
RED ROCK COUNTRY OF WYOMING
I'll summarize Wyoming as a state where I had no threats from drivers.
Nice joke but I did suspect it. Even emailed a friend and mentioned that it might be an April 1 joke. Sorry I was right.
Well, I cann't say I was fooled, but was certainly intrigued to see my home state referenced in the mag.. If the fact that I hadn't heard about it during the legislative session hadn't been enough, Gov Dave Freudenthal's name was a good clue they were pulling our leg.
Maybe I'll give up driving that week anyhow. As if I need an excuse to buy a B.O.B. trailer.
Rock On,
Matt in Cody, WY
Nope I didn't fall for the April Fools joke but hoped there might be a pot of gold at the, err.. website. Rode west on N. Tier July-Sept Belfast ME to Bellingham, WA and only had one trucker horn job (after all is was his road, he had more wheels) on Rt 2 west of Essex. 99.95% of vehicle drivers are great. I kept the rouges in my rear view mirror until they passed.
Rubber down/helmet to the clouds!
Maybe bicyclists should just pretend that it is true and take the legislature for a ride :-)
Okay, just a little part of me thought it was an April Fool's joke, but I ran in from the backyard to tell my husband about it, that we needed to contact our friends in Lander and ask where they most wanted to ride without cars during that week. Darn!! I was wondering why we hadn't heard about it yet! It's true I'm originally from ND, although I've been in CO for 35 years, so my "Oh, really?" response was par for the course. Oh, if only it were true!!
Yep, bamboozled.
I even took out the maps and charted a course for Wyoming. Oh well, at least it got me thinking of a summer-time tour. It happens to be the week before Iowa's Ragbrai, so if those are looking for a bicycle friendly carnival that overtakes a state, I urge you to join me in Iowa.
The dialogue with the governor was the signal that it was a hoax. On the other hand since Wyoming is losing population I thought that there might be something to the idea. What is not a hoax is the recommendation to bike the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Skyline Drive from Cherokee, NC to Front Royal, VA. 570 miles of light traffic and many pluses. JRG
I'm busy the week of July 16-22 anyhow. How about somebody in the Wyoming legislature set this deal up for August 16 - 22. That would be good. It could be an annual Wyoming party - maybe the state could charge everyone entering Wyoming that week $10 to go for new bike trails. Come on! You can do this!
We were transfixed with the idea of a "car-free" state, we momentarily were tossing around a cycling vacation to the beautiful state of Wyoming in our minds when the word "Bull Honky" entered our vision and popped our super duper cycling vacation idea like a balloon.
It may be a hoax now, but one can only hope it WILL be reality one day. Keep the dream alive, fellow cyclists!!
Yes, I too fell for it and was thinking about how I could arrange my summer teaching schedule. Rats!
Kathy Lay
Seeing as how my issue of "Adventure Cyclist" just arrived yesterday, an April fools joke was the furthest thing from my mind.
I thought, "There has to be something wrong with this scene". I was right.
In the past I have bicycled across Montana, through the Rockies, Idaho from north to south, and through Washington. Montana had no traffic and Wyoming might be much the same...so how would they know if there were vehicles banned for a day or a week anyway?
Al Knopik
Okay, okay, I fell for it. Just got the magazine today. Quickly told my wife. Wow! What a great vacation... Even got a map out to see how long we'd need to get there from Anacortes, Wash.
A nice consolation prize to not having the entire state go car free, would be having a couple days of car freedom in Yellowstone.
Perhaps the National Park Service could go car free for a Monday-Friday. Only non-motorized traffic would be allowed in parks, with the exception of buses.
I suppose a 4-person, minimum vehicle occupancy could be established during that week to greatly reduce the number of vehicles on the road and still allow entrance into the park for those that didn't plan ahead. In Yellowstone, 97%+ of all vehicles have 1-3 occupants (25% 1-occupant, 50% 2-occupants, 22% 3-occupants - data source below).
National Park Service 2004 Traffic Data Report
I couldn't find any specific data related to non-motorized vehicle traffic (i.e. cyclists, hikers) in the national parks.
I guess Yellowstone does have a car free period for a portion of the park in the early spring.
The road connecting the West Entrance and Mammoth Hot Springs is open only to non-motorized traffic from about mid-March through the third Thursday in April. (northern road is open to all all traffic, all other roads are completely closed).
Yellowstone Spring Cycling
Yellowstone Operating Hours & Seasons
Hello fellow suckers. I say to hell with 'em. Let's go ride Wyoming anyway that week. Maybe if cyclist converge on the state we can drive home the message that bikes rule. We could start a movement, the Adventure Cycling car free state movement! And while we were at it we could all sing a chorus of Alice's Restaraunt.
I think we should all write to the Wyoming state legislature and Governor's office and compliment them on a fantastic hoax, and then explain how we all almost had the car packed, trip planned, how much out-of-state tourist revenue was going to come pedaling in to their state and into their small towns for that week, but now, it will just be another warm summer week...
I just wrote the governor a nice email explaining the joke and how we were all packed and ready to go. Hopefully that might put a bug in his ear!
Sigh. I hate April Fool's jokes. This is the second cycling related one that got me.
I can't believe I fell for this. I grew up in Casper and seldom go back to Wyo, but I was ready to go. I have ridden the Ride Around Wyoming a couple times, even though it was known as the Ride Against the Wind.
One more gullible cyclist....this time from Iowa.....went to the link to get more information in preparation for a journey West this summer. There is some solace, however, in knowing that the only trait worse than being gullible is being cynical. So, i'll look forward to being duped again next year.
Wow,
I fell hook, line & sinker. Just rc'd the mag today so an April Fool's joke was not even a consideration. Even quickly got my calendar out trying to figure out how to change my work schedule! A bike route was already in my mind as I have ridden RAW many times. Well, it was fun thinking about it for about a hour; would be great if the NPS had carfree days though. Maybe when gas is $5.00/gal.??
Carol
Gardnerville, NV
Got our Adventure Cycling magazine earlier this week and just had time to thumb through it last night and this article caught my eye. Throw around some key names (Lance) and we are now 18 days past April Fools, who would have thought. So, okay, here are a couple more that took the bait, hoping it was too good to be true. We did not consider a trip, just enjoyed the idea, and had to check out the web-link. It does bother me that there was not a small font APRIL FOOLS at the end of the article - that the web-link was bogus, how can I trust what I read now in what is toted to be a reputable magazine. Well good comes out of everything, thank you Mike for setting up this web page - it has made it fun to read all the comments.
Happy Trails
Janice
Can't say I fell for it hook, line and sinker but I was intrigued. Usually when I see an URL that interests me I'll try to remember it for later but, with this one, I jumped up from the breakfast table and powered up the computer. The fact that, had it been true, it would have made national news (that's a sad commentary, isn't it?) led me to believe we weren't being told the whole story. Had it been true, I would have visited Wyoming that week for sure.
Ron Ponder
Well, I fell for it all the way! I was truly excited to think that an entire STATE would do such a thing. I was even going to plan my trip. Wyoming is such a beautiful state I really thought it could be real. Oh well...good joke.
Fell for it! Wish it was true! Would have flown in with my Bike Friday and ridden for a few days directly from the airport.
I pegged the tent throwing article as a fake right away, so was dubious about this one -- but didn't think there'd be two ruses! Good one... I even told a friend about it, who probably thinks I'm a nutjob now.
Is it a coincindence that the "Tour de Wyoming", this year's 417 mile supported bike tour in the northeast part of the state occurs July 15-21, nearly the same time as the car-free week? Too late to sign up for this year... registration closed 20 minutes after it opened.
I admit that I was intrigued but somewhat skeptical. Wyoming is largely rural and I had trouble picturing folks walking or in-line skating, as the article mentioned. Still, while the possibility of riding a bike in such wide open spaces without interference from cars seemed too good to be true, it also seemed worth checking out. 'Cause what if it WAS true and I hadn't looked into it? When I saw the headline, I smiled and nodded my head, thinking "But of course." After all, isn't our oil-consumption-loving VP from Wyoming? He'd have a coronary before allowing such an event take place in his home state!
The "Bike Biz Babe" has some nice commentary on her reaction to whole car free Wyoming article/situation.
Yep, we bought it...even announced it at dinner. I, too, was not expecting anything as I only received my mag yesterday, the 24th, and that's in Southern California. Maybe in general Adventure Cycling should try to get their mag out a bit closer to the beginning of the Month. Jokes aren't as funny when they need explaining. But a nice idea, and I think converging on the state or at least writing to the governor is great. Better still if it were the governor of a state that has such a leaning...
Tis a shame it is make believe. We were intending to enjoy the whole week riding.
Yes, I was fooled too. This information should be forwarded to legislative types to show just how much interest there is in such an idea. Tourism gold mine or economic mistake? No one will know until someone gives it a try.
Chris D - Ithaca, NY
OK, it got me too! I read the article today and thought it sounded pretty odd. It was only when I tried to explain this to my wife that the absurdity set it and I made the connection to it being the April issue. I've also ridded Ride Around Wyoming (RAW) - only we called it Ride Around Wet as we had only one dry day in the week. Last summer I crossed Wyoming (the wrong way!) on the TransAm enroute to Oregon. I support the other comments about "let's just do it anyway!" Maybe we can start something!
I live in England, but am originally from Idaho, so I immediately spotted the article about Milo C. Barnsworth packing a television and satellite dish on his bike. I've met plenty of eccentric Idahoans in my time, so could well believe this guy was out there somewhere.
Wasn't quite so convinced about Mr. L.O. Teck using an abacus to calculate his mileage. Surely counting repeatedly to seventy-five would take away the pleasure of the open road.
But the Wyoming story hooked me completely! I even phoned my mom, back in Idaho last night, to tell her about it. It wasn't until my husband rolled his eyes in disbelief that I started having doubts. Blast! What a brilliant idea. Wyoming is an incredible state--second only to Idaho on the TA route--so I reckon we should all show up there on the morning of July 16th, anyway, and sieze control of its roads for a week.
I just received my first Adv Cyclist mag. Satellite TV on a bike - sure, i know there are lots of eccentric cyclists. All I could figure was Adv Cyclist mag focused on these unique people. I wasn't sure how exactly carfree Wyoming would work, but it sounded awesome. Tried to figure out how to change my summer vacation around while I finished my lunch and pulled up the website. Now if only we could really find a traveling cycling dentist....
I didn't fall for it, but actually thought gee, why not see if we could have it here. "Here" being New York City. I'd mention the 5-Boro bike tour, but it's a 1-day event and you pay through the nose for it, but you do get to ride on the streets and highways with cars blocked off. Of course, with the "congestion pricing" plan being touted, things might get to the point where Manhattan, at least, gets a little easier to bike in. Anyway, for those who have never been to Wyoming, get there and ride through the Tetons. I still remember my 22nd birthday in 1980 when I did the TransAM ride and spent the day in Tetons.
..Stephen - New York City
All hope is not lost. Have you seen how many cities are declaring car-free days and car-free districts? ( list of car-free places)
Anyone up for a week-long "critical mass" ride across Wyoming? :-) (www.critical-mass.org)
Good one! We thought it was a joke but hoped it to be true. Just imagine the ripple effect across the U.S. if everything worked for Wyoming.
This is the third year in a row Adventure Cycling has had a group of April fools joke stories in the Waypoints section of the magazine.
When I saw the guy with the satalite dish I knew. Always good for a few laughs.
Yeap I fell for it. I was going to copy the article and email it to our local news so they could find out more about it. Luckily I checked into it first. Would have been cool if it where true.
That is too cruel to be funny! I have been telling everybody! I just now found out it was not true. I live in Montana, grew up in Wyoming. Had the trip planned
Ok, the USA does not have a mortgage on gullible people. I am an Australian, living in Phoenix and took the bait. Hook, Line and Sinker. And I don't fish. Ah well, dreams are made of this. It won't stop the daily commute to work and the weekend rides.
Regards
Denis
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