INDUSTRY: They Like Bikes

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No Pollution. Despite such short-term obstacles, however, the future looks bright for the bike. Just as highway building spurred the auto industry, construction of bikeways is expected to boost cycling. Already some 15,000 miles of bike paths are in use, including the 332-mile Wisconsin bikeway that stretches from the state's eastern edge at Lake Michigan across to the Mississippi River. San Francisco has opened the Golden Gate Bridge to cyclists. In campus towns like Champaign and Urbana, Ill., and Davis, Calif., where there are nearly as many bikes as people, there are separate bicycle lanes on city streets. City officials in Washington, D.C., are considering a proposal for a commuter system of bicycle routes radiating like spokes from the Mall to the suburbs. As concern over the environment rises, more Americans are expected to join the mobile chain gang. Says Norman A. Clarke, chairman of the 95-year-old Columbia Manufacturing Co.: "The bike is the only known form of transportation that doesn't pollute—including the horse."