Quote Originally Posted by squirrell View Post
Virginia is about the least bike-friendly state I know of. I'm a native and I'm ashamed of how little my state does to support/encourage cycling. There are few to no trails in the Hampton Roads area and the roads are horribly designed for cars much less bikes.

I'm on the Eastern Shore and rode up into the MD section of the Shore one day and was pleasantly surprised to find very wide shoulders marked "bike trail" on many of the roads or at least nice wide shoulders making it easy to cycle. Cycling from the no shoulder VA section of Rt. 113 into the MD section of what they call Rt. 12 or maybe Rt. 112 (I believe) is like night and day.
I am not from here and I am not familiar with the Hampton Roads area. I reside in Alexandria (seven years). Alexandria is making a strong effort to be a certified "Bike Friendly" city by the League of American cyclists. There are lots of bike friendly routes and trails in Northern VA. Based on what I read, VA is really making an effort to create more trails, make their bike routes friendlier and create more routes. For example, there are plans to extend the W&OD trail to the Applachian Trail. In the book Road Biking Virginia, there are forty different rides.

Could some of the routes be safer? Sure. Especially, Route 1. But, I would not call VA unfriendly when it comes to cycling.