User:Harvey Botzman

Harvey Botzman has been a leader in promoting bicycle and other forms of tourism in & to New York State since at least 1993. In that year he published his first book, Long Distance Bicycle Touring Primer containing pictures from New York State to illustrate camping and boxing a bicycle for transport on trains and intercity buses.

In addition to the Long Distance Bicycle Touring Manual, Harvey researched, wrote, revised, and published ‘Round Lake Ontario: A Bicyclist’s Tour Guide (1993), Erie Canal Bicyclist & Hiker Tour Guide (1993), Finger Lakes Bicyclist’s Tour Guide (1994), ‘Round Lake Erie: A Bicyclist’s Tour Guide (1995) to stimulate bicycle tourism and travel to and in New York State.

In 1993, and in succeeding years, he published several articles on bicycle touring in New York State and the Great Lakes. These included ‘Doin’ the Erie Canal’ part of which was published in Bicycling Magazine. Lake Ontario: A Cyclist’s Delight was published in many bicycling club newsletters throughout the United States in an effort but to stimulate bicyclists to stimulate bicyclists to think of bicycling along the north coast as well as to sell more bicycle tour guide books.

Bike Day a workshop piece to encourage bicycle clubs, shops, and advocacy organizations to conduct bicycle events at least one day a year.

His very first article on bicycling in New York State is a short vignette detailing a bicycle ride he and four friends at 11 years old took from Parkchester, The Bronx to Kensico Reservoir, Westchester County. This nostalgic piece was published in “Back in the Bronx” magazine.

Harvey was a regular contributor to the “New York Canal Times” detailing communities he visited while bicycle touring along all four New York State Canals. In October 2016, at the Bike Walk New York Conference Harvey’s presentation was entitled, It’s a Connector Greater than Syracuse. This detailed, for trail, road, and traffic engineers problems and solutions in rural areas with the discontinuous off road Erie Canalway Trail (now part of the Empire State Trail) as it crossed NY Route 31.

In 2014, the New York Bicycling Coalition received a small but significant grant from the Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor Fund to develop a bicycle tourism product in four rural counties, Orleans, Ontario, Wayne, and Madison. The bicycle loop maps subsequently developed aimed to have bicycle tourists traveling along the Erie Canalway Trail stay and bicycle in those Counties a day or two more rather than be simply a bicyclist passing through the County.