BACK IN MARCH AND APRIL, the intrepid crew of Nancy Lund, Doug Snyder, Cande Medrano and myself took to our bicycles to do an infrastructure survey of nearly 10 routes that Nancy had mapped out for riding in Benicia.

If you are used to driving around Benicia, or if you’re new to town or you haven’t really done much bicycling here, the routes Nancy mapped are really wonderful because they allow for many different reasons for riding around town, and they factor in safety and being able to manage difficult transits — for instance, from South Benicia (along the Carquinez) to North Benicia, over the Big Hills.

We’re hoping that knowing about these routes, and getting them marked, mapped and “QR’d” (more about that in a minute) will help get more of us on bicycles enjoying Benicia, and hopefully finding bicycling as a great mode to work and school. If just 50 adults or children rode to work or school every day, the benefits would be huge!

I did a calculation earlier this year: If 50 cars were replaced by cyclists who bicycled 25 miles a week (that would be 2.5 miles one way to work or school, and 5 miles a day) over one year, we could reduce 23.1 metric tonnes of greenhouse gases (GHG) annually.

That would be really significant — actually more GHG reduction than many of the grant applications recently reviewed by the Community Sustainability Commission.

Nancy’s maps of the main routes around Benicia, including routes in the lower Arsenal and to the Benicia Historical Museum, will in time be available for viewing at BicycleBenicia.org, which will be activated this fall.

Here are the routes, designed for any bicycle:

1) Shopping: First Street to Solano Square.

2) Cross-town via Military. While this route has actual bicycle lane markings that I personally really like, both our “How Bikeable is Benicia” survey and my own experience indicate this a hazardous route, mainly because of the speed of the traffic on Military; and if you are going straight and cars are turning right, you must be extremely wary of what auto traffic is going to do.

3) Cross-town via H Street. This is a much safer, less-trafficked route across town.

4) The West Benicia, over Hastings route. If you know Hastings, it is one very steep and long hill. Nancy has riders getting on Hastings from Southhampton and then turning left of Capital, right on Cooper, right on Cambridge and left back onto Hastings.

5) Scenic Bay Trail: This follows the shoreline and is a great ride, but it is a route in need of some serious path improvements and marking.

6) Historic Route. This route takes in the Arsenal and the military cemetery.

7) “Sustainable Benicia.” This is a route not yet fully mapped but suggested by our Sustainability Commission’s high school representative, Anavi Subramanyam.

What a terrific idea!

We are hoping to start working with Diane Smikahl, Benicia’s head librarian, and a group she is leading on identifying historic points of interest around town and developing “QRs,” or Quick Response codes, for each. QRs are those pixelated splats we see in magazines and newspapers, which if scanned with a smart phone or iPad will take you to a website with more information.

Additionally, we’d like to get QRs for shopping, scenic points of interest, information about Benicia, sustainability, etc.

The other thing we’d like to post on the bicycle route maps (print copies and online) are the locations of bicycle racks so cyclists can find a safe place to secure their bicycles. Our attitude survey found that cyclists believe there aren’t enough safe places to lock their bicycles around town.

With the success of this month’s Bicycle Clinic and the great turnout from cyclists of all ages, it would be nice to share the best and safest routes around town. And with all that money and time saved by bicycling rather than driving, there may be an uptick in stopping downtown for a coffee or treat, say at Rosanna’s, Java Pointe or the Rellik. After all, as we’re cycling, we’ll burn off any extra calories!

Learn more

• Four ways to improve your S.F. Bike commute: sfgate.com/default/article/4-ways-to-improve-your-S-F-bike-commute-5672776.php

• Great ideas and resources: sfbike.org

Constance Beutel is the chair of Benicia’s Community Sustainability Commission. She is a university professor and videographer and holds a doctorate from the University of San Francisco.