As a youth growing up in the city of Lakewood, California, I was exposed to a number of negatives. My immediate neighbor was a drug dealer and also a half way house for illegal immigrants from Mexico. In my immediate neighborhood there was a drive by shooting. A kid I grew up with got in trouble for running guns. These are just few of the things I was exposed to. I realized at an early age right from wrong but sometimes got involved with the wrong kids. Fortunately this happened at a young age before I was offered and exposed to drugs. My criminal highlights were shoplifting candy and stealing valve stem covers off a car lot to sell at school. That was before I learned how to ride a bike.

The world changed for me on my 8th birthday. It became a bigger place and I instantly had more freedom. My parents were smart enough to realize I had found a passion and leveraged it against me to do right. Good grades and staying out of trouble meant I could continue to ride my bike, mess up and the bike was taken away.

Fast forward to today, I have now traveled the World as part of my career as a cyclist to over 20 Countries in Europe in addition to Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, Reunion Islands and South Africa. This is all due to the positive influence of bicycles in my life! I started making a living at 15 racing BMX and when I graduated High School I had over 100g in my bank account. I drive through my old neighborhood often. I always wonder what would life been like for me had I not found bicycles? The answer I firmly believe is in jail or dead. This simple machine I believe saved my life. The relevance here is that we always had dirt lots and secret places to ride, but they were illegal and not very many kids were involved. Now imagine if there would actually have been a trail network. How many kids would have gotten involved? I wonder how many other kids could have been saved?

I realize my life and the results are rare, but cycling is a positive activity with positive results mentally, physically and confidence building for kids. I now am witnessing this first hand with my two children. Imagine encouragement instead of discouragement from parks and recreation to come to the local park and ride a pump track or other type of course that is conducive to learning to ride a bike safely. There are all types of projects popping up nationwide that involve inner city off-road cycling and trail networks being built, from New York City to Seattle, all with positive results.... for instance, trails are being built under freeways in Seattle as a way to occupy space with positive activities instead of homeless gathering areas or places for drug addicts to hang out.

In addition to being a professional cyclist with over 20 National and 5 World Championships, I also build bike parks for a company called Alpine Bike Parks, and as recent as 6 months ago worked on a project in a city park in Fontana building a BMX tracks that is open to the public as part of the park. Please, in consideration for the future of children, consider development of cycling as part of the master plan for the cities recreation.

Sincerely,
Eric Carter
GT Bicycles


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