For a bicyclist, Darwin Hindman is rather nattily attired, wearing a crisp tweed blazer and an orange silk tie as he pilots his ancient mountain bike through the center of Columbia, Missouri. Hindman, 76, (pictured) is this Midwestern town’s mayor and a survivor of both esophageal and prostate cancer. As he glides along, coattails flying, he is savoring the streets of Columbia, which he’s transforming into one of the nation’s premier cycling cities.

“Here outside this café is a huge corral of racks for locking your bike,” Hindman says, riding along happily. “And here, we’ve painted a bike lane. We want bicyclists to feel as happy as larks out in the road.”

Until recently, Columbia (pop. 100,733) was, like most American cities, designed almost exclusively for automobile transit, offering up a host of four-lane mini-highways over which motorists could zoom between parking lots. For Hindman, a retired lawyer, the situation was all wrong. “If we depend too much on cars, then we increase our reliance on foreign oil, childhood obesity goes up, and life just isn’t as much fun,” he says.

Across the country, the number of bicyclists has exploded. Between 2003 and 2007, the number of American bike commuters increased 38%. Yet many of these riders are forced onto dangerously crowded streets and roads designed for motorists, not bicyclists. In fact, in 2007, 698 cyclists nationwide were killed and more than 44,000 were injured in collisions with motor vehicles.

The Federal Highway Administration has launched a pilot program with an aim to make roads safer and more enjoyable. More than $90 million has been allocated to four communities—Columbia, Minneapolis, Sheboygan County, Wis., and Marin County, Calif. Each will receive about $22.5 million to make them more bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly.

With the support of Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R., Mo.), who helped launch the program, Hindman recently ordered concrete bike paths alongside Columbia’s streets, rejiggered major intersections for bike safety, and turned existing residential streets into “bike boulevards” with painted bike lanes and obstacles to slow down cars.

Other cities are enacting their own changes. New York City just spent three years building 200 miles of bike lanes. Louisville, Ky., lured more than 10,000 cyclists to a Mayor’s Memorial Day Hike & Bike Ride. And tiny Carmel, Ind., identified a 100-mile network, an “Access Bikeway,” that consists of existing streets on which cyclists can safely ride.

Congress is watching the Federal Highway Administration’s pilot program closely. Rep. Jim Oberstar (D., Minn.) is now pushing for the passage of a new transportation bill that reportedly could devote up to $1 billion a year to facilitate biking and walking across the country. But not everyone is happy about the new embrace of cycling. Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) has decried “pet projects like walkways and bicycle paths,” saying they come “at the expense of our nation’s roads and bridges.”

While it may be too soon to gauge the success of early efforts, bicyclists in Portland, Ore., are setting the pace. Since 1992, the city has spent almost $60 million—or roughly the cost of building one mile of an urban highway—to enhance its cycling infrastructure. The number of riders flowing across the city’s bridges has more than quadrupled, and on one bridge last year, more than 20% of all trips were made by bicycle. Portland, meanwhile, has become one of the few U.S. cities to decrease its greenhouse-gas emissions below 1990 levels.

Columbia is still far from equaling Portland’s gold standard, but Mia Birk, once Bicycle Program Manager for Portland and now a principal in a transit-planning firm there, notes: “There’s no overnight magic wand you can wave. It takes a generation to change an ingrained habit like driving, but Columbia is on its way.” From 2007 to 2008, the number of cyclists riding midweek increased by 71%. There are now about 10,000 people riding Columbia’s streets.

Among the new converts is Bonnie Trickey, a 66-year-old mortgage broker who had scarcely mounted a bike in three decades—and was afraid to brave Columbia’s streets. Trickey took a city-sponsored cycling-safety class and now rides through Columbia’s hillier neighborhoods for an hour most mornings. Likewise, Alvin Sweezer, 40, a school custodian, commutes 15 miles each way from his home. Sweezer’s journey begins at 5 a.m., in darkness, and wends up a couple of steep hills and over a potholed country bridge before passing a yard full of dogs who invariably greet him with bloodcurdling growls. Still, he says, “Even if it snows, I ride in. They plow the roads pretty good around here.”

But Columbia’s most stalwart cyclist is probably the mayor. Hindman rides about 60 miles each week—to the grocery store, to meetings, and to the dog park, hauling his faithful mutt, Loki, in a bike trailer.

Hindman’s next goal is to connect every neighborhood to a bike path, in the hope that he can continue to wean citizens from auto-dependence. “If we could get people to use their bikes or walk on 20% of their short trips, I’d be delighted,” he says.

Meanwhile, the mayor will keep pedaling. “Every ride is different,” he says. “Every ride is a new adventure.”

OTHER BIKE-FRIENDLY CITIES

Besides Columbia, Mo., and Portland, Ore., many other cities are promoting bicycling. Some innovative plans:

• Boulder, Colo.

At least 95% of major roads have bike lanes or trails. In 2005, the city was among the first to launch a Safe Routes to School program to encourage kids to walk and bike to school.

• Tucson, Ariz.

All new street construction is required to include bike lanes. The city created a “Share the Road” safety guide for bicyclists and motorists.

• Davis, Calif.

One of the first cities to incorporate bicycling into its transportation infrastructure, the university town of 60,000 has more bikes than cars.