This may be a weird take, but here it goes.
We need more white-collar jobs for young professionals. Many 30-40-year-olds get into cycling as an "early midlife crisis." Attracting more of these types of people will increase the cycling community, and larger cycling communities will draw more people. Also, just having good infrastructure for commuters, i.e., the Route 13 project that connects Marion to Murphysboro, will allow more people to travel by bike. I know personally, I'd like to ride back down to Paducah and back, 120 miles or so, but riding south of 13 on 148 is a dangerous section if traffic picks up. Having a bit more infrastructure/bike lanes would make my wife and by extension me, feel much better.
