Encouraging Biking/Walking to Schools

(Click to enlarge photos)


This morning my daughter and I rode our Schwinn tandem to Highlands Elementary to count the bike racks as part of a community project. There were 3 racks with a capacity of 37 bikes. We also measured the distance between the racks and the front door: 130 yards. Highland is an excellent school and we appreciate the talented staff, volunteers, and families that make the school a gem in our community. The improvement we'd like to see is related to the transportation infrastructure...there are opportunities for encouraging more biking and walking to for both children and adults.

My kids say that the racks are usually full on school days. We know of one adult worker that bikes to the school. My personal trips to the school are always by foot or bike. Why isn't that more common for other adults and children? Out of more than 500 students and perhaps 100 adult workers and volunteer on any given day, it is no wonder that there is a crammed parking lot full of cars and a congested traffic scene with buses and cars before and after school. Plus, parking for cars spills out into the streets for some after-school events.

Why might our community benefit by having a higher percentage of bikers to the schools? I'm not advocating that everyone bikes or walks to school, but imagine the outcomes if 80% would do that. Close your eyes and think about it for 15 seconds...what do you envision? Here are some points to ponder for encouraging more biking and walking to schools.

1. Did you know that 14 bikes comfortably fit in one average car parking space? Imagine your school parking lot being free of congestion, quieter, safer, and healthier.
   
2. If children (and parents) think it is important to be driven everywhere, even if it is less than 2 miles, what lesson are children learning about mobility? Instead, teach them safe riding skills, such as those we recently covered at the Edina Bike Rodeo. Get involved as parents for learning and teaching safe skills. And encourage more walking too.
   
3. Related to the above point: "Ninety percent of trips by children today are made as a passenger in a car. This low level of walking and biking impacts children’s health, independence and ability to learn walking and bicycling skills" (Transit for Livable Communities).
   
4. Child obesity: Children overall are more sedentary today than every before, leading to 17% being overweight.
   
5. Safe Routes to Schools is a popular program spreading across Canada and the U.S. designed to decrease traffic and pollution and increase the health of children and the community (reference). Check it out and consider integrating with you school's and your community's planning.
   
6. Ensure that streets near schools are exhibit the "complete street" features which are explanied very well by the Thunderhead Alliance. From the site: "Complete streets are designed and operated to enable safe access for all users. Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and bus riders of all ages and abilities are able to safely move along and across a complete street." Ironcially, the streets near Highland have no sidewalks. Our community is working to correct this problem.
   
7. Offer a few minor adjustments in the bathrooms for commuters to clean up...or offer a changing/clean-up area for men and women. This can be accommodated in a number of cost-efficient ways.
   
8. Offer more and better bicycle parking options. Think of faculty, parents, and volunteers. What makes sense for these people for bicycle parking?
   

Efforts such as the above contribute to overall reduction in our nation's (and planet's) consumption of natural resources, reduces demand for oil, reduces greenhouse gasses such as CO2, reduces motorist traffic, reduces noise, reduces pollution, increases more social contact with others during commutes, increases exercise, decreases obesity, teaches important mobility skills that can provide lifelong value, builds muscle mass, increases heart health, and develops good thinking and reasoning skills for children that learn to safely navigate their bicyclces. Oh, and biking is fun.

Please contact me if you'd like to discuss further: Kirk@BikeEdina.org. And, I welcome comments posted on this blog. Thanks for your interest!

My Bike Was on TV!

Here is the KARE-11 news story, aired 7/25/2007 that included my bike! (Direct link to video.) Uncle Slurpy (my Surly Steamroller) was shown taking off, and then my interview at about 1:30 into the film.

I appreciate the positive press for bicycling. However, I wish the motivations cited were not so much on the gas prices. Anyway, someone asked me if this was planned or just being in the right place at the right time. I said it was the latter, which is always the case when being on a bike ;)

Uninformed Officer

I had an interesting encounter with an Edina police officer today. I was riding with my son and daughter east on Vernon and west of the Eden/Vernon intersection, a motorist came very close to my daughter's handlebars, less than 3 feet, and honked at us. It's not the honking so much that disturbed me, it was the choice of the motorist to "teach us a lesson" by coming to close and being positionally and audibly agressive toward us.

I immediately memorized the license plate and called the Edina police department. An officer was dispatched and met us nearby. He did not know about the 3-foot passing rule. I helped him look it up in his statutes book. He also made a comment about bikes needing to keep up with traffic, but I wasn't sure where that comment was going. A big part of the conversation was the officer lecturing my daughter to ride as "close to the curb as possible." Statute 169.222 does not include that kind of language, instead it is "...as close as practictable," which is an important distinction: It goes on to list exceptions, one of them being riding 2-abreast, which is what we were doing. Inside the fog lane, dangit.

My request was that he would contact the driver and educate the driver that bicyclists belong on the road and that passing needs to be at least 3 feet. The officer said he would do that, and he was saying that this is a learning experience for him, too.

The whole incident has left me wondering what education, if any, our Edina police officers have about bicycling on roads. And I also feel bad about it...bad that the officer was much, much more focused on restricting where the bikes ride instead of being informed and concerned about the traffic violation of the motorist. Heck, Vernon is a wide roadway where motorists speed at 50 mph or more and it is the worst road to bike on in my daily rides.

I feel 10x more safe in the downtown street grid in Minneapolis than Vernon Avenue.

The territorial and agressive attitudes of the drivers, which the officer didn't not seem initially concerned about until we uncovered the three foot passing law in his book, is what keeps some people from biking in Edina. It is what terrifies parents about their kids riding to soccer games and to school. And it is why some adults themselves don't ride, combined with a lack of education and infrastructure support in Edina.

I contacted the officer a week or so later to ask about the outcome and to suggest a few ways that the police department could get involved with education. I was being open-ended about that...both from a perspective of police getting bicycle education and also being involved with it in the community.

He returned my message and ignored the question about contacting the malicious and errant driver. He chose to respond only to my idea about bicycle education with officers and give me an internal contact.

I'd like to see the Edina police more involved in community biking. I'd suggest having them involved at the next community or kids event like the 2008 rodeo or something sooner. I also think it would be good to put together and offer a session for police officers on biking in Edina. I would like to do this with some support from some community leaders such as you and/or the BETF. T.J. suggested bringing in some of the bicycle cops from other communities to exchange info as part of the training.

I'm guessing that the offcer (I have his name) is not alone in a gap in bicycle education. WIth more people biking, officers need to be informed.

Cedar Ave Bridge Rally

Today was an awesome rally attended by several hundred (nearly 1,000?) people. Barry Hans and I rode over together. We are both on the Bike Edina Task Force. State Representative, Ann Lenczewski (rep.ann.lenczewski@house.mn) from Bloomington chaired the speakers, which included governors/mayors and other citizen groups from dozens of cities and counties around Minnesota. Below are just a few of the speakers and supporters. Interests ranged from bicycle transportation and recreation, bird watching, hiking, walking, and others.

Dave G. (Hiawatha Bicycle Club & Twin Cities Bicycle Club) with Ann Lenczewski. Friends from HBC John, Jim, Dale, Becky, Russ. Hans talks with some of the media crew. The crowd was huge...nearly 1000? Part of it is shown here. The bridge is shown with various closed signs. Mike Maquire (second to last photo, speaking ) of Eagan (mayor) and another leader (blue shirt)--I need to get her name.

My Daily Bike Commute

Here is my first attempt at being a photo journalist. Visit the damage here at my commuting article with pictures.

Who Rode Uncle Slurpy?

Who rode my favorite bike? In somewhat correct order, oldest first....

18. Steve M. 8/2/07
17. Dan K. 7/2007
16. Geno 7/2007
15. Justin at Erik's 7/2007
14. Scott S. 7/2007
13. Ted D. 7/2007
12. Alan J. 7/13/2007
11. Matty L. 6/2007
10. Hans G. 5/2007
9. Margaret 5/2007
8. Paul H. 12/2006
7. Carl S. 11/2006
6. Barb P. 11/2006
5. Shree 10/2006
4. Lisa 10/2006
3. Jake K. 10/2006
2. Jeff D. 10/2006
1. Me 10/2006