If you build it, they will ride...
 

I've spent the majority of my life living and biking in and around the twin cities. I've seen a lot of incremental change in infrastructure and attitudes over the years but now it's really all starting to add up to something significant. It's great to be a witness to it.

Fact: Minneapolis is badass. The numbers are in and they are only going up.

A new attitude about biking in Minneapolis?
http://www.startribune.com/local/min...135708048.html

Saw that article too. I've had two young women in the office approach me this year about riding through the winter. My sincere hope is that it isn't some sort of fad but a long term trend.

As encouraging as it all is, it seems to be a largely urban phenomenon. About a year ago in a casual a conversation at a Christmas party, somebody asked what I drove to work. I told them that I usually rode my bike. There was a strange silence while several people looked at me as though I was from another planet. Then the topic of the conversation changed. This took place in a distant suburb at my wife's uncle's place. That family loves their motorized machines so I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised. I guess I'd been lulled into thinking that biking to work isn't that unusual.

Those are some impressive numbers. Imagine what cities with year-round nice weather could do.

Strange as it may seem, I think the frigid winters are part of the reason cycling has taken off here. There's a long history of trying to make living in this often inhospitable climate as pleasant as possible. Through foresight, back room dealings, generosity, and luck that go back to the 1800s, the city managed to dedicate large areas of land to green space. Over 16% of Minneapolis is parkland. By design no resident is ever farther than 6 blocks from a park. Moreover the most popular parks are interconnected by, you guessed it, - bike and pedestrian trails. The bike trails around the popular lakes area have existed for over 40 years. They can be seen in the opening credits from the Mary Tyler Moore show. There were also bike trails there at the turn of the (previous) century but they were later replaced with bridle paths. Damn horses.

And... if you've ever been to downtown Minneapolis you may have noticed all the enclosed bridges (skyways) over the streets that connect the buildings. This is so we can get around downtown in January without freezing our asses off.

So between the park trails and the skyways there's a tradition of building non-auto related transportation infrastructure.

The star-tribune seems to print some cycling related article every month or so. What I'd like to see (and maybe they've done it) is an article about all the jobs that the local cycling culture has created in the area. QBP is a monster in the cycling parts industry and they also have several niche brands. With all the budget constraints at various government levels, more cycling infrastructure is going to be an increasingly difficult thing to justify. It might be easier if the economic benefits of being a cycling boomtown were better publicized.

And I think more impressively than the numbers, is that of the first ten comments I read following the article, there were hardly any negative writers. In the past, nine out of ten would have been (the usual) disparaging comments against cyclists. It'd be nice if that's a tipping point too. We'll see what the next article brings out amongst the readers. :-)

I've been commuting now since '91 around here, and it's been fun to see the progress. My current employer has been the most pro-active in helping push the cycling, but I can't seem to get them to buy me doughnuts for some recovery from the morning commute. :-)

Nice article, I thought it was pretty ironic that a car ad obscured the picture though.

Wish it was more like that here.

Starting to get some MUP's in the area but still very unfriendly to cyclist here. :(

Firefox with the AdBlock plug in solves that. :->