Move It!

By Jerry Hiniker   Just coming off the second successful annual Bike to Work Week, I want to reflect on what I am feeling is a renaissance in the culture of the bicycle. When I was a kid getting your first bike was a rite of passage, it was the first real expansion of one’s world, the ability to move in short time, to see beyond your backyard and even beyond your neighborhood. It was the equivalent of a teenager getting a drivers license. We could bike to school, bike to neighborhood stores, bike to the playground to play a game of baseball; such mobility was never imagined before the bike. MOVE IT, our new local name for Bike to Work and Bike Month, included a number of activities and events for both biking and walking, and the participation level increased this year beyond the amazing participation in the first year. The bicycle safety rodeo had over 110 elementary kids run through the safety course and learn safe riding skills, and the value of wearing a helmet. That’s almost half of all the elementary kids in Grand Marais schools. Also impressive was the condition of the kids bikes, most were in quite good operating condition, safe to ride, and clearly being used with enthusiasm. With studies just a couple years back showing increasing obesity, and a growing trend of lack of physical activity, the number of participants is a stunning reversal, one that has broad implications for the community. While the bike rodeo of my youth has progressed from a trip to the fire station to get a bicycle license to the licensed instructor programs we use today, twos element seem stuck in the past:  first, the streets and pathways these kids, and we adults, use to get around are ill suited to provide safe passage for our journey. Having safe streets, streets designed to accommodate an increased use by bicycle and foot, should be a priority for our community. And, second, increased driver education and awareness is essential. The roads and streets were not built just for cars, they were built for transportation, routes to access the stores, businesses, parks and neighborhoods, they were built for people to move around from point to point. We need to reclaim those roads for our everyday use. I hope to explore these issues in this blog, and invite comments, thoughts and suggestions, and I intend to share what I have learned is happening in other communities around the country.