Elementary bike buses get a lot of attention on social media, but in the Hiawatha neighborhood they’re doing something even cooler: a bike train that runs every day, rain or shine. Come hear from the neighbors who run it!
Show notes
Jenny Graff and Dave Cowan join us [Jay and Kristen Carlson] in the basement to talk about getting kids to school on the bike train. We also go out on the street to interview some of the bikers.
See photos and more on our Facebook page
Stock media provided by Sunshine_Music/Pond5
Attributions
This episode comes to us courtesy of the Hiawatha Neighbor Podcast, all rights reserved.
Our theme song is Tanz den Dobberstein, and our interstitial song is Puck’s Blues. Both tracks used by permission of their creator, Erik Brandt. Find out more about his band, The Urban Hillbilly Quartet, on their website.
This episode was suggested by Stina Neel, and transcribed by Ian R Buck. We’re always looking to feature new voices on the show, so if you have ideas for future episodes, drop us a line at [email protected].
Transcript
[00:00:00] Ian: Welcome to the Streets.mn Podcast, the show where we highlight how transportation and land use can make our communities better places. Coming to you from beautiful Seward, Minneapolis, Minnesota. I’m your host Ian R. Buck. As a teacher, it really pains me to say this, but it’s August and it’s about time to start thinking about back to school season.
Ooh, no. I went there. So today we have an episode from the Hiawatha Neighbor Podcast, which is just a couple neighborhoods south of me. On each episode, they feature something cool that someone in the Hiawatha neighborhood is doing, and this one is about a bike train at a local elementary school. I’ll let them take it from here.
[00:00:49] Kristen: Here we go.
[00:00:50] Jay: Okay. Well, it is Thursday, June 6th. We’re nearing the end of the school year, and we are outside at the site of the bike train gathering place.
[00:01:02] Kristen: It is precisely 8:40 AM, 25 minutes before the bike train leaves at its scheduled time, 9:05, and we’ve invited. All the kids to come early to talk to us a little bit about the bike train, but we’re not really sure who’s gonna show up.
So I guess we’ll see.
[00:01:18] Jay: I hope some, I hope some kids show up. Uh, this bike train is a regular part of the neighborhood every morning and for our kids too. And, uh, we hope, oh, here, here comes some bikers. Good morning bikers. They’re all arriving at the same time. All right.
[00:01:35] Kristen: Good morning. Everybody ring your bike bells.
Let’s hear ’em. Let’s hear ’em. Whoa. [cacophony of bike bells]
[00:01:41] Jay: So are you part of the bike train?
[00:01:46] Kids: Yes.
[00:01:46] Jay: How many days do you think a year you go on the bike train?
[00:01:50] Kids: Uh, most of them at the start of the year I started, uh, busing and then, and then like halfway through the year, school year, I got into this bike train. So biking is definitely the much better option. So in bike train it’s really awesome because you get to bike with people. To bike with your friends. Yeah, yeah. Bike with your friends and not annoying third graders.
[00:02:14] Kristen: Wow. This is the biggest bike train group I have ever seen here.
[00:02:19] Kids: [chanting] Bike train! Bike train! Bike train! Bike train! Bike train!
[00:02:24] Jay: Hello and welcome to Hiawatha Neighbor. We’ve got a really exciting episode this week.
[00:02:59] Kristen: We are interviewing the Bike Witch and the Bike Fairy,
[00:03:04] Jay: Also known as Jenny Graff, and Dave Cowan.
[00:03:07] Kristen: Jenny and Dave have been instrumental in the formation of a really highly successful bike train and our-
[00:03:16] Jay: Explain what a bike train is to everybody.
[00:03:17] Kristen: Oh, that’s actually, I probably should have asked Dave that while he was here. ’cause he said there’s some terminology difference between a bike train and a bike bus, and I’m still not totally clear on that.
[00:03:25] Jay: No, I dunno. But we have a bike train, which is, uh, the kids in the neighborhood and a couple blocks around us all get together in one specific place at 9:05.
And then together they bike with at least one adult. Uh, often more adults are accompanying them and they get to school safely together and in a very fun way.
[00:03:47] Kristen: Every day, rain or shine. Yeah, no matter what.
[00:03:49] Jay: It’s great. I, I don’t know what a bike bus is. I don’t either. People can Google that. Yeah. But we have, we have a bike train or they could email Dave Cowan because Dave Cowan does this work for a living now.
Uh, he, uh, works for a non-profit called Partnership for Safe Routes to School or something.
[00:04:07] Kristen: Biking partnership. Thing.
[00:04:08] Jay: Something like that. Again, we’re not into details here in this podcast, but Dave works with this. But we got to know Dave, uh, not through his, his work professionally, but we first got to know Dave when our kids were taking the bus to school.
Nothing wrong with taking the bus. We actually really enjoyed the bus stop. Uh, that’s how we got to know first of all, a lot of the other parents in the neighborhood.
[00:04:32] Kristen: We would all meet at the bus stop. Um, often both parents from a family would come and there were often just as many parents drinking coffee and eating donuts on the bus stop corner.
[00:04:42] Jay: And we went every morning, even after
our kids didn’t really need us there anymore. The bus stop was just a, a block away from our house. We could see it out the window, but we still like to go accompany the kids. And then even after the bus would leave with our kids, sometimes we would just hang out and talk there as parents. So it was a great way to get to know neighbors here.
[00:05:03] Kristen: But then there was one neighbor that we never had a chance to meet when our kids were small, and that was the Cowan family. And that was because those kids never took the bus. They biked every day, rain or shine. Um, and Dave, uh, escorted them to and from school. And then the news spread that this is actually a far superior way to get to and from school.
And more and more kids kept joining. And, um, our main experience with the bike train. We’ve had a little here and there before, but this last year or two, since we’ve come back from New Zealand, the bike train of this neighborhood has become like a force to be reckoned with. The level of organization and participation is just skyrocketing.
[00:05:49] Jay: Our fifth grader takes part in every day. Maybe she would bike on her own, but I think she’s biked more consistently, more regularly, even in cold and rainy weather because there are friends to see and to bike with. On the bike train.
[00:06:03] Kristen: We actually went out to the bike train, uh, one Thursday morning at the beginning of June to see what the kids had to say about, uh, their bike train experience.
And it was really fun to hear. Them talk about it.
[00:06:16] Jay: So thanks for joining us, uh, for this episode with Dave and Jenny and some really great kids in the neighborhood.
Alright, I have a question for you guys. Yeah. What was the worst day of bike train this year? All. All right.
[00:06:35] Kids: Can I go?
[00:06:36] Jay: Yeah.
[00:06:37] Kids: Well, uh, I think the worst day was definitely when there was like, it was just like raining so hard one day. Oh yeah. That’s crazy.
So there was this really icy day, and then everyone, um, everyone fell. There was like two people who didn’t fall and I fell like three times.
[00:06:57] Jay: What was the best day of bike training?
[00:06:59] Kids: Um, the best day. Definitely when we got donuts. Oh, yeah. Day. No, we got donuts. First day school. First day of school. The oh, oh yeah. Christmas yo. Christmas got so much.
[00:07:10] Jenny: Lot and lots of treats.
That’s my motivation for them, I think.
[00:07:16] Kids: The worst day for me was, uh, any day that I took the bus. Yeah.
[00:07:22] Jay: Bike train’s definitely better than bus. Yes.
[00:07:25] Jenny: What about you? What was your best bike train day?
[00:07:28] Kids: Like? Any day that it’s really sunny and nice out. Yeah, whenever it’s really nice out.
[00:07:41] Jay: Welcome to the podcast, Jenny.
[00:07:42] Jenny: Thank you. Thank you.
[00:07:44] Jay: Tell us how you got started with the bike train.
[00:07:46] Jenny: Yeah, so we moved here about six years ago and um, Olivia, my oldest was in kindergarten. And or just starting kindergarten. And so we were doing a lot of walking to and from, but my youngest was also an infant and so there was still a lot of driving involved, but I was like, this is, this feels almost icky driving this short distance to the school.
And so we made it a point to be walking a lot. And then when my middle started. Well, I guess first grade Covid kind of wiped. I forget about Covid. Covid kinda wiped everything out for a while, but once, uh, my oldest was at the house school, my middle was at Hiawatha, I was like, I gotta have a way to get these kids to and from school.
I can’t walk it because there’s only 10 minutes and I’m just not quite fast enough to get from one school to the next. In 10 minutes. It’s a half mile. And so I was like. Booking it and I’m like, okay, this isn’t working. And then I got the, some sort of message communication email. I’m not sure from that Dave was doing the bike train and so I was like, this would be, this would be really fantastic if we could, uh, join.
And, um, I wasn’t really a part of it that year. Um, I would ride when I could. So yeah, it, that’s how, uh, I got associated with it. And then. The second year Olivia was on it. I would, um, help after school when I could. Um, and I had my little guy on the, the baby seat behind me and, and…
[00:09:22] Kristen: Now he’s on the bike train!
[00:09:24] Jenny: And now he’s a kindergartner on the bike train and he’s usually up front and racing with the big boys.
[00:09:30] Kristen: And falling down.
[00:09:31] Jenny: And, and falling down and causing commotions and trying to.
Kick at people’s bikes, and so he’s kind of a troublemaker, but we’re, we’re rolling with it.
[00:09:43] Kristen: It’s really like, I’ve been really impressed and surprised by how much feedback I’ve heard from many kids about things they’ve learned on the bike train. Like.
[00:09:53] Jenny: I love that. Yeah. Good.
[00:09:54] Kristen: It’s really impressive. And I mean, I know that you deal with a lot of, do learning curves.
[00:09:59] Jenny: I do, there’s different learning curves. There’s learning curves. There’s, you know, there’s not a ton of organization. The, the beginning of this year I was just like. Hey, I wanna keep this going ’cause I’m gonna be doing it anyway and so, or I’m gonna be biking my kids to school anyway. Why don’t I just. Have as many possible children as I can.
Parents are more than welcome to join at any time, but I’m also doing it no matter what. Um, so we might as well get it, you know, the whole neighborhood together. It takes a village.
[00:10:29] Kristen: So. Awesome.
[00:10:32] Jay: I’ve got a question for everybody.
[00:10:33] Kids: What’s up? What’s up? What’s up?
[00:10:34] Jay: What are the rules of bike train?
[00:10:35] Kids: Just don’t be mean. And, uh, don’t push anybody over.
Don’t really race. That’s like a..
And don’t go too far ahead of one of the grownups.
If there’s like, if there’s a big, um, bike train, we like have to ride two by two when cars are like going past us. Yeah. But if it’s buses, you have to ride. Yeah. One by one single file. One by one.
[00:11:02] Jay: Really? What do you say? If there’s a car coming?
[00:11:05] Kids: Car up or car back!
[00:11:07] Jay: Oh!
[00:11:07] Kids: If the car is like behind us, we say car back. But if it’s in front of us, we say, car up.
[00:11:16] Jenny: I’m happy it’s a thing!
[00:11:17] Kristen: Yeah. Oh my goodness. It’s a, it’s an amazing thing. I don’t know. One of the parents yesterday was saying. Um, it feels like being in a utopian kind of Yeah.
Situation because like, how does this work out so amazingly? I know just in the neighborhood.
[00:11:32] Jenny: It, yeah. It’s just, it’s fabulous. It’s just, it really is, and it’s, it’s really for me to start my day like that. Like I, I never walk away from bike train, like with a bad attitude, like going, I wish I hadn’t done that.
I wish I hadn’t done that. Every time I’m like, God, these kids are just. So awesome. And like, it, it, there’s always something, you know, that I walk away with like, oh, that was so cute. Or, I have one that she’s always like, let me see your, your jewelry you’re wearing today. Or what, how are your nails painted?
Or, you know, she’s like my little fan girl and like, I just, I, I love the little special relationships or like, they see me in school and they’re like, hi Jenny. And yeah, everybody knows me now and good and bad. I can’t go to the, the supermarket looking my worst. Anymore. ’cause everybody knows me. But other than that, everything’s positive.
Right.
[00:12:22] Jay: You’re famous in the neighborhood!
[00:12:24] Jenny: Yeah, I am. I never thought moving to Minneapolis, like people, you know, you’d go places and you’d know everybody. That seems like a small town thing, but that’s what I love about the Hiawatha neighborhood.
[00:12:36] Jay: A big, small town.
[00:12:38] Jenny: Yeah. Yeah. It really is.
[00:12:40] Kristen: The bike train is one of the greatest things about this neighborhood. It’s so awesome. Yeah. My experience of the bike train was, here’s my first memory actually, of the bike train was our kids when we first moved to the neighborhood. That’s, well, they were babies when we first moved, but when our kids started school, we went to the bus stop as one does.
Mm-Hmm. And then we carried on with that plan, and then maybe a few years later, this random family with two kids and a dad on a bike like. Showed up and some other kids at the bus stop seemed to know them and Mm-Hmm. I was like, what’s this all about?
[00:13:13] Dave: Mm-Hmm.
[00:13:14] Kristen: And then fast forward years later, Dave Cowan.
Yeah. So you’d been doing that forever and ever or forever?
[00:13:21] Dave: Forever and ever. Yeah. But I, I decided to start going past the bike, the bus stop actually on purpose to try to recruit us. Yeah. Yeah. We’d have some music playing sometime, leaving you all. I love that. Yeah. We were trying.
[00:13:32] Kristen: It only took till-
[00:13:33] Jenny: Poaching the kids.
[00:13:34] Dave: I was trying. It took, it took a while.
[00:13:36] Jay: You were like, “kids look the other way. Here comes the bike train.”
[00:13:40] Kristen: “Kids. Look, we have donuts. Don’t look at me.”
[00:13:43] Jenny: Donuts. Music. Next week there’ll be a bubble machine. Oh my goodness. Oh yeah. Oh wow. We are up in your spoiler alert. I know, I’m, I’m trying to get..
[00:13:51] Jay: This won’t come out until afterwards then.
[00:13:55] Jenny: I just said it’s going to be lots of fun.
[00:13:57] Jay: Yep. Fabulous. So Dave, you, what is the origin of this bike train in this neighborhood? Have you been doing things like this before you even had kids, or when did it start for you?
[00:14:08] Dave: I mean, I, um, geez, there were a couple questions in there.
Yeah. Pick one. I’ll start with, I’ll start with the origin of the bike train, which, which was, there were a couple of neighbors on your block actually here on 45th Mm-Hmm. Uh, that when we first moved here, uh. We would meet and walk with. So it was like a, it was, it was kindergarten, it was a block. And so we would meet and walk and so that’s called a walking school bus.
By the way, there’s kind of like terminology here that I’ll cue you all in on.
[00:14:39] Jay: This isn’t something you invented, in other words.
[00:14:41] Dave: No, no. In fact, this is one of, um, many strategies that schools and districts use to try and get kids walking and biking more. And when done well, they work. Um, so we would walk, we would walk to school together, and eventually we started getting on two wheels, probably later in kindergarten, first spring.
And the principal actually contacted me of Hiawatha at the time.
[00:15:04] Jenny: Um, Peng?
[00:15:06] Dave: No, before Peng. It was a long time ago. Maybe 2017. Maybe in 2016. Um. And, uh, she had a student that was showing up on campus well before school started, and, um, she was worried about that child being unsupervised. Um, and I withheld my opinion about her opinion about the unsupervised child.
That’s a different podcast. That’s a different podcast and free range parenting. Um, but she asked if I, if this kid could come with us. Um, and so. Kind of a side story of this is I worked for an organization at the time that collected, um, beat up bicycles and repaired them and then gave them out to families in need.
Um, that year we had made the Guinness Book World of Record for the most bikes donated in a single day, 5,512 bikes.
[00:16:00] Kristen: Oh my gosh. Single day. Wow. That is so great. Yeah.
[00:16:03] Dave: So that had happened..
[00:16:03] Kristen: That that’s in our neighborhood?
[00:16:05] Dave: Well, that’s in Minneapolis. Minneapolis. That was Minneapolis.
[00:16:07] Kristen: We’re in Minneapolis. Yeah. Our neighborhood.
[00:16:08] Dave: Um, and so we had, um, that fall and winter given all those bikes out. Um, and then that spring was when this happened. And so I went to pick this girl up. On the first day. She lived kind of in between our house and the school, and she was sitting on her bike waiting out in front on the sidewalk.
We were, we were biking like a block and a half. Um. And she was so excited and she did not know how to ride a bike. Oh, I know. So, oh man. She immediately starts like, oh gosh, lurching towards us on her bicycle. And I’m like, oh, this, I did not get the memo on this. Right. Um, so anyway, she’s super excited.
She’s chatting up, uh, my two kids are looking at me like, this kid’s very excited to be getting to school today, and when we get to school, I’m helping her lock up her bike and I look down and there was a little sticker that we put on every single one of those 5,512 bikes, and it was on her bike. Oh my gosh.
Somebody cried out. It was, it was a sweet moment, but, but probably the first version. Of a bike train. Wow. Spring of, uh, Jamie’s kindergarten year. So, um, and that child who shall remain unnamed, rode with us, um, all through the spring.
[00:17:25] Kristen: Oh, awesome. What a fantastic story. It is so great. Oh my gosh. Yeah, it
[00:17:29] Dave: was a pretty, it was a pretty cool and touching moment, so.
[00:17:33] Jay: I can see why you’d be motivated to keep with it after that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, I think one of the beautiful parts about a bike train is that parents are busy, um, or parents. Some, some children don’t have, um, caretakers in the house that can ride with them. Um, and some families do.
Mm-Hmm. And it provides that supervision and maybe a little bit of coaching on how to ride a bicycle safely. Um, that all parents can’t give every morning of every day of every week.
[00:18:09] Kids: Here comes a car.
[00:18:10] Kristen: Oh, car, car, car up. Car back.
[00:18:14] Kids: I have one danger of biking.
[00:18:16] Kristen: One danger. What’s one danger of biking? Alright, so what do you do in order to stay safe when you’re biking?
[00:18:22] Kids: Just say, uh, we do single fire lines.
[00:18:25] Kristen: Yep. How did you learn all that stuff?
[00:18:27] Kids: Uh, she just said, uh, Jenny just yells.
[00:18:32] Kristen: That’s great.
Yeah. Everybody listens to Jenny every time she gives any instruction all the time.
[00:18:37] Kids: [talking over each other] Well, no. Not always. No, I do. I’m good on bike, train!
[00:18:44] Kristen: And I think you listen to Jenny every time she tells you any single thing ever. Right? A hundred percent of the time.
[00:18:51] Jenny: Especially not to race. Right? Nobody races.
[00:18:56] Jay: Yeah. Do you all stay together really well when you bike?
[00:19:01] Kids: Most of the time. I would say together really well together.
[00:19:06] Kristen: Alright, it’s 9:05. Time to go.
[00:19:13] Kids: 2, 2, 2, 1.
[00:19:19] Jenny: And that actually gets me outside too, because I am not a winter person. And now suddenly I’m on my bike every single day and I’ll even send out a text like, is anybody riding? Who are my riders? And Molina invariably, almost always will be up Molina. So I’m like, all right, if one rides wheel ride, yeah.
[00:19:37] Jay: But Jenny, you’re committing to biking.
All through the winter next year. Uh, well, is that what I heard you say? I have, uh, I heard that.
[00:19:46] Jenny: As much as I can. I did ruin, uh, my bike a little bit on one of those days. The ice had melted it. I could not see any, the roads were clear. There was one little patch of ice at the end of the alley, and I was down on the ground before I could even realize.
Tore off the derailer.
[00:20:03] Kristen: Oh, geez.
[00:20:04] Jenny: Learned how to fix the derailer on my own after that though, so this is actually getting me to know the mechanics. I, I didn’t even own a bike like three years ago. Mm-Hmm. I didn’t have a bike. I biked in college and then, yeah, I did not own a bike until. The bike train came about.
[00:20:22] Jay: And yesterday I saw you repairing a kid’s bike before taking off. Yep. That happened in the morning.
[00:20:27] Kristen: You just like flipped it upside down like a boss got out your little kit and I was like, oh my gosh. Yeah. That’s cool.
[00:20:33] Jay: I thought you were this lifelong biker. No. Passionate about biking and Nope, this, this came from the bike train from the kids.
[00:20:40] Jenny: Last year. I didn’t know how to fix a flat. Wow. So I’ve just been, you know, doing my best. Trying to learn as fast as I can. Teach the kids as much as I can.
[00:20:51] Dave: What a good example You are.
[00:20:52] Kristen: No kidding, right? May all our children be paying attention. Mm-Hmm. Well it is, the safety thing is such an interesting topic ’cause I love biking.
I bike to work, I love biking to work. I love my kids biking to school and I get a lot of questions from people about is that really safe for them to do that? Yes. So many people asking all the time. Yeah. And. I mean, it’s a bajillion times safer than driving a car, isn’t it? Like that’s pretty like clear science.
[00:21:19] Jenny: Yes. Yeah. We, we haven’t had, of course it’s, it’s, it’s my, it’s always my child. It’s always my youngest a boy and I’m learning boys. Uh, they are, they’re a little fearless and I, I always. Parented. I’m like, oh, if you parent them the same, you know, there’s not a big difference between boys and girls. Oh my gosh.
Maybe it’s just my, my little guy. But he has no fear about anything. So he’s the one who has had, uh, a, he, he went as fast as he could through an intersection that had a stop sign, and we all yelled at him very loudly and he was able to stop and that car was able to stop. But she was mad and we were, you know, like, you can’t do that.
But also. That road leads straight to, you know, the river road. And it’s a very, I don’t know what cross section that is, but people drive really fast and there needs to be more stop signs and you know, people need to drive slower on the residential roads and we’d all be happier and safer.
[00:22:20] Dave: Mm-Hmm. I mean, if you’re gonna be able to ride your bike somewhere in the city, it should be on our streets.
Like we have some of the nicest places to ride in the whole city, in our neighborhood. So. And it is much less safe to get in a car. Mm-Hmm. Statistically. Mm-Hmm.
[00:22:38] Kristen: Seems like the bike train’s going real fast.
[00:22:41] Jenny: I know. We used to be like a slow, you know, slow roll bike train where I coast most of the time. Yeah. I’m like, pedaling out the whole time.
[00:22:48] Kristen: It’s a workout now.
[00:22:49] Jenny: It is A little bit.
Jackie. Boy, what happened? Were you riding in the gutter? I, you’re alright. It’s okay, pick it up.
[00:23:01] Kristen: How often do people fall down on their bikes, do you think? Once a week. Once a week. Nobody died. That’s, of course nobody died.
[00:23:12] Jay: Well, Dave, what is your relationship to biking? Yeah, apart from, apart from bike train, can you tell us a little bit about that?
[00:23:20] Dave: Well, I used my bike to get around in college too, and then when I got outta college, um. I don’t know. I feel like everybody has a departure from bicycling when they get a car.
It’s like, yeah. When they get the scratch together to get whatever they want, you know? So I, um, that happened with me for a bit. Uh, and Sarah and I actually left the country for a year. I. Um, in a place where we didn’t have a car, got around walking and biking and we didn’t have any money. Um, and, and taking buses and hitchhiking also.
I’m not sure how dangerous that is, but we’re still alive. Do your kids ever hitchhike to school with the bike? Yeah, the bike. When the bike plane gets a bus? I don’t know. Um, so where was I going with that? Oh, when we came back we were dirt poor and, uh. And had been doing it for a year in another country.
So, uh, I bought a $50 bike off of Craigslist and started riding it. And at the time I worked in schools with kids, um, that had, uh, been either emotionally or physically abused. It was kinda like a special school for kids that couldn’t make it in normal public school. And that’s where I met Sarah by the way.
But I biked, I biked to that place ’cause I didn’t have a car. Um. And while I was there, I was getting ready actually to go back and to school to be a therapist. ’cause that’s what you did in that place. If you were, you were either like working with the Youth hands-on, or you went back and got your Master’s and um, I applied and was accepted to the school in Fort Collins.
I. Um, I was out, right and I just, before I left for this rag, have you ever heard of RAGBRAI? Oh yeah. Do people in Minnesota know RAGBRAI? Oh yeah.
[00:25:00] Jenny: I do not.
[00:25:01] Dave: Okay. Well, let me tell you about RAGBRAI and perhaps..
[00:25:03] Kristen: Little digression real quick.
[00:25:04] Dave: And Oh, everything that comes outta my mouth is a digression.
[00:25:07] Jenny: I warned them. I’m same way.
[00:25:09] Kristen: We’re all in very good company. Okay. Don’t worry.
[00:25:12] Dave: Alright. RAGBRAI is a ride across Iowa. It’s seven days long. It is somewhere between 15,000 and 25,000 people on bikes.
[00:25:22] Jenny: Wow.
[00:25:22] Dave: And it is so important that the, uh, local economies, so they, they choose a new route every year and the local economies of the cities along the route, like blow up because RAGBRAI comes through their town that is and just like buys their Kool-Aid and spaghetti and beer.
Yeah. Yeah. And, and so a lot of the folks that live in those towns, that’s like their biggest day of the year. Anyway, I was, I was riding RAGBRAI by, and I had applied to this job randomly two weeks before I was supposed to start this school. And it was at this organization called Bicycle Colorado. I lived in Denver at the time, and they did safety education and encouragement with kids, um, uh, around biking and walking to school.
So. I was on RAGBRAI. I got a call with a job offer to go do this two weeks before I was supposed to go back to school to be get my MSW and I decided, uh, that I could just not go back for a year and see what this job was like. Um, and so I started working. This was in 2007 in schools all over Colorado, teaching kids how to walk bike safely.
And then somehow I made a career out of that because it’s almost 20 years later and I’m still doing the same stuff. Wow. Not that I’m not doing the same stuff. I am still focused on the same outcome, um, in different ways. So I do that. That’s great. Yeah.
[00:26:43] Kristen: Yeah. So you had a job change recently too?
[00:26:46] Dave: Yeah. Yeah. I used to, uh, there was a, there’s a state program that provides money for schools and for communities that want to build.
Bike lanes and trails and crossings and have helmet helmets for, uh, their students or bikes or teach them how to walk and bike safely or have events. And we would, uh, grant money through the state program. It was that I oversaw here in Minnesota to schools all over the state to do those kind of things.
Um, so I’ve worked there for eight years after working at Free Bikes for Kids, which I told you all about earlier, and then just recently took a job. How do I best phrase this? I now, I now lead a national nonprofit that focuses on safe routes to school, which is, uh, what we’re talking about in a way, right?
Like a bike train is a part of, yeah. That’s great. Um, so I oversee our consulting practice and I oversee the organization. Mm-Hmm. Kinda a co-leadership model with a second person.
[00:27:42] Kristen: How does this, uh, new job impact your ability to bike a lot?
[00:27:47] Dave: Lemme tell you, first of all, Jenny has been kind enough to keep the meetup point in front of my house every morning of the bike train, which has been
[00:27:54] Jenny: I was talking about that I feel kind of bad.
We’re still meeting in front of your house. Oh no,
[00:27:58] Dave: it’s delightful. It’s delightful. I no longer commute to an office. I haven’t for five years. But, uh, I am sitting up in my bedroom and my window’s usually open. Okay. And I start to hear the bells and the voices of the kids all excited about their morning.
Mm-Hmm. Um, and sometimes I even step away from my computer long enough for my meeting. I’ll even say like, hold on a second, I’ll just go peek out the window and see the whole gang.
[00:28:21] Kristen: This is the work we’re doing, right?
[00:28:22] Jenny: Dang it. We cannot change the location. Now, I was saying like maybe next year when the fifth graders are gone, we’ll move it to the end of the block.
Okay. Just kidding. We’ll just give out Dave’s address now. It’s a new meeting. Point new.
[00:28:33] Dave: I love it. Let, let’s do that. Oh gosh. I was gonna like pull, I, I think I took a photo of you guys out in front of my house yesterday. Is that creepy? No, not at all. I have a lot of context there. You all are getting gathering out in front of my house and I was like, oh, I gotta..
[00:28:48] Kristen: We’ll make sure to put that on the Facebook page.
[00:28:52] Dave: Oh gosh.
[00:28:53] Jay: Here’s the photo I took of you in your bedroom. [laughter]
[00:28:55] Jenny: Is that, is that creepy? Sorry.
Well, now I’m gonna be looking up everyone now. Make sure you have your bathrobe on.
[00:29:05] Dave: [creepy voice] Your helmet’s on wrong.
[00:29:09] Jenny: Oh my gosh. That’s amazing.
[00:29:11] Dave: But that is, that’s back to the neighborhood part. Like that’s, um, that’s what I love about bike train and I like about a walkable bikeable neighborhood.
Like Mm-hmm. We see each other. I don’t just see Jenny at bike train. Mm-Hmm. I see her coming and going from the playground with her kids. I see. I also see her on bike train. I see her out for her walks when she’s apparently listening to audiobooks..
[00:29:29] Jenny: Audiobook and not podcasts. Yeah. Sorry.
[00:29:31] Dave: Not podcast except for this one.
Um, and that is, is, you know, so that’s the snapshot with Jenny, but that’s like my day traveling through our neighborhood. Is just..
[00:29:42] Kristen: It’s hard to get anywhere, isn’t it? ’cause you just meet people..
[00:29:44] Dave: No, you just have to, you have to start waving. Just like this way.
[00:29:47] Jenny: Yeah. Look down quick at your phone, pretend you’re, you’re reading something.
[00:29:51] Kristen: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is delightful. But Jay, you came in the house the other day and you were like, last five seconds. You’re like, oh, Hans was there on the way. And then I came back and Art and Jeremy were outside then.
[00:30:02] Jay: Yeah. But that’s really fun. And that is, it’s really fun how you become part of the neighborhood.
You have to be visible. It’s like, I mean, you became. What are you? Vice Co. Vice President of the PTO Co. You must have co been at a meeting though, right? At a PTO meeting. So I was attending something like..
[00:30:18] Jenny: I got cornered at gymnastics by one of the PTO members who also had a kid in gymnastics. I was like, oh, okay.
[00:30:23] Jay: So it wasn’t at a PTO meeting.
[00:30:25] Jenny: We’ll, yeah, we’ll see.
[00:30:26] Jay: But just by your presence in the neighborhood. Mm-Hmm. People know you and trust you. And that’s how we build community.
[00:30:31] Dave: When they see you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. I have this like weird, um, thing where I can’t actually see people in cars. And I feel really bad about it because a lot of times people in in the neighborhood that I know very well will come driving at me.
And I won’t know it’s them 80% of the time and 20% of the time I’ll know it’s them after they’re gone. Oh, okay. So I haven’t like waved and I’ll just like catch a glimpse right at the last second and be like, oh crap, that was Jay. And I just completely ignored him because I don’t recognize Jay in his car.
You know, I recognize Jay when he is walking around. Mm-Hmm. Or on a, on a space horse coming across the neighborhood. Like I see bikes, I can tell you the brand, I can tell you the model. Any changes you’ve made to it from the stock. But not your car. Yeah.
[00:31:15] Jenny: Yeah. Well, there’s, there’s even people, like when I get the kids to school, they’re like, I saw you on bike train when I was, I was in my car and I waved, and I’m like, I’m so, I’m not looking in car windows, you know?
And that’s the, that’s the nice thing about being out of a car.
[00:31:29] Dave: Mm-Hmm.
[00:31:29] Jenny: You’re, you’re not. Social, you’re, you get in this like antisocial mindset. If you are in a car and everybody’s for their own and you know, you get that cranky attitude and you’re on a bike, or you’re walking, you see your neighbor, Hey, how’s it going?
You hear about their, their day, their lives, and, oh, hey, did you know, you know, Cassandra did this? And you know, like, yeah. So I, I really. When we, when I first was moved here and didn’t know anybody, I was like, there’s no way I’m ever going to, in Minneapolis, get you know, a group of friends or it’s gonna be so hard to meet my neighbor, my, my neighborhood, and oh my gosh, it’s the, it’s the opposite.
Mm-Hmm. It’s almost harder in a small town to, to get to, I come from a very small town and where everybody knows everybody and their, their grandparents and their aunts and uncles and their family story, but. You know, if you move in as an outsider, there’s no way you’re gonna get to know everybody. But here, I mean, wow.
It’s, it’s crazy. Yeah. It, it really is Crazy. Big little small town. Awesome. It’s mm-Hmm.
[00:32:35] Dave: Longfellow’s certainly that way. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. When, when we first moved here, we were actually planning to go to Seward Montessori. Jamie was, um, registered there, and this was like maybe a month before school started, Sarah came home and was like, we can’t go there.
It’s only two miles, you know? Yeah. Uh. And I was thinking Bike right up River Road we’re there. And she was like, we need to go to school in the same neighborhood that we live in because of how important it is. Mm-Hmm. Like be after school with all of the people. And, and I say this all the time about Hiawatha, which it to me was just the best, best elementary school ever, which was..
[00:33:12] Jenny: Agreed.
Mm-Hmm.
[00:33:13] Dave: School. School gets out and the kids are on the playground and the parents are all gathered around. Yes. And it is, it is like a, uh. I was gonna compare it to a bar, but, uh, joke..
[00:33:24] Kristen: There are a few key differences.
[00:33:27] Dave: Church, oh, we’ll go with a church. We’ll go with a church. Yeah. It’s like bar church, you know, tomato, toh-mah-to.
Um, but we met so many people through that that we would then see when we were walking, biking around the neighborhood and it was like those little connections over the years. Mm-Hmm. That sparked and. Um, now you can’t go anywhere without feeling like you know everybody.
[00:33:46] Jay: Yeah.
[00:33:47] Jenny: I, I didn’t think I was going to know anybody.
Mm-Hmm. I was scared. I was nervous. Um, I didn’t think it would be like a comm- the community it is, and I’m just like, every day I like, I’ll just be walking the dog just like smiling, like I love it here. So much. It is so crazy how much I love living here. We will never move. Well, like we’ve kind of our house, we would love to have another bedroom, you know?
Uh, ’cause the girls don’t like sharing a room. We will never, ever move. And I tell them all the time, like, I’m sorry, but I love this neighborhood. It’s not about the house or anything. I love this neighborhood so much. Mm-Hmm.
[00:34:25] Kristen: Well, and that’s like. Why we wanted to do this podcast. Yeah. ’cause we feel the same way. Like this neighborhood is kind of magical.
[00:34:31] Jay: It’s, and, and you just stumbled upon it too. That’s, yeah. Lucked out. How did you end up in Hiawatha?
[00:34:37] Dave: Ooh, quite the opposite. I did an insane amount of research.
[00:34:42] Kristen: Sarah told me what a planner you are.
[00:34:43] Dave: I am a planner. I do plan. That’s how the bike train came to be.
That’s how actually how all a lot of the biking and walking activities that are elementary schools. I led the bike walk committee for years. And plan those. But for moving here, um, there was like a series of maps that I overlaid, um, including like looking at bicycle highways by the way, which this was the perfect neighborhood to get just about anywhere in St. Paul and Minneapolis and be connected via bike ways. Um, I, I got to the point where I laid over, uh. I, I overlaid the MAC maps, which are the flights coming outta the airport. And I looked at the, the various flight patterns and I said I had to live at least a mile east or west of those planes because I hung out in friends backyards in, in the Nokomis neighborhood.
[00:35:32] Jenny: The Nokomis Pause, right?
[00:35:34] Dave: Yeah, yeah. The Nokomis Pause where you’re like. [ pauses] And then the plane goes by and that happens just every three minutes or so. So, you know, it’s not that big of a deal.[ laughter] But I think we take it for granted here as part of what makes this neighborhood different than maybe some of the other ones that are closest to us, is that we are just far enough outside of that flight pattern.
So I did a bunch of that research. I came here. I met with three or four different, um, organizations that I was trying to get a job with, and then I toured all of our schools and saw six houses and put in an offer on the one we have now.
[00:36:10] Kristen: Do you have any bike train stories you wanna tell us about grown up bike train perspective? Um,
[00:36:15] Parent: I mean, it’s pretty fun to get up every morning and, and ride with this crew. It’s, uh. It always starts your day off right. Your mood.
[00:36:23] Kristen: It does. It’s like pure joy, right?
[00:36:25] Parent: Despite the the grumpy parent in me who constantly yells at them to slow down and stop at the intersection.
It’s still great.
[00:36:33] Kristen: That’s awesome.
[00:36:40] Jay: What are your hopes for the bike train for next year and beyond?
[00:36:44] Jenny: Uh, okay. So I am actually, I’m gonna, I’m gonna be picking Dave’s brain probably about this, but I would just like to get another bike train going. I know there’s like very unofficial, like every once in a while one family will come and meet up.
But, um, on the other side of Howe, for those kids, I would love if they would form a bike train and then we would all meet at Howe, and then we contin- could continue on bringing with the Hiawatha kids. And I think that would just be really nice for the school, for the neighborhood. ’cause I know there’s a lot of kids over there that, you know, they see me handing out candy or you know, something.
They’re like..
[00:37:24] Dave: You get away with that? The principal got after me on that one.
[00:37:28] Jenny: There’s a new principal. Ms. Walker hasn’t noticed yet.
[00:37:33] Dave: Doesn’t care if the kids have candy.
[00:37:34] Jenny: So anyway, um, so the kids will see me, they’ll be like, can I have a piece of candy? I’m like, I only have enough for my bike train kids. You gotta join my bike train.
They’re like. We can’t, we’re on the other side. We come from the other way. And I’m like, I, I gotta get, I’ve gotta get those kids connected with, it’d be so cool to Husky bike train, you know, to have..
[00:37:56] Kristen: And also well done, like planting those seeds and like, “Hey kids, tell your parents.”
[00:38:00] Jenny: Yeah. And I know Candy on the train.
I know Keewaydin, and you know, Nokomis, they have a like really huge one, right?
[00:38:06] Dave: Yeah. Uh, a bike bus, in fact.
[00:38:08] Jenny: Yeah. Theirs is a bike bus, not a bike train. Mm-Hmm. Uh, but yeah, they have a huge one.
[00:38:13] Dave: And I, but here’s a, oh, sorry.
[00:38:14] Jenny: No. I, well, I was gonna say, I don’t know a lot about theirs. I’ve just really only seen it on social media.
[00:38:19] Dave: Mm-Hmm. Um, here’s what I like about yours is that it happens every day. Yeah. Rain, sleet, or snow. And it’s not, it’s not a festival, it’s not a one time thing.
[00:38:31] Jenny: It’s like, so theirs is on like what, like walk and bike day and that’s the majority of it.
[00:38:36] Dave: Right. Or maybe like a Friday, a week or something like that.
Okay. And then a lot of the families actually have to gather. You know, the pe if you did a bike bus, the people that live north of the school would drive down here and like drop their kids off, or the kids would ride all the way down. Yeah, yeah. Um, for a meetup place. So it’s, it’s, um. It’s fun to watch on social media.
Yeah. But it, in terms of like functionality for the, for the families that go to attend our schools, um, like trains are where it’s at, regular and reliable.
[00:39:05] Jenny: It, and we really, there’s only been a co there was a lightning day that I was like, all right guys, I’m sorry, but I’m not, not Mm-Hmm. Not in lightning.
Uh, but I do offer up rides. Mm-Hmm. You know, so that we can fill the car. So we’re not all, all of a sudden taking our own individual vehicles. I. I do feel strongly about that.
[00:39:21] Dave: Mm-Hmm.
[00:39:22] Jenny: Um, and. My, I wanted to mention, my other goal is I have so many graduating fifth graders that are going to, uh, Sanford, and they’re like, they still wanna ride, bike to school, right?
They don’t want this to end. They are, they love the morning. Comradery. The excitement they get to, they get to see each other before school. They have like their own little, you know, Olivia, Molina before bike train, they, they were not friends. Mm-Hmm. They didn’t, I mean, they didn’t not like each other, but they just didn’t, and they got to know each other through the bike train.
It took a couple of years, but now, this year, those two on the back of the train, sometimes I have to say, “come on girls.” ’cause they’re, you know, talking about. Whatever fifth grade girls talk about. And, uh, I just love the friendship that’s formed. But those kids are all, you know, there’s so many of them going over and I told them, I will, uh, figure out times, I will figure out a meeting place for you guys.
Mm-Hmm. Maybe on the first day I’ll, I’ll. Take you there. And then I’d love if you guys would have your own bike train to Sanford. And so I think that’s gonna be a thing.
[00:40:32] Kristen: Well, I’ll be curious to see. ’cause Molina, I think, you know, there’s this little middle school piece of this. Yeah. And Molina’s been a little bit like, I’m gonna bike by myself to school.
Mm-Hmm. In the mornings. So we’ll see what happens with that. But as long as they all stay on their bikes.
[00:40:46] Dave: That’s when I got dumped.
[00:40:49] Jay: Well, thank you. Thank you for being on the podcast.
Thank you for the bike train, both of you. Thanks for having..
[00:40:53] Kristen: Yeah. Standing ovation.
[00:40:56] Jay: Yes. Such a, such a gift to the neighborhood.
It gets cars off the road. Yes. In the morning, but even more important for us. Our kid is happy and ready to learn at the beginning of the day. Mm-Hmm. Thank you.
[00:41:07] Jenny: Sure. It takes a village.
[00:41:08] Dave: Mm-Hmm.
[00:41:08] Kristen: All right, Jenny and Dave, thanks for being on the podcast.
[00:41:11] Dave: My full name is actually the Bike Fairy.
[00:41:13] Jenny: The bike.
Yes. He used to wear wings.
[00:41:15] Jay: We, we need to end on, uh, Bike Fairy. Uh, so you, you were asking the Bike Fairy.
[00:41:22] Dave: Well, that’s how, that’s how I led all the bike events. I would put the, you know, a tutu and wings at, at Hiawatha and Howe we had, we did have. Bike train, but we also had bike rodeos and we had bike fixit and we had, um, helmet fits.
[00:41:37] Jenny: And so next year’s PTO we will be bringing those events back. So I’d love to hear about it. I’m glad to hear about, I’ll be, uh, I’ll be bringing all that kind of stuff back.
[00:41:45] Dave: Yeah. I should, you know, for your podcast, I should send you a picture how big those events were. They were insane. And I would wear fairy wings and I was the Bike Fairy and I would hand out, um, dum dums that had a little sticker around them that said, “thanks for biking -the Bike Fairy.”
And put them on kids’ seats and something happened after the pandemic where. First of all, Mm-Hmm. Principals were upset about the two grams of sugar that are in a dum dum apparently. Yeah. There were complaints. Yeah. So the dum dums had to go away, or at least be given them in secret to those on the bike train before they got to school.
[00:42:19] Jenny: Yep. I, I, well, this morning I did hand some things out in the parking lot. Yeah. But that’s ’cause Jay showed up with donuts. I didn’t wanna steal his thunder, you know.
[00:42:27] Jay: Oh, you had treats too? Oh yeah.
[00:42:29] Jenny: I had sour uh, fizzy Kool-Aid. Popping candies, like teeny tiny, not, not as exciting as donuts. Mm-Hmm. And I was just like tossing ’em out, you know?
So not a big deal. But yeah, I did it. I do try and hand it out, not on school property, so that I don’t get, uh, get in trouble. Dave Cowan-ed. Yeah.
[00:42:47] Dave: Well, the other thing that happened is that before the pandemic, I knew all the families at the school. So they would be like, the Bike Fairy is here, giving our kid a dum dum, and then, yeah.
Their kids were coming out after school and there was a dum dum on their bike, and the kids were like, from the bike.
And they’re like, I’m gonna eat this, man. I’m wearing
[00:43:00] Kristen: Worried about poison.
[00:43:01] Dave: Who is this guy? Why is he giving candy to our kids and why are they taking it? Right.
[00:43:09] Jay: I don’t think the issue was the sugar.
[00:43:12] Jenny: It was the tutu.
[00:43:12] Dave: Um, but maybe my goal for this year is to hand over my, my Bike Fairy wings to you because they’re, they’re hung up. They’re hung up in my garage. Oh. Yeah, I’d like to be president. Maddie was very sad when the Bike Fairy was done. She was, yeah. She liked it.
[00:43:29] Jenny: My kids still bring it up. They, they, they ask me why I, I’m not a Bike Fairy.
I’m like, Dave is the Bike Fairy. I, I bought a cauldron this year though that I, I zip tied onto my bike a cauldron, filled it with candy. Oh. And then tied..
[00:43:43] Dave: Cauldrons of candy. I mean, who can compete?
[00:43:45] Jenny: Exactly. I, I need to one-up, I need to be better. I have to be better. Broomsticks on it. So I’m the Bike Witch.
I told them, oh, there you go. Mm-Hmm. Which is much more my personality than being a Bike Fairy. So..
[00:43:58] Jay: Well, Dave and Jenny, we’ll see you around the neighborhood.
[00:44:00] Jenny: Yeah, see you around the neighborhood.
[00:44:01] Dave: Thanks for having us. This was fun. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:44:29] Ian: Thanks for joining us for this episode of The Streets.mn Podcast. This episode comes to us courtesy of the Hiawatha Neighbor Podcast, all rights reserved. The music you’re hearing right now is by Eric Brandt and the Urban Hillbilly Quartet. This episode was suggested by Stina Neel and transcribed by me, Ian R Buck.
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