Every seasoned cyclist has been asked for bike advice by friends and family, but what if you could make a business out of that? Mary Blitzer has founded Bike Anywhere, where she offers bike commute coach services. Let’s find out what that looks like!
Links
Attributions
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 hosted and edited by Ian R Buck, and transcribed by Sherry Johnson. 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].
Many thanks to our guests Mary Blitzer, John Mark Lucas, and Patty O’Keefe.
Transcript
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 am your host, Ian R. Buck. The puzzle of how to encourage people to choose sustainable forms of transportation has many facets, from building safe biking facilities to leveraging transportation demand management organizations.
Mary Blitzer is aiming to fill the gaps in that puzzle by starting a private business to consult with people who want to integrate biking into their lives more. I sat down with her a few months ago before she launched the business to chat about it. Bicycle life coach: you said you didn’t want to use the word coach, right?
Mary: I’ve come around to coach. I’m going with "bicycle commute coach." Some people have liked the term guide. It seems perhaps too spiritual for me. But we’re open. Right now: Mary Blitzer, bike commute coach with Bike Anywhere.
Ian: I want to start with telling people like who are you like, how did you… what’s your relationship with bicycling and how did you come towards this, starting your own consulting business around helping people commute? It’s like I’ve never heard of anybody in the world doing that before. So where did this come from?
Mary: Well, I have… for me, the intersection has always been people in nature or people in the environment, people in the outdoors, et cetera.
That has led me… I have an urban planning degree from the Humphrey School. I worked as a park ranger– That’s my first one– here along the Mississippi River. Our stretch of the Mississippi River is actually a unit of the National Park Service. I feel like Streets.mn folks already know that or would like to know that.
Ian: Were you at the Science Museum little location then?
Mary: Sometimes. So what I did there was I led and designed programs, getting thousands of people, a lot of youth out on the Mississippi River in big voyager canoes, thinking about how to build experiences that are safe, that are comfortable, that get folks out of their comfort zone and happy outdoors has been my space.
After that, we moved to Houston, Texas, where I started working in bike advocacy for a startup nonprofit bicycling advocacy organization there, Bike Houston. I was the Advocacy Director and Interim Director there, and it was such a cool experience. I think going into it, especially people from The Cities were like, Oh, you’re moving to Houston. How can you move to Houston, Mary? It’s gonna be terrible, and it was amazing. It was such an open culture and I did ride my bike everywhere there and found all the other bikey people and we got their first bike plan passed in 20 years. I’m really proud of that work and the infrastructure that’s been built as a result. The then-mayor who was very supportive, named–I have a day named after me–Mary Blitzer Day in recognition of our efforts for safe cycling.
There’s a new mayor in town now, and he’s not as interested in keeping people safe in all the ways they want to get around: What’s built is built. So we’re feeling like we’ve got that, and that was a really cool experience. And then we moved, we were able to come back North. And I started working for the Sierra Club where I was at for the last six years as their Engagement Manager.
So here for the Minnesota North Star Chapter and that work it was fundraising. It was systems-change advocacy, but maybe the most rewarding piece of that for me was as a coach, a mentor for our volunteer leaders and in that space supporting folks. Whether that was in helping them do advocacy work or I restarted our outings program and built that up and supported people volunteers in becoming leaders outdoors or leading bike trips or what that means.
And this year I was at an opportunity in life to try something different, and I think systems-change is critical, and we must have that. And I also was really excited to try it on the individual scale and get back to that. having lived in Houston and done that bicycling advocacy work and all the time I’ve been living in Minneapolis for a total of 11 or 12 years and as bicycling is my primary transportation source for all of that, just seeing the difference infrastructure makes .
Houston is more bike-friendly than you think, but Minneapolis is more bike-friendly than Houston. And just, we do, you can get from most places, point A to point B around the Metro in a safe, comfortable way. But not everybody who wants to ride or has thought about riding is riding. So I wanted to start Bike Anywhere and it’s my bike commute coaching business.
It’s a way to bridge that gap between the folks who, maybe you’ve had the bike in your garage for the last 20 years, or maybe you ride it every Saturday, but you’re just not sure about riding it to a destination–couple of different examples. But really what I think sets me apart or what it is, is providing that one-on-one, giving what a coach gives someone: encouragement, accountability, helps you set your goals, follow through on that, along with the knowledge of riding, safe riding, League of American Bicyclists techniques, some of that road safety, traffic signaling, etc. things.
Ian: Yeah, I think it’s really interesting that you reference the difference between systems -change and individual actions because running a business that is going to help multiple people, Make an individual choice, right?
Make those individual changes like that is systems-change, What are systems but things that influence multiple individuals, right?
Mary: Yes, it is both and I do feel like maybe you can get … if you’ve been in the advocacy space, you can get bogged down in getting your policies passed.
I think it’s a really radical act to be on a bike. It’s one of the best ways to be fighting the system and to feel that power and pride on being on your bike and showing that a different world is possible.
Ian: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So let’s talk about what are the things that you are offering through your business?
Mary: So I think my core model is about you want — and I can give some examples of different types of people that I, friends that are like, Oh, I would hire you. Here’s what I need. And it ranges from some folks that need help. with their route. So I’ve got a friend who wasn’t able, had a medical issue, can’t ride, is a mom, needs to be able to ride with her trailer and her kid to a destination and doesn’t like what she sees on Google Maps as the routes for her. So figuring out a route that is going to fit her comfort needs. So some route planning.
Some folks I think are needing gear advice, and they want some help that way. So someone else that’s a PT and she needs to bring equipment around to her patients’ houses and isn’t sure literally how to get the equipment I’ve ridden with a cargo bike with the trailer with the big trailer, whatever that is… so like figuring that out.
I have another friend who does ride, is fit, could do it, but just isn’t. And I think they really need the accountability. They’re like, Oh, you’d meet me in the morning. I would have to get up and do the ride. I’ve never actually done it. I’m like, yep, I’d meet you. We do it. So that some of it is just that pure– you want to make a new habit and thinking a lot about how do you change habits.
What does it take? It takes making it a part of your routine, and then it’s at some point– people talk a lot about 21 days, it may be longer than that– it flips in your brain and it’s easier to get on your bike than it is to hop in the car or do whatever else it has been for you.
the other couple of other, let’s just start at… cases that I can think of is a friend who is, she’s in her 60s, she’s had a fall, she needs to get re(habbed), is interested in me coming out and just being building her confidence back up. So seniors that want, they want to ride again, but they’ve had something. So we need to practice together in a parking lot and then we need to go on a trail and those pieces.
the circle back, I think it’s route planning. It’s some road safety. This, the classes were… all include road safety pieces that the League of American Bicyclists provides… I don’t be an LCI… Also gear advice. What do you need? And then that one-on-one coaching support. I’m checking in with you. We answered, what are your goals? We’re finding a route. We’re maybe modifying it. And then you have someone showing up and doing it so it’s that one-on-one piece and then… also included will be group classes and sessions that I think will help build things.
So one is scheduled at Hopkins Library for riding with young families and just, How do I do it? Should I use that cargo bike? What if my kid really wants to ride their strider bike, but they get super tired halfway through. What are we going to do? And, also just classes that I think will be tailored for some apartment buildings, but also corporations.
We all know there’s a lot of corporations that are making their claims about, sustainability and carbon reduction. And this would be a really real way to do it if they were hosting classes and then supporting their employees and actually having a bike commute coach, someone who’s meeting them and making sure they really are riding to work and building that happen it habit and trying the new thing.
Ian: Yeah. And that’s the other thing that came to mind when you first mentioned that you were starting up this business is the fact that we have transit management organizations like Move Minneapolis and Move Minnesota that are working with the municipalities to provide resources and advice and everything, mostly for companies to help support their employees in taking transit or biking or whatever, and that’s… There’s some overlap with what you’re doing, I feel, but you are trying, you’re finding a new niche that isn’t quite–
Mary: –That isn’t quite there. I think. We have a lot of pieces of the bicycling active transportation puzzle here, but we don’t have anyone that is doing this one-on-one coaching piece of it.
And I’m not geographically bound, right? I’m not grant funded. So I was out talking to someone in Robbinsdale and checking in with bike shops there, like suburbs are great too. And I think a lot of those places, none of them would have someone right now who’d meet you at your house, right?
You could schedule it. We’d plan your ride. You would do it. So yeah…
Ian: They host a lot of conferences and webinars and things… it seems like it’s mostly like online resources or, coming and talking at a company, having like a presentation and things.
Mary: Which is awesome.
Ian: Yeah.
Mary: And then, the seed’s planted, but giving you that next step and encouragement all the way through to doing in a couple of sessions feels hopeful that there’s a need there that I’m able to fill. Yeah.
Ian: Yeah. You mentioned young families who want to figure out how to bring the kids along and maybe they’re on a strider bike for a little while, but then they have to figure out, what happens when the kid gets, tired.
And you mentioned that you have a couple of kids, right? So I was almost expecting you to show up on a long tail cargo bike or something like that, but you’re on a fairly, a classical, touring bike here. What has your journey been with your family and figuring all of that out for yourself?
Mary: I think as a, I’ve been, I started riding a bike again in college and it was, I don’t– probably some listeners have had this experience– of just the sheer joy you get again. I hadn’t been on the bike for 10 years or whatever. And it was so awesome and I’ve been riding as my primary transportation since.
But when I became a mom, I almost would say bicycling is more important to me now because it gives me time and space for myself. So I had space on the bike to think I have a workout built in. I’m outdoors. I can be bicycling along the river and have an eagle flying parallel with me and it’s amazing.
So for me, it has been really important that I’m able to keep riding with my kids and we ride all year with the kids and has did research and thought a lot about when I could start riding with them and we put their car seats in a trailer and felt like we could do that starting at six months. And I’m not a doctor: You can do your own checking on that. There’s different ways parents are going to feel but that’s what we felt like was right for our family. But so I ride different ways when we have two kids now when we were having our second kid it was really… I wanted to get an electric cargo bike, and I didn’t want to not be able to do it and do it that way.
So I’ll ride with trailers. We have two trailers, depends on how we need, and I have a electric cargo bike that I can actually take four kids on with the trailer and the two kids on the seats on the bike, too. So It’s great. And I seen more parents starting to ride and there’s so many places you have to go. And we all probably folks know that many of the distances aren’t that long.
So being able to do that… but I usually ride with a trailer when I can because I want the exercise. When my work days and then If I have to pop over to my sister’s or the park at the end of the day I’ll often be like, okay. I already rode enough today. I’m gonna get on my cargo bike and use the e bike, but I love the flexibility that the cargo and the e bike provide.
Ian: Yeah, I love that like the bicycle scales up and down according to what you need.
Mary: Yep,
Ian: Which does mean that you have to remember to scale it up or down at the beginning of… if you’re gonna be out all day and you’re like, Oh, I’m gonna need the trailer later in the day, you have to remember to pay attention, take it out with you in the morning.
Mary: Yeah. Yeah. It’s anyway, it’s been awesome.
Ian: So you have a few like beta clients lined up. What are your hopes for the starting of this journey?
Mary: So I’m hoping… obviously my primary hope is that we have more people who get to ride in our beautiful city, but that folks, I’m giving you what you need to get going.
A friend that works at a hospital and just needs that support. It’s about three miles from his house, I think i’ll be able to get him to start riding and he hasn’t done it, right? So I think for all of us that first time you ride anywhere can be nerve wracking. But if you don’t normally ride for transportation, it’s extra. So that where i’m doing route planning for folks that you could do a package, and then it’s a couple of times. So maybe we try out some different routes.
Ian: Yeah
Mary: Was it actually you really didn’t want to ride on East Franklin, a street with bike lanes, and you’d much rather have been in the neighborhood, whatever? Sort of figuring things like that out for people, to build up their confidence, their comfort and get them going. So and whatever that might be for someone and I’m looking forward to figuring out and working with people on what their different goals will be. And the folks I’m thinking of just fall into such a range of different needs from someone who’s training for a marathon or like a former college athlete who are super fit and that’s not their barrier and what are the questions to people who are coming back from a marathon?
Not having been able to walk and get, getting that back? So tailoring things and being able to work with people on their particular needs.
Ian: Do you have like a, Google form that you have people fill out at the beginning? That’s Oh, what, are the things that you’re looking for here?
Mary: I do. I think I need to add more questions to it. I’m also going to do some, I plan right now and, I would love for people to check out my website, which is bikeanywhere. org, but so I’ve got the questions, and then I’m going to do a like 15- minute phone call and then meet people and do the ride. I think we all have had the experience of forms that are too long.
So I’m trying to find the balance of getting the information I need and not overwhelming people before they get going.
Ian: So we talked about helping people route plan and obviously when somebody has a very consistent– like I have to go to work and back many, times, or I have to take the kids to this particular daycare and back.– but inevitably, like you are going to find yourself having to visit other places. So what are your kind of go-to, basic tips for route planning for an area that you are not familiar with? How do people go about figuring that out?
Mary: I think a lot of people don’t know I think Google Maps is a good place. This is a great starting point, and not everyone knows that you can turn on layers, and you can turn on a bicycling layer. It’s not perfect, but it Is a good starting point and it’s a big billion-dollar app. There’s good features about it that everyone knows. So to start there and to think about what, if you know the area, then you can gut check for yourself, what… would that feel good? What do I think how that would be? And I think if you’re brand new starting out really to start small. So at the point of hiring me, you’ve built up your confidence on… someone might hire me for a longer route, but you’ve built it up on that and then you’re more like, Okay I know what it feels like to ride on this street. I know what it feels like to ride there. What do I think? Which did I like? Which didn’t I like? And it’s really personal. I know for me, it can really depend even on my mood.
What do I want to deal with right now? It depends on if my kids are with me or not, which talking about that being silly, ’cause my kids want me to, they want to live and they want me to live.
There’s streets I’m comfortable riding on with a trailer and streets I’m not comfortable riding on with a bike trailer. So…
Ian: Yeah. What is your favorite place to ride your bike right now?
Mary: Right now in our beautiful spring weather we’re having it is neighborhood streets and looking at the flowers. We– my kids and I– like to rank the flowers.
We go by and cheer for our favorite lawns.
Ian: What is that what does a flower ranking look like?
Mary: It’s really sophisticated: How many colors does it have? Is it the top? How loud do we yell? That’s the sort of things…
Ian: I love a good rubric, a good criteria sheet as a teacher. That speaks to me.
As you’re getting people requesting, consultations and sessions and things, what kinds of… are there some, goals that you’re seeing pop up a lot? Is it mostly like commuting to and from work or is it like… is it a variety of things that people are trying to do?
Mary: It’s, there’s been some variety to it. Because not… I’ve actually had a couple of people that aren’t going to work. They’re retired or something else. And so it’s more in that category. Confidence, I might say, is a key goal that’s coming up for people, as well as folks that just, they’re just so.. I know someone who’s, doesn’t drive, transit user, and is training for a marathon now and wants to mix bicycling in, but just doesn’t ride at all , so needs to get started on what would that look like? Yeah, that feels really exciting because I think it’s so awesome to be able to mix your bike in and how much time and headspace gives back to your life.
Ian: And are you comfortable with engaging with contexts that you aren’t, that you don’t have that background in? Are you a marathon runner who is trying to get back, have you had that kind of experience?
Mary: Oh, I’m yes. I think the the context that made me the most nervous is the 69 year old who is, has osteoporosis and is worried about a fall, and I’m not a medical professional.
So in that context, I want to make sure their doctor, their PT has cleared them, has said bicycling is okay.
Ian: Mm-hmm…
Mary: And then I’m like, boosting up confidence, helping you with getting on your bike again, balance, thinking about what’s going to be smooth routes… what are you know tips for that? We might totally… I don’t know if folks have noticed but there are the adult trikes that I think look fine as an option for riding too… so that is a space that I’d want to just be careful in because falling off your bike if you have osteoporosis is life-changing.
So I wouldn’t want to, but the like fitness goals feel fine. Fitness is really important to me and I’ve been, I’ve not done bike racing, but I did a lot of group riding and long distance rides and then I got lots of running and sports in my life.
Ian: Yeah.
Mary: That’s great. I love to tell people as they’re thinking about it, I’m in startup mode here with this bike commute coaching idea.
I’ve been looking around the country for other people that maybe are doing this in DC. There’s a cycling concierge, but he seems more tourist, angle. And I know if people know Recovery Cycle in Northeast, we’ll do something like this. Which is cool, but, just for people to be sharing ideas and ways they’re thinking about it.
I know we love being the most bicycle friendly city and metro area in the country, and I think having bike commute coaching as part of our ecosystem services is great. Do you have friends who you might, want to point my way? Is there a business? Is there an apartment building, a group that you think could be interested or their residents or employees might be interested in this as well? As just ideas folks have, so always happy to hear about a great cut-through route that you know of, or… maybe you just have an amazing stockpile of photos that you’d want to share of bicycling, but like ways to connect.
Ian: How much of a risk are you taking here with, starting your own business and everything? is this… Because, I mean, you quit your job in order to do this.
Mary: So my partner is working. So I, right now I’ve given myself six months to try it. And I’m, it’s slow. I think a key thing to learn is how slow starting something up takes.
Everything takes a little bit more time maybe than you’d anticipate or building a brand up. But that’s okay. So my goal for the six months is that I have a sense of is this viable or not. Are folks booking me? What does that look like? What are the needs? And just like, how does it feel personally? It is really different, right?
To be only yourself and not have coworkers to check in with. I love being part of a team. so figuring that out, I was saying.
Ian: Is that part of like your long term goal is to be able to build a team around this?
Mary: I think that’d be awesome. It would be cool if, because what, to me, what that would mean then is that there’s all these people were helping to start ride cause they want that and Oh, people do want this in Roseville and Richfield and Hopkins.
Ian: and there’s your systems-change, right? There’s…
Mary: your systems-change!
Ian: Fitness instructors — we as a society are very familiar with that concept now, but this is adjacent to, but going beyond that
Mary: Totally it feels… it’s fresh in all the ways when you’re making when I’m setting up the Facebook page when I’m registering the business There’s no correct way to register it.
Like I don’t know what category to put it in. And I think it speaks to people are willing to spend money on their personal trainer. You can spend so much money on the prescription drugs etc. But to value built-in daily wellness that’s giving you physical mental health and obviously climate benefits. I think the scalability is if you could get your prescription for hiring a bike commute coach would be awesome.
Ian: Unfortunately I don’t think this is the kind of thing that I could pay for through my HSA, is it?
Mary: You should be able to. You totally should be able to. So I think that part of longterm, it’d be interesting to see trying to figure out some of those things.
Ian: Actually, is that something that you as a business would have to navigate, is like getting yourself registered or listed in whatever system, approves who…
Mary: I think so. I’ve been thinking about that because you should be able to spend your HSA. You should know if you can get, when you go to the gym and check that off, it should absolutely right.
It should count. So, HR managers would love to hear from you.
Ian: You were talking about, wanting to go to places of employment and be like, Yes, can I support your employees in trying to figure out how to bicycle to work and everything. And that could be offered as an employee benefit if they wanted to.
Mary: Yeah. Yep. So that would be… I think it’s important maybe for same way that you do for most of these, right? You pay a little bit ’cause you’re bought in, you have that, but no, to pay, Yes, could there be a copay for your bike commute coach? And you’d have to, you could verify that you actually rode it, but yeah.
Ian: Yeah. And I imagine they could… they would probably want to have it like as a category of things that you could use this benefit for, and Mary is one of the options there because not everybody’s going to be interested in biking specifically, right?
Mary: Yep. Yep. And I’ve talked about it. Talked to folks at the U and, things like, Oh, parking is really expensive, and you’re telling someone about parking fee, and you’re also offering them a supported way to not drive.
Ian: Carrots and sticks.
Mary: Carrots and sticks!
Ian: They work together, and you want to be a carrot.
Mary: I want to be a carrot. That’s right. And maybe it’s good to have some sticks, too.
Ian: Yeah, yeah.
Mary: I think it’ll be really cool to figure out how many times do people like. Is one session enough?
Is three sessions what they need? How about if we thinking about this 21-day package where I’m texting folks, and we’re checking in. Oh, how was the ride today? Oh, do you need me to come over and do it another time or oops?
Ian: Yeah.
Mary: Yeah, and I think simple things maybe people over-worry about.
Oh, I need to know how to fix a flat… I don’t think you need to know how to fix a flat. You need to have a lock. Like lock up your bike. Maybe you’re calling an Uber. What is your plan for like worse? It’s not going to happen to you all the time if it’s happening to you all the time, something’s going on with your bike.
Ian: It might be time to buy some new tires.
Mary: Yes, so, think people should know about bike racks.
Ian: Oh, how to properly lock to a bike. Oh, cargo racks.
Mary: Yes, like on your bike itself…. which not everyone… I didn’t know about it for a while and it’s so much better than a backpack. It’s so much better than a backpack.
Ian: I do not understand like bike couriers with their giant square backpacks, and I’m like, Please take all of the weight off of my body. Let the bicycle carry it.
Mary: I would do some really heavy with the backpack, right when I was a park ranger between St. Paul and Minneapolis with like brochure maps, like papers really heavy.
It was awful. It hurt so much. And that’s when I finally figured out that I could be using a rack and life is so much better.
Ian: Yeah, I feel like that. And when my parents gave me their old toddler trailer so that I could do grocery runs with my bike, like those were the two kind of, rapid expansions of me feeling like I could do stuff with my bike.
Now, Mary isn’t just serving individual clients. She also has contracted with entities like the U of M to lead group rides, to help people get familiar with how to bike on and around campus. I joined one of those rides where Mary helped people adjust their bikes, showed us bike facilities like Washington Avenue, Bridge No. 9, and University Avenue, and stopped at key points to point things out. After the ride, I chatted with John Mark Lucas, whose office at Parking and Transportation Services hired Mary to lead the ride.
So are you like transportation demand management? Would you say that you fall into the TDM kind of realm?
John: Yeah, that’s right. In fact, my position was expanded from just the Bike Programmer when I took the position, to be the person who’s trying to develop a Travel Demand Management plan for the campus. And we are in the middle of developing that Travel Demand Management plan. In fact, we’re in a cohort of a pilot scheme with the Association for Commuter Transportation, to be an accredited organization in travel demand.
Ian: Nice. All right. We just got finished with a group bike ride hosted by Mary Blitzer. What did that partnership look like? How did that come about?
John: Yeah, that’s a very good partnership for us, actually. I look at it as a staff augmentation. You don’t usually have enough staff to develop programs, for our students and our staff, employees, faculty.
So it’s nice to have vendors like Mary who would come to you and work as an LCI to host events with us. Yeah.
Ian: Who… what was the target demographic for this event? And what were you hoping for people to get out of it?
John: It was basically targeting people who are beginner bikers around the campus.
We have a lot of people who are in our ZAP program already or who are regular commuters. We wanted to reach out to people who are a bit nervous about biking and to tell them that, this campus is very well equipped with bike infrastructure, and it’s so easy to get on your two wheels and ride to and from campus and enjoy the campus and the environment.
Ian: Yeah, because it’s not just on campus that the bike facilities are really nice, like getting to and from campus, there’s some nice connections as well.
John: Yeah, that’s right, and that’s one thing that has really worked for us in partnership with the city, and the county in fact, because some of these roads are either city owned or county road. To make sure that we have a good network of bike routes to and from the campus.
Ian: And this event was … eliminating as many barriers to entry as possible, right? Like you had bikes for people to borrow, you had helmets for people to wear, I noticed– this is one of the first times that I’ve seen this– but the old, NiceRide fleet now has… You acquired a few of those bikes, and you’ve got some U of M stickers on it and everything.
So that’s pretty fun. That’s pretty exciting. Is that something that’s available for any student to use or what’s the details there?
John: Yeah, they are available for any student to use. We’re just coming to our second year of it. Last year we had a pilot for that. So we have about 150 bikes here in the Twin Cities campus.
So you have the gopher bikes. You also have the bikes for Duluth. And for Morris. So we were able to acquire 280 bikes from a Nice Ride as they were winding down. They kindly donated those bikes to us. And we’ve rebranded them and making them available for free to students, either for the term, for the year.
And we are also positioning a fleet of bikes for the residential halls, to take out on a daily basis.
Ian: Did I hear, I heard Morris, right? You’ve got a few of the Nice Rides are up there now?
John: Yeah. Yeah. We have them for Morris as well. We work with the sustainability offices that we have, but it’s different campuses.
And they were very much interested in getting into the action, facilitated some of the rebranding of the bikes for them.
Ian: I love that. Cause I went to Morris. Yeah. And that’s… you’re in a town that’s a five-minute bike ride across, right? So those are super useful for everything out there.
John: Yeah. And the Morris partnership is actually interesting because they work with the local library as well to make it available, not just for the students, but actually, as a community progress. Nice.
Ian: Yeah. I, yeah, so many things up in Morris work that way, right? Like the rec center that’s on campus, available for people to have a membership out in the community.
Yeah. How do you think this, event went? Were you seeing the results that you wanted to? What are your metrics for success here?
John: Yeah. It went very well, I think, for the size of the group that we got, it was just right for the number of ride leaders that we have.
We had a good mix of people who have been biking around campus, and a few of them who haven’t ridden before. And, in fact, a few of them who are just visiting the campus and wanted to know the campus a bit more. Yeah, it’s good to be able to share the programs that we have and how the University really incentivizes active mobility around campus.
So it’s, yeah, I think it was a successful, very successful program in the end. And we’ve got interest for upcoming rides, so it gives us momentum to start planning our rides for the fall.
Ian: Yeah. Cause late July is not a time of year when most students are going to be on campus and thinking about all of this just yet.
So you’re expecting to be able to keep doing this and have more, probably more ridership or, more people coming and attending, right?
John: Yeah, that’s right. We are planning one for… we had a homecoming bike party last year, so that was very well attended. We did it with the Joyful Riders. In fact, BikeMN was here with us.
So it was a joint partnership with the local advocacy groups, and we’re scheduled to do that again this year for homecoming week
Ian: Nice, that’s super cool. I yeah, I love that. You are taking advantage of all of the awesome organizations that exist here in town.
John: It’s just you know a few of the reactions that you see when Oh, I didn’t know this tunnel is here, and i’ve been working here for 20 years.
Yeah, so you know, it does take a bit of hand holding to tell people what the amenities are. And that’s something that I think we just need to be a bit more proactive about telling people and sharing the facilities that are there. ‘Cause it’s not the sort of thing that you’d normally explore on your own.
So that was very good in a way, getting the reactions about people surprised of things that they’ve never come across on campus.
Ian: Yeah, and I… if you’re used to driving around, and you only ever use Google Maps to drive around, then, yeah, there’s gonna be a lot of bike connections that you are never gonna see and not be aware of.
And even if you’re , as a bike commuter, when I’m using Google Maps to navigate around, it thinks that it knows some of the best connections in an area, but, then you talk to somebody who’s lived in the area for 20 years, and they’re like, Oh, here’s a quick shortcut that I use all the time.
And it’s like that kind of shared knowledge of , how do I discover these new things? Do I have to go out exploring on my own and find some of these shortcuts? Being aware of your surroundings and just noticing little things in the world.
John: Yeah. Unfortunately, if you work on campus and you study on campus, you’re pretty much… your environment is just around the immediate vicinity of your building. And, unless you are a runner, maybe you’ll explore more, but your range of discovery is really not as big if you’re just walking around, and having a chance to get a bike and ride around campus just for the fun of it and get to discover places…
I think a ride like this really, brings that, the importance of that.
Ian: I was just thinking about, are you familiar with the Twin Cities Bike Tag game? So it’s structured, it’s in a Facebook group, right? And the rules are whoever owns the tag currently, they post a picture of their bike at a spot that is publicly accessible and publicly recognizable, right?
And then everybody else in the group, they see that and everybody tries to figure out like, Oh, where is this? Do I recognize any landmarks? How do I get there? And then the first person who gets there with their bike, they reply with a picture of their bike in that spot. Now that person owns the tag and they have an hour to go somewhere else and create a new post. So then that’s the tag that everybody’s trying to get to. I think that could be a really fun, if there was a campus-specific, like a U of M bike tag game. Really encourage people to get out and, explore and find little corners of the campus that you wouldn’t otherwise travel to.
John: That is actually a great idea. we’re looking to have different games, incentivizing people, discovering the campus. Yeah. You’ve given me some idea, something to try out, like for welcome week where we’re trying to introduce the students to campus. Yeah. It’s a good way to get to know your campus.
Ian: A scavenger hunt of some kind.
John: Yeah. That’s, such a great idea. Yeah, you know for us, you know for the kids around campus, there’s definitely quite a lot to look forward to, we’re doing a lot of construction to bike lanes that the county is doing on 4th and University, the city is doing the separated bike lanes on street, so now that would connect from 6th all the way to East River Road. So there’s a lot more coming and a lot of improvement to happen.
it’s just a case of, Get your wheels and come explore the campus.
Ian: Thanks for coming on the show.
John: Oh, thanks for having us. And thanks for coming and enjoying the ride with us.
Ian: We’ve alluded to Transportation Demand Management a few times in the episode, so let’s dive a little deeper into that. Typically TDM is done by non-profit organizations who receive grants to work within a specific geographic boundary. For example, Move Minneapolis serves downtown Minneapolis, often working with employers in that area to put on events, programming, and messaging to shift commuters and residents away from taking trips by car.
Another novel approach is BikeMN’s Pedal Pals program, where they match up experienced cyclists who are willing to volunteer to meet up with someone who wants support biking more. The areas of focus are pretty similar to Mary’s (route planning, confidence building, general advice) though the expectation is only for those pedal pals to meet up once. The community-oriented angle is very compelling to me, and I have had the opportunity to be a pedal pal once so far; I found it to be a very rewarding experience! Find links to all of these in the show notes.
To finish off this episode, I also got to catch up with one of Mary’s individual clients, Patty O’Keefe. Patty, I understand that you and Mary know each other from time working together at a Sierra Club, right?
Patty: Yep, that’s right. We were coworkers.
Ian: Yep. And, and so you’re still working at Sierra Club right now. So can you tell me what were your goals when you took Mary up on, her offer, to hire her, to consult with the Bike Anywhere business?
Patty: Sure. I think I have been car dependent for longer than I want to be. And I had lived in Uptown for eight years prior to living in the neighborhood that I live in now in South Minneapolis. It was much easier to live in Uptown because everything is so dense and walkable. So I didn’t do as much biking there just because I did a lot of walking.
But then when I moved further into South Minneapolis, things aren’t as dense, things aren’t as walkable. And so I was just relying on my car a lot for getting around, including for my commute to work. And I, made it my New Year’s resolution that I was going to get a bike, a functioning bike and to bike more than I drove this year.
And, but I was intimidated at the prospect of doing that because I have never been a regular biker. I’ll always have just been a recreational biker, and have never used it as a main form of commuting. And so I was super excited that Mary started this business. At the same time as I was developing these goals for myself around biking, and it just felt like a really opportune time to learn more from her given she is a bike commuter.
Like enthusiastic extraordinaire.
Ian: I imagine that, yeah, New Year’s resolutions probably play very heavily in Mary’s favor here.
Okay. So you were wanting to just in general, not just commutes, but like general biking lifestyle. Yeah. How, far is like the, ride to work?
Patty: So far? It’s been around 35 minutes.
Ian: That’s the sweet spot. That’s so perfect.
Yeah. What is your favorite thing about about this switch so far of trying to bike more often and in more context?
Patty: I just feel better, I will say. Being able to get more exercise, even just one, two days a week, I can tell that I just, my mental health is better for it. I feel more in shape. I’m, working and, sweating a little, more than I used to. and just getting that like cardio workout in has been, yeah, has been really, great… just feeling better all around, but also reducing my carbon footprint.
I’ve worked at the Sierra Club and have been working on environmental and climate issues for over a decade. And so obviously I’m thinking about my carbon footprint and my impact a lot. And, taking this step around biking instead of driving was like this big next step for me, and how I could, just, take some more personal responsibility in my life, as, I’m also working and others are working to, change systems.
Ian: Yeah. What were you looking to get out of the Bike Anywhere consultations? Were there specific pieces of help that you were looking for? Did you just want the accountability buddy aspect? What was that? What was your motivation there?
Patty: Yeah, there were a few things. One, Mary said that she was able to help me with figuring out a route to work.
And I just did not know what the best route was going to be. And when I put the route in Google Maps, it gave me a route that I wasn’t super excited about going on because they were busy streets that didn’t have great bike infrastructure. So Mary was able to help me with route planning and find a route that felt safe and… for me and where I’m at with my biking journey that felt made it feel less overwhelming.
And then, yeah, I think having that accountability and someone to just get me over the hump of just doing it. I thought so many times about, Oh, I should bike to work. I should just bike to work. But, yeah, doing the actual program with Mary, we just did it. And it made it feel way more tangible, way more achievable.
And got me, over that, hump of that I’d been stuck at for a while.
Ian: And how many of those like ride-alongs did you do?
Patty: We did two ride-alongs and then we did one other session where she was showing me some basic bike maintenance and repairs.
Ian: Yeah. So like stuff that you can do out in the field on your own or like at home?
Patty: Things that you could do at home, but also while you’re biking, say, if you get a, a flat tire, she taught me how I can, change a flat and then yeah, it just taught me how to, grease my chain and make sure that things are in good working order, how to make sure that my tires are at the right pressure, et cetera.
Ian: Yeah, I remember when I first started bike commuting and I already knew how to change a flat and everything. And so I thought I was all golden there until the first day that I got a flat tire and I’m changing it and I’m like, wait a minute, I’m in the middle of this trail and I don’t have a pump.
That’s important. it was just like, it never occurred to me like, Oh I need to have a tiny pump that goes on my bike.
Patty: Yes. Yes. Yes. That was, those are also things that I’d never thought of before. So she was able to get, let me know, that I needed a pump and I need these little plastic things that–
Ian: –the little levers.
Patty: –the levers that remove the tire. And, so she was able to give me some gear recommendations as well for what to wear and when it’s raining or snowing. And, so yeah, all of it was super helpful. Mary was also very helpful with answering questions about how do you bike on the roads?
(What) are the right signals to use? what is the right kind of signal? Spatial awareness that you need to have, regarding how your proximity to cars or your proximity to, pedestrians and things like that. I grew up in in the suburbs, riding, around on bikes.
So it’s not like I was like totally new to biking. So I think I thought I… I don’t know. I learned more than I thought I was going to.
Ian: Yeah. Having that full, the full picture is so valuable. Are there any things like any types of errands or trips or things that you’d never thought Oh, like it never occurred to you that this was going to be like a bike thing, but that you have tried out and, found success in?
Patty: So far, I think just going to the grocery store, I got a rack put on the back of my bike and then I got some saddlebags or panniers. And I went to the grocery store last week and was able to get my groceries for the week and put them on my bike and bike home. And that was the most rewarding feeling.
I was so excited. I was just like, yeah, I can go, and I can get groceries. I have the ability to haul some things right on my bike. It feels… going to the hardware store to pick something up, going to the thrift store. I don’t know. I just… like I can do a lot now.
Ian: Yeah. Isn’t that such a huge confidence booster? Like, I’m not giving up all of this, opportunities for random things that’ll come up there during the day. Like I am prepared for this.
Patty: Prepared for it… and in doing so, I know that I’m just going to become a healthier person. I think so.
It’s yeah, it’s both empowering and exciting just in terms of… How the health impacts, I think.
Ian: Yeah. Okay. Been a couple of months. And, how’s it been going, post sessions, now that you’re out there on your own?
Patty: Yeah, it’s been going well. I have not had a flat yet, so I haven’t had the opportunity to test out that skill, but, I’ve been biking to work at least once a week, if not twice a week. And, that’s been really great. And then, yeah, doing a lot of biking around the trails by my house and biking to friends’ houses and things like that. So all around just using my bike a lot more, which means that I’m getting to spend more time outside and overall just really taking more advantage of the summer than I have in a long time.
Ian: That’s awesome. What’s your favorite place to bike to right now?
Patty: I do an activity called slacklining.
Ian: Oh.
Patty: Is where, just like tight roping, but on…
Ian: But slack!
Patty: Yeah, exactly. And you’re harnessed in and everything. So I will bike down the Minnehaha Creek Trail, which is fairly close to my house. And then go down across Ford Parkway to the Mississippi River and we’ll do slacklining in this gorge Mississippi River. So I do that a couple of times a week with friends and that’s been a fun thing to, to bike to.
Ian: Now that you’re getting into the swing of it, what are your next goals?
Patty: I think my goals are just to maintain what I’m doing now. And keep building my strength, keep building my familiarity with being on, and comfortability with being on, my bike. And bike through the summer, through the fall, and then who knows? Maybe I will try out winter biking, but we will see.
I’m not sure about that yet, but…
Ian: never say never. Yeah. it’s similar to figuring out how to do groceries by bike, right? Getting over the hump of figuring out winter cycling, I found it was also a similarly empowering experience. It is very different, from a gear perspective, There’s more considerations, but it is just another thing that you can figure out how to do.
Patty: Totally. Yes. And I feel like I could, I can do it, So yeah, maybe this year we’ll, give it, we’ll give it a go.
Ian: And if not this year, there’s, there are many more winters to come, I’m sure.
This last year winter would have been a good first one to try it out.
Patty: Would have been a great first year of winter biking. I just realized more and more how, that’s such a big part of it. And it feels like overwhelming and scary because we’re so dependent on our cars and so used to the, I think, perceived convenience that comes with, driving around in cars, but there’s just, there’s so many benefits to getting away from that when it comes to our environment, our own personal health, our mental health, and being able to spend more time outside and not in a dark little box.
Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes that, that perceived, convenience is also like that’s, that is a hump to get over as well. like once, I became familiar with biking on a day-to-day basis and that became the default. Then my understanding of the conveniences of different modes of transportation shifted, and I started to realize, Oh, there are situations where I’m getting places faster on bike than I would have in a car. Or going grocery shopping, for example, like I would often forget to bring bags with me, but now the bags are just like, they’re there on the bike already. Yeah. Little things like that, little details.
And I have been, I have not been spending that much on gas because I’ve been biking around so much.
There’s … avoiding like the fuel cost of driving is such a big benefit as well.
Ian: Yeah. It’s incredible like how quickly that factor comes into play. You, look at the total financial picture of owning a car, and you think, Oh, if I didn’t have to own a car at all, the maintenance and the insurance and all of the expenses go away, but you don’t have to wait for all of those extra expenses to go away to reap the benefit of just like saving on some gas, on a we-to-o week basis.
Patty: Yeah. Saving on gas and saving on the wear and tear.
Ian: Yeah.
Patty: You can go out and do your research and do those things as well, but for me being someone who does sometimes need a little bit more of that accountability, or just didn’t feel like I had all of the time and the motivation to go and do a lot of that research and just get into it. So this was like, Yeah, just cause it’s like a stepping stone that helped make it feel more accessible and easier for me to transition into this world. So yeah, it was a really great experience. I’d recommend it.
Ian: Awesome. Patty, thanks for coming on the show.
Mary: Bike Anywhere is the name of my business. If you put in bikeanywhere.org to look me up and really would love to hear from you. I’m totally in this startup phase. I’d take a ride with you. We could get a coffee, get your ideas, following on Facebook and Instagram.
Ian: Sweet. Mary, thanks for coming on.
Mary: Thanks, Ian.
Ian: I look forward to seeing how this goes.
Mary: Sounds great.
Ian: Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Streets. mn Podcast. The show is released under a Creative Commons attribution, non-commercial, non-derivative license. So feel free to republish the episode as long as you are not altering it, and you are not profiting from it.
The music in this episode is by Eric Brandt and the Urban Hillbilly Quartet. This episode was hosted and edited by me, Ian R. Buck, and transcribed by Sherry Johnson. We’re always looking to feature new voices on the Streets. mn podcast. So if you have ideas for future episodes, drop us a line. at [email protected]. Streets.mn Is a community blog and podcast and relies on contributions from audience members like you. If you can make a one-time or recurring donation, you can find more information about doing so at streets.mn/donate. Find other listeners and discuss this episode on your favorite social media platform using the hashtag #StreetsMNPodcast. Until next time, take care.