MPR: Biking for work as well as pleasure

Biking for work as well as pleasure
By Kaomi Goetz
Minnesota Public Radio
September 7, 2001

A high quality of life is often cited by metro residents as one reason the Twin Cities area is a good place to live. Lush parks, lake access and an expansive recreational trail system are some of the attractions - traffic congestion is one of the downsides. One way to ease traffic flow comes when people get out of their cars and take to their bikes for the day's commute.

A bike commuter's diary
By Andy Peterson
I bike for a number of reasons - health, fun, easing pollution/congestion, it's cheaper than driving. There's also a great feeling that comes with knowing I can get myself to and from work under my own power - and not having to rely on oil from halfway across the world.

The morning and afternoon commutes have radically different characters. In the morning it can be a little tough to convince myself to get on a bike and push myself the eight miles to work. My muscles are cold, the air is often chilly, and I've only been out of bed for around 20 minutes. After 10 minutes of biking I'm feeling good, and I get into work feeling energetic.

It's always a good feeling to get on my bike after work. Back when I drove in to work, I used to get into my car, sit in traffic, and try to stay awake on the drive home. I'd get home and feel tired. Biking feels like Saturday afternoon recreation. Plus, I have more energy when I get home.

I'm lucky to have a number of conveniences at work that make it easier to bike. These include showers, work uniforms (with laundry - therefore I don't have to put wrinkled clothes in my backpack), some flexibility on work hours, and a shuttle that loops between the three buildings of the General Mills campus.
(MPR Photo/Kaomi Goetz)

ANDY PETERSON, 25, IS A CHEMICAL ENGINEER AT GENERAL MILLS. He lives in the Uptown area of Minneapolis, and works at the company's plant eight miles away, nestled in a western suburb. When most of his fellow employees are navigating freeways and bottlenecks, Peterson is careening down wooded trails, listening to birds chirp, and checking out the nearby prairie grasslands.

"Towards the end of (last) summer I started biking to work one day a week or so, and this year I thought, 'why not bike in,'" he says.

Peterson started his daily bicycle commute last April. The ride takes him about 30 minutes. He says he started biking primarily for exercise, and for social and environmental reasons - he says he's doing his part to free up road congestion and reduce pollution. Appreciative of his daily brush with nature, Peterson reports he's in better physical shape, and says biking just makes better sense.

"It's time I'm going to be spending in my car anyway, so I might as well be out getting some exercise," says Peterson. "Sometimes it's fun to see cars stopped on Interstate 394, and think that I'm still moving on. I've definitely been in that situation where I'm stuck in my car and I'd much rather be on my bike."

Peterson's employer makes it easy for him to do this. He has flexible hours, on-site showers and a laundry for his lab uniform. Not everyone has these amenities at work, but a 1999 Minnesota Department of Transportation study found that 18 percent of respondents who currently drive to work would consider biking. And soon there could be more incentives.

Under a bill pending in Congress, employers would receive federal tax benefits for every employee who bikes to work. Bicyclists would be entitled to up to $65 per month - benefits already available to carpool and mass transit commuters. Patrick McCormick of the Washington-based League of American Bicyclists says their study's findings are persuasive.

"What we found is - if each resident of an American community of 100,000 people replaced a car trip with a bike trip just once a month, that would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3,764 tons per year for that community. This is something that could really have a major impact," says McCormick.

In the 1999 MnDOT study, about four percent of state residents commuted to work by bike on some occasions. A lesser percentage do on a regular basis. According to Don Pflaum of the Minneapolis Public Works Department, 2,500 bicyclists pedal into the city each day. State Bicycle Coordinator Darryl Anderson says MnDOT recognizes the growing significance of alternative transportation.

"They may be against the stream, against the grain, but here at MnDOT it's a growing trend. There's growing public interest and pressure on our organizations to pay attention to those other opportunities," says Anderson.

For cyclists, commuting in the city can mean weaving in and out of dangerous automobile traffic. Here's where trails come in. Minneapolis' Cedar Lake Trail, a former rail line - and the nation's first divided bicycle freeway - connects downtown Minneapolis to the western suburbs. For Andy Peterson, the scenery along the trail represents the best part of his commute.

Peterson's route mixes roads, converted rail lines and park trails. Though city and regional trails are still widely maintained and used for recreation, a 1999 Metropolitan Council study found that one-third of all trail users were bicyclists, and four percent of them were commuters.

Funding for trails comes from a variety of sources, depending upon the trail and type of park. The Met Council provides some of the funding for trails in regional parks. Over the the past six years, the council allocated more than $40 million in federal dollars for regional bike and pedetrian trails and other projects. Metro Transit provides area storage lockers and front-load bike racks on new city buses.

The new light rail transit line will also have bicycle commuters in mind. Phil Riveness, the Met Council's Rail Transit chairman, says each LRT car will allow six bikes aboard, with bike lockers and racks at each station. Riveness predicts the number of bike commuters will double in the next 10 years.

A study done two years ago by MnDOT indicates only about four percent of Minnesotans commute to work on their bikes, even occasionally. A bill pending in Congress would provide incentives for workers, and their employers, to use their bicycles to and from work.
(Photo by Kristine Poelzer)

"For instance, if someone lives five blocks from the 38th St. station, that may be more than they want to walk in the morning. But that's a really nice distance to bicycle and lock up your bike. In Europe - Amsterdam or Copenhagen, you see the tremendous amount of commuting that goes on by bicycle. I think we're going to have to accomodate that as an option and then more and more people will choose it," Riveness says.

Most of Minneapolis' trails were put in during the 1970s, and to varying degrees are in need of maintenance and repair. Minneapolis Park Board planner Jennifer Ringold says there's an increasing need to bring the trails up to a higher standard.

"When trails initially went into our system, they were more the specification of a sidewalk, and now when we put them in they're more the specification of a road," says Ringold. "At this point, we also try to separate out a pedestrian and a bike path so those two users are separate in the system wherever possible."

Ringold says the issue of maintenance and planning can be complex. For example, old rail beds like the Midtown Greenway, which runs through Minneapolis, are owned by Hennepin County, but built and maintained by Minneapolis Public Works. Most off-road trails in Minneapolis are maintained by the Park Board, but roads are under the authority of the city and state. Ringold says the city's five-year bike plan ensures that a variety of advisory and community groups work towards the same goal. The board's challenge, Ringold says, continues to be accommodating a variety of trail users without sacrificing precious green space.

"One thing we are doing on Lake Calhoun and Lake Harriet is to have a one-way traffic pattern, increasing the amount of people who can be on it without increasing the asphalt that is needed to carry that amount of people," says Ringold.

The Minneapolis Park Board is looking at improvements, such as creating a connector trail from Cedar Lake to the Luce Line Trail, which heads west along Bassett's Creek. The Theodore Wirth Parkway Trail, one that Andy Peterson uses every day, is slated for repairs next spring. Peterson says he's happy with his new-found mode of transportion.

"Try it one day a week, a couple of days a week - and see how you like it."

Peterson says he'll continue cycling to work as far into the winter months as he can. If state and local planners are right, he'll soon be in good company.

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