I have been commuting by bike full time for almost 2 years now. Before that, I commuted by bike part time for about 4 years. In 2020 I sold my car, and I never looked back.
Over the past 6 years, my “why” has changed for my reason for riding. At first, it was a fun way to get to work, and a challenge. I enjoyed riding in weather that people said I was crazy to ride in. It created an appreciation for seeing my city in a way I hadn’t before. I had to find new ways to get to where I wanted to go via our incredible trail system.
When I first started riding part time, I worked at a local brewery. Then I realized that breweries and bikes tied together, and had a history. I decided to start a monthly bike ride for customers and coworkers. To my surprise the joy I found in craft beer and biking tied together really well, and made my excitement for bikes grow even more.
My passion for biking has changed over the past few years. As I enter this year as the president of BicycLincoln, and as a first year board member. My passion, and goals are to work towards creating a life, community, and city that makes bicycle travel not only easy, but preferable.
Over the past few years bike commuting has been a big part of my life, and it has changed how I live, in a positive way. This has lead me to research the subject of bike friendly cities. It has opened a flood gate of information on cities around the world shifting to a design that favor walkable, bikeable, and public transit focused city design.
These 3 ways of transportation support each other in almost every way. If one is improved in your city, the other 2 also improve naturally.
A car focused city that only makes travel by car better, causes the other 3 to suffer in safety and accessibility.
On average it costs around $10,000 a year to own a new car (including… car payment, gas, insurance, and maintenance etc). Among many other reasons, everyone is not able to own a car, and they shouldn’t have to own one.
Getting to a job/interview, getting to an appointment, or hanging out with friends/family should not depend on the fact that you own a car.
As I enter this year, I want Lincoln to become the best city in the world to ride bikes. I want every single citizen in our city to be able to decide when they need to go somewhere “can I walk? No. can I bike? No. can I take public transit? No. then I’ll drive”.
Over the next year, I will work to improve biking in our city while also educating my fellow citizens on why it will improve their lives.
A city that is easy to access and move in without a car; is a city that is better for people from all walks of life.
