Bike Riding Initiative in a Suburban Community: An Introduction

“Walk to School, It’s Really Cool!” This was the motto for a walking initiative in and around the community of Apple Valley, Minnesota a few years ago. While the idea of walking to school, or other locations around the city, was an excellent way to reduce obesity in the children of the community, it was not a successful program in terms of reducing dependence on cars. Dependence on cars is one of the main reasons why suburban communities lack in sustainability. One of the best ways to begin creating a sustainable society is change the habits of citizens of that society. One habit many Americans need to be cured of is their dependence on automobiles. Green technology in cars is one option, as well as public transportation. However, bicycling is an alternative to both of these. In many suburban communities, bicycling is a viable alternative to fossil fuel fueled automobiles. Thus, this project will undertake the task of installing a bicycling initiative in a traditional suburban community.

I grew up in a suburban community, and until arriving at the University of Wisconsin Madison, I didn’t realize that my hometown was the poster child of how not to be a sustainable community. After further investigation I came to the conclusion that the majority of suburban societies faced a similar problem. I wanted to tackle the idea of making suburban communities more sustainable. One way to target sustainability was to focus on reducing the wasteful self-oriented habits of the citizens of these communities. Many people who live in my hometown are unaware or aware and don’t care about the effects their choices have on greater society. In narrowing my possible targets, I found biking to be a viable candidate for a sustainability initiative. Biking facilities are a public good, and this allows biking to be an activity that is accessible to all types of people (Krizek 2007). Suburban communities are compact enough that a short bike ride will allow a person to get from point A to point be in a short amount of time. Furthermore, the roads in a suburban community are both wide and safe enough to accommodate bike lanes. Bike lanes introduce people to biking on roads and allow them to feel as though bikes are treated as equals o drivers or pedestrians. Additionally, it allows them to see bike riding as a safe practice. Taking into account the fact that Apple Valley does not yet have a plan to develop a bike friendly community, I have decided to use this as the target city in which to implement my project. The city of Apple Valley will be the model for a traditional suburban society. It is located about 25 miles from the Twin Cities, the major metropolis area of Minnesota. It has a compact downtown area, with its many housing developments stemming from all sides.  This makes the installation of bike lanes and other bicycle-friendly initiatives more reasonable.

The ultimate goal of this project is to introduce the idea of biking as an alternative to riding driving cars. Bicycling should begin to replace cars as a mode of transportation around the community. With such a compact community such as those that exist in suburban cities, each person driving a car to reach their destination provides much unnecessary waste. Thus, the destruction of the environment is increasing more rapidly by the wasteful dependence on cars in certain communities. The goal is to garner the support of a community for the use of bicycles in daily life. By the completion of this project bike lanes should be installed and awareness of the benefits of bicycling should be spread. Citizens should see bicycling as both a physically, economically, and environmentally enticing alternative to the cars that contribute to the depletion of natural resources and the pollution in our environment.

In order to develop the parameters of this project, a definition of sustainability must be established. This definition must be given in terms of the project at hand and be clear regarding how the concept relates to the problem. Sustainability can be defined as changing the motivation behind our choices from that of instant gratification to a consideration of long term effects. This is applicable to the situation in the suburbs discussed previously because the choices that are made by citizens in suburban cities are, for the most part, self-motivated. This includes the choice of driving. For example, in reality, driving to the local grocery store is not a necessity. The store is no more than two miles away from any house in the city of Apple Valley. This is well within bicycling distance. However, citizens choose to drive because they are more concerned with how quickly the can complete their task, rather than being concerned with environmental footprint they are leaving behind. In this way sustainability, as previously defined, can be achieved through this project.

The concept of replacing automobiles with bikes is not a novelty. In fact, in the state of Minnesota alone bike riding initiatives have been researched and attempting in multiple cities. The importance of introducing bicycles as a main mode of transportation in society lies with the many benefits that bicycling has to offer. These benefits can be analyzed in three categories; physical benefits, economic benefits, and environmental benefits.

First, bicycling offers many physical benefits to society. “A more complete network of walking and bicycling trails in the Apple Valley community not only offers greater opinions for moving about the community, but it promotes community health by providing trails and sidewalks that encourage people to be active” (City of Apple Valley 2011). The activity involved in biking is provides numerous health benefits to those who take part. The Surgeon General recommends that adults have at least 30 minutes of moderate physical activity every day, and that children have at least an hour each day.  While it might not seem to be a significant commitment of time, most Americans fail to meet the Surgeon General’s recommendation” (City of Apple Valley, 2011). The physical benefits of biking also contribute to sustainability under the definition previously established. This is because the increasing the health of citizens feeds into a feedback loop. Healthier citizens lead to less money spent on caring for citizens which in turn leads to more money that can be spent by the government on sustainability initiatives, which may have the side effect of further increasing the health of citizens.

In addition, increasing biking in suburban communities has numerous economic benefits to those who choose to partake. With increasing fuel prices, citizens are looking to be more economically conscious in their choices. Biking instead of driving is one of those choices. Besides the purchase of a bicycle, there are little to no costs associated with biking. The opportunity cost of a bicycle is also low, because in buying a bicycle the consumer is losing the opportunity of saving time by driving. However, the consumer is gaining the opportunity to save more money because they will not be spending money on fueling and repairing their car. (Krizek 2007). This also ties into the definition of sustainability. The economic benefits of biking contribute to sustainability because if a consumer considers the long term effects of their choice to bike, they will see that they will be saving more money in the long run by doing so.  Thus, the economic benefits of biking outweigh those of driving.

Lastly, the environmental benefits of biking are additionally supportive of sustainability. The use of automobiles depletes natural resources. Citizens of suburban communities are wasting valuable and exhaustible energy and natural resources to fuel their lifestyle. By making the choice to bike instead of drive, citizens are doing a small part to save the environment, thus allowing the population of our world to survive longer. In comparison to cars, bike use more physical energy for transport, but less fuel. Bikes do not contribute to pollution, nor do they use fuel that harms the environment. In addition, they are less wasteful because unlike cars, only certain parts of a bicycle need to be replaced after many miles, rather than replacing an entire car. Overall, bicycles have almost zero negative impact on the environment, and the use of them can fuel a sustainable society.

This project aims to be accomplished in several ways. First, extensive research will go into a proposal for the city of why and how the use of bicycles should be implemented in the community. This will include proposals for bike lanes and incentives for the local community to purchase bicycles. Furthermore, bicycling can only replace driving if the community is aware. An awareness campaign, similar to the campaign to increase walking to school for students implemented a few years ago, will be initiated to educate the community about all the benefits that biking has to offer. This project can be achieved if both the city and community of Apple Valley see biking as a viable option for the future.

Works Cited

Krizek, Kevin J. “Estimating the Economic Benefits of Bicycling and Bicycle Facilities: An Interpretive Review and Proposed Methods.” Essays on Transportation and Economics. Springer Link. 2007.

“Bike Walk Apple Valley.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011.  <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=193>

“Parks and Recreation.” City of Apple Valley. Accessed on November 16, 2011. <http://www.ci.apple-valley.mn.us/index.aspx?NID=35>.

 

 

 

Project Proposal

I come from a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota where sustainability is not the main objective of daily life. In my city, just about everyone who can drive has their own car and they drive it everywhere. I am guilty of this as well. I have my own car which I will literally drive across the street to the nearby coffee shop, rather than walk or ride my bike. When I came to Madison I was amazed at the extensive public transportation system and the amount of walking people do to get to where they need to go. In the suburbs, people are not utilizing buses, bikes, or even their own walking capabilities. This is the problem. People in my city and in many suburbs across the nation are wasting energy and precious natural resources to fuel their lifestyle.

For my project I will try to implement more of a conscientious society regarding transportation by either working to create a more effective public transportation system that will service the suburbs or work to create a more bike friendly environment. Implementing bike lanes, encouraging the use of bikes, and creating the kiosks where bikes can be rented are several ways this project can be put into action. Furthermore, a city wide bus system with routes that hit all the important areas and neighborhoods of the city is another way to fulfill the goal of this project, as well as encouraging people to take the bus into the Twin Cities for work, rather than driving themselves. This will address the problem of sustainability because we will be making conscious choices that help our environment and our lifestyle by being both environmentally and economically efficient.