Most weekdays, I ride my bike to work. I make my way across Highway 371 where it intersects Excelsior Road, just adjacent to the intersection with State Highway 210. There is a crosswalk there, and a decent bike lane on the east side. Although I enjoy cycling to work, and I have never been in an accident, when I share my way of commuting with people I tend to be met with shocked stares. “It’s too hot for that”, they say. Too “long”; too “dangerous”. In the Brainerd Lakes Area, we love to boast about our robust recreational bike trail networks, and we understand the many individual and public health benefits of cycling. So why is it that when it comes to expanding cycling from our realms of recreation to practicality, we raise our eyebrows?
Before unpacking this phenomenon, I’ll admit that I also have had my doubts about riding a bike around downtown Baxter and Brainerd. Compared to the smaller towns in the county with less traffic, cycling in our area seemed impractical when not impossible. I feared navigating the major highways crisscrossing through town and didn’t see where cyclists could bike safely along my typical routes. Further, I didn’t feel comfortable being perceived while cycling, with helmet hair and all sweaty. My perceived infeasibility of commuting by bicycle at home would even motivate me to study urban livability and design in college. I was convinced that there was a solution in policy or planning, and I just needed to find it.
It wasn’t until I started biking to work in Brainerd for financial reasons that I realized that I had been over-critical of Baxter and Brainerd’s biking resources. Once I figured out my optimal routes, riding my bike became not only possible, but practical. In Brainerd, it’s easy to work around Highway 210 with side roads and sidewalks, and the relative proximity of residential and commercial areas leave you with a short ride. Baxter is admittedly more intimidating with Highway 371 running down the middle, but there are intersections with crosswalks and bike lanes to the east and west – if you know where to find them. Extremely hot or cold weather can make cycling unpleasant- but in the spring, summer, and fall, for every terrible day there is a pleasant morning commute with sun and a cool breeze around the corner.
Of course, our communities are not perfect. These days, during my commute from central Baxter to downtown Brainerd I bike through several parking lots, hop a lot of curbs, and walk through at least one ditch. It’s easy for me to navigate these things as an able-bodied young adult, but these gaps in infrastructure can be major barriers to cycling for young children, older adults, and people with physical disabilities. However, my main takeaway has been that the barriers I initially faced to commuting by bike were not physical as much as they were personal and social. I didn’t see people biking much. I hadn’t tried to look for our bike lanes. No one I knew cycled to work, and when I eventually had to, I felt like a public admission that I was poor. It wasn’t the community infrastructure that kept me from seeing cycling as a viable means of commuting. It was stigma, and cultural norms.
Knowing this, the best way we can foster the many benefits of cycling in our community is just trying it. If you live within three miles of your workplace, or the place where you get groceries, or the place you go to school or drop your kids off at daycare, I’d like you to ask yourself the same question I should’ve asked myself a long time ago: Why not bike? The barriers we perceive to cycling are often physical but hold little integrity; they dissolve in our solution which is experience. Considering the many personal and community benefits of commuting via bicycle, and the social constructions that keep us from trying, I’d encourage you to try riding a bike to work or school at least once this month. Note how it went, what didn’t surprise you, and what did. Ask yourself, if applicable, why haven’t I tried this before?
If commuting by bicycle is something you’re willing to try, please check out the Bike Safety infographic below. Also consider reviewing maps of bike corridors and trails in Brainerd at Maps | Brainerd, MN , or in Baxter with the Baxter Park and Trail Locator website.
Tabitha Kibwaa, Crow Wing County Public Health Intern
