NATIONAL BIKE TO WORK WEEK MAY 14-18

Bicycling To Work Makes Sense—If You Can Do It

By Carol Flaherty, 5-10-07

As Bozeman rethinks its bike corridors along with its transportation master plan, how practical is it to think that bike paths could take a few thousand cars from its roads when Montana has six or more months of snow?

Dave Baumbauer, Jon Henderson, Lu Goodrum and Matt Rognlie are among those who bike to work almost every day of the year. All four live within a couple miles of work, though they say that attitude and a good bike route are more important than distance in determining who rides, walks or drives.

“What I’d really like to see would be an attitude shift that would make bicycling the normal thing to do, not something special,” said Baumbauer, Montana State University’s manager of the Plant Growth Center and member of the Bozeman Bike Advisory Board. “That’s how it is elsewhere in the world. Part of it is economics, part of it is terrain, but in the Netherlands, doctors, lawyers and shopkeepers all ride their bikes.” Baumbauer added that Boulder, Colo. and Minneapolis both have high quality biking and walking systems, showing that having a good system that is heavily used is possible even in areas with significant winters.

Nationally, about two percent of Americans regularly bike to work, he said. No data are available in Bozeman, though Baumbauer speculated that its percentage might be slightly higher given the college and emphasis on healthy outdoor lifestyle.

About 40 percent of all trips in the Netherlands are made by bike, said Henderson. However, Henderson, who is chairman of the Bozeman Bike Advisory Board, said he would be happy if Bozeman’s use increased to 10 percent of all trips being made by bicycle.

“The point is that the benefits of biking are not just to the individual. Bikers benefit the users of other vehicles by decreasing congestion and pollution associated with high volumes of traffic. It is better for everyone,” he said.

Lu Goodrum, a “temp” employee who works in a variety of offices at MSU, said she bikes eight months a year, though not in the dead of winter.

“If I can’t bike, I walk. I only drive if I have to,” said Goodrum. “My bike uses no nonrenewable energy. It gives off no pollution, and it means one less car on the road. It often means that I arrive at my destination before I would if I drove. I love the exercise. It helps me stay fit, and it’s just plain fun.”

Fancy bikes are not the norm, even among enthusiasts like Goodrum. She said her bike is 16 years old.

Rognlie, MSU’s College of Agriculture information technology systems coordinator, said he bikes to work except after exceptionally heavy snowfalls, when he walks. In winter, he outfits his bike with studded tires. While he, his wife and two daughters all predominantly bike, he emphasized that the routes will make or break bicycle commuting.

“If you don’t have a good route, it may not be easy to bike regardless of how close you are to your destination,” Rognlie said. A good route, he said, is one with generally lower traffic, with crosswalks at major intersections, and where the bike lanes are plowed as well as the main road.

“If you have a good route, it’s not exceptionally difficult to commute year-round,” Rognlie said. Without a good route, “You could live within two miles of campus and it would be a difficult commute in bad weather or when it is dark.”

A bike has as much right to a traffic lane as a car, but bicyclists need to obey the rules of the road if they are to be accepted by non-bikers, Henderson said. The complaint he hears most often is that bicyclists do not stop at stop signs or signal when turning. Bicycling rules of the road are on the Bozeman Bicycle Map.

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