I came across the minutes from a UND meeting last year about healthy lifestyles and other such things. They were listing off the pluses and minuses of various aspects of UND/Grand Forks. One of the cons listed was "Bike path around city doesn't make a clear loop."
I had to stop and think about that one, because its not something I had ever considered. Why isn't there a clear loop, and how could we design one and let people know about it? Both Watertown and Sioux Falls, SD have big loops (20 miles or more) of bike path that aren't too hard to get on. Why not Grand Forks?
But this isn't even all of it. Sure, having a loop would be great and would be a **good internship or senior project** for someone to make a safe, signed loop a reality, but I realized that in all the years I've been here we've had a set of implicit guidelines for rides that nobody has thought to question:
A - except for "around town" rides, the shortest ride we're going to do on the road is 25 miles or so.
B - on an "around town" ride, we all ride in the street.
I'll address B first. Some people just aren't comfortable riding in the street because they have absolutely no experience. We usually take University Ave downtown, which is not the friendliest way. Why do we do that? New riders (and those are the people we REALLY want, because they get super gung-ho about cycling) start riding more because they enjoy it (or because they feel like it's a good workout, but that may be later). They start by riding in the safest places possible (NOT what we have a history of encouraging) and by riding shorter distances . . . which brings me back to point A.
New riders aren't prepared to go 25 miles, no matter how much they delude themselves. Honestly, we should bring people out for five or 10 miles on the bike path the first time if they are super new. I know people are able to go that far on little or no experience, but unless they are as masochistic as most of the rest of us, they don't have a great experience and this may be why we don't see people again. Another reason may be what is technically called "ass pain" from so much saddle time; this would be one of those things people suffer through and don't tell us about because it would be embarrassing; a survey question for another day perhaps.
What I'm suggesting is another step down from even what we've done in the past (the "no hammering first-timers" rule), and saying that for specific rides we're going to do very, very little. This might be what we need to get people out of the spin room come slightly warmer weather.
Thoughts?
