StarTribune reporter Sarah Lemagie has written a nice article about the Northfield, Minnesota-based bike company, Rawland Cycles, and its founders, Sean and Anna Virnig. See also a January 3rd post I did on Rawland and also my conversation with Sean.

On the morning of my talk to the Northfield Rotary, the StarTribune published a story on a recent report by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health: “Obesity and Future Health Care Costs: A Portrait of Two Minnesotas.” (Executive summary also available.) The report is a collaboration between Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota State Demographer. It is based on research by Kenneth E. Thorpe, Ph.D., of Emory University.

According to the StarTribune article, these are the key findings of the report:

• If Minnesotans pack on the pounds at current rates, fewer than one fourth will be a healthy weight by 2020, according to projections in the study prepared by Kenneth Thorpe, chairman of health policy and management at Emory University in Atlanta.

• Treatment costs for overweight or obese people will be 61 percent more by 2020 than for people of healthy weight.

• Unless rates go down, health problems related to overweight and obesity will account for 31 percent of the increase in health care costs projected to occur by 2020.

• That would add $900 million a year to the health care tab for Minnesota by 2010 and $3.7 billion a year by 2020.

I was particularly struck by this question and the answer from the StarTribune article. Read the rest of this entry »

On Thursday, January 31, I spoke to the Northfield Rotary Club about the Northfield Area Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, on which I serve as chair. I began by explaining how I got involved in bike and pedestrian advocacy. I didn’t put it quite this way in the talk, but I’ve come to view my advocacy as really a coincidence resulting from the special character of the last two cities I’ve lived in: Davis, California, and my current city of residence, Northfield, Minnesota. Davis showed me what was possible for nonmotorized transportation in cities, while Northfield encouraged me with its potential and its people - people who agreed that Northfield could make important strides in healthier modes of transportation.

The bulk of my talk to Rotary addressed the reasons that communities should promote cycling and walking and the mission and goals of the task force. As far as the reasons for promoting nonmotorized transportation, I focused on energy issues and health issues, with more emphasis on the latter. Regarding energy, I displayed a slide showing the vastly different energy requirements for propelling a pedestrian or cyclist as compared to a person in a motor vehicle. Of course this is a function of the difference in the weight of the vehicles (or lack of vehicle) involved. Here are the examples of vehicle weights that I gave: Read the rest of this entry »

Last Thursday, January 10, Eric Johnson and I met with Sean Virnig of Rawland Cycles, the new Northfield, Minnesota bike company (see my Jan. 3 post for more on the company). That’s Eric in the foreground above and Sean behind him. We met Sean in downtown Northfield and got to see and test ride Rawland’s two bikes, the Olaf and the Sogn. (The Olaf frame is for fixed-gear or single-speed bikes, and the Sogn is for geared bikes; both use size 650B wheels and tires.) We also sat down at Goodbye Blue Monday, a local coffee shop, and conversed with Sean. Because he is deaf, we did so by typing on Eric’s laptop computer.

Sean and Eric both have a lot of technical knowledge about bikes, so it was a treat for me to learn from them. Below is the transcript of our conversation, including more pictures. I’ve re-ordered a few of the pieces of the conversation to better group topics together. One note to help you follow the conversation: Rawland is derived from the English translation of Sean’s mother’s last name.

Eric: Thanks for the test ride!

Bill: [to Sean] You lived in California?

Sean: I went to high school in Fremont in the early 90s. I grew up at the Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf in Faribault where my siblings and parents went as well. We all lived in Mendota Heights. My dad designed and built my childhood home there, [a] Colonial Williamsburg [style].

Next month I will be in California on business, so I will bring the Sogn so as to ride up Mount Diablo in Walnut Creek, 3500 or so feet. That’s Rivendell’s backyard. I know Grant Petersen personally, so perhaps he’ll ride with me.

Bill: I drove up Mt. Diablo! Davis, [California,] where we lived from 2002 to 2004, is not too far from there. If you have time, you might want to check out the [bike] infrastructure there.

Eric: How did you decide to build bikes?

Sean: I’ve been riding for all but the first five years of my life. I’ve worked at bike shops, etc. I just don’t like where the industry is heading with all the high-tech stuff. I decided to start Rawland so as to show how it should be done.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today the Northfield News published my response to a December 12 column on transportation by former Northfield Chamber of Commerce president David Ludescher. In his column Mr. Ludescher argued for providing pedestrian and cyclist facilities only in limited parts of the road system. I had originally submitted it as a letter just before Christmas, but I’m grateful that the News has elevated it to a guest column.

Local cyclist Eric Johnson informed me of this exciting news for my hometown: Northfield, Minnesota, resident Sean Virnig has established Rawland Cycles, a new bicycle company. Rawland offers two different steel frames, the Olaf and the Sogn, the former for fixed-gear or single-speed bikes and the latter for geared bikes. Both frames are designed to use 650B wheels, a newer size that is supposed to be more versatile. Information on complete bikes is available by request.

Like Virnig, I am of Norwegian descent, so I appreciate the Viking motif designed into one of the bikes: the decorative allusion to the sea serpent on the rear dropouts (the spot where the rear wheel attaches to the frame).

Judging by the News and Updates section of the Rawland web site, there has already been a lot of coverage of Rawland in the cycling world since the company debuted at the Interbike trade show in Las Vegas last September. Strangely enough, I haven’t heard anything about the company in the local and regional media.

I hope to find out more about Rawland, and I wish Mr. Virnig good fortune with his new company.

Last night I attended the Minnesota Department of Transportation presentation on a major highway here in Northfield, Highway 19. It was the second open house on the MnDOT Access Management and Safety Plan for the highway. The presentation was made by MnDOT planner Peter Waskiw.

Mr. Waskiw laid out the reasons for doing the plan, principal among them crash reduction and improved traffic flow. He described the classification of this stretch of 19 between I-35 and Minnesota Highway 3 as a minor arterial shading into a principal arterial. He had lots of data on traffic volume, turning movement counts, and crash history. The latter showed 187 crashes between 2002 and 2006 - a higher rate than with similar highways in MnDOT District 6. Rear-end collisions made up the highest component of those accidents, numbering 64. Read the rest of this entry »

The City of Northfield Transportation Plan has begun to take shape, and interested citizens can take a look at the plan web site. I’ve seen a draft of the Transportation Plan goals and objectives (not yet posted online) and they look promising in their commitment to a sustainable, multi-modal transportation system. One item I was encouraged to see: “Objective 4.3 - Establish an area transportation advisory committee with the state, counties, and adjacent municipalities and townships to coordinate and strategize regional transportation planning initiatives (TH 19 between Northfield and I-35, Cannon River Crossing/CSAH 1 Preservation, NW Corridor).”

Does anyone know, are there models out there for this kind of regional advisory committee, ones that Northfield might emulate?

Today the Northfield area submitted its grant proposal to the Safe Routes to Schools program, which in Minnesota is administered by our state Department of Transportation. Our proposal is for what is called a “non-infrastructure” grant. That is, we’re not proposing to build anything with the money we might receive. Instead we would use the money to do planning and technical analysis of safe routes around schools and to create educational, encouragement, law enforcement, and evaluation programs that support children walking and biking to school.

Our proposed project is called “Pathways to Healthier Students (PaTHS): Planning Enhanced Access to Northfield Schools.” The proposal asks for $15,000 for the planning/technical analysis component (most of which would be used to hire an engineering firm), $10,000 for education and encouragement programs, and $5,000 for law enforcement programs (including crossing guard training and equipment). The project would involve Northfield Public Schools’ three elementary schools and its Middle School. Read the rest of this entry »

The Northfield Middle School participated in Walk to School Day last Wednesday, October 3. Organizers counted 123 walkers in the morning out of a student population that numbers over 900.

The weather was splendid that day, particularly in the afternoon, as you can tell from the photos above and below.

The event was organized by the Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, on which I serve as chair, in cooperation with the Northfield Public Schools. I participated on the day of the event as well, monitoring one of the designated routes in the morning and surveying things more generally in the afternoon.

In the morning I was struck by this impression as I rode my bike to my post at Truman Park: so many cars! I was on the lookout for walkers and bikers, but there were very few in the area I was in. The commuters were on their way to work or school, and the car was the overwhelming transportation mode of choice. When I got to the Park I did see some people out for an early morning walk, and two students walked through talking on their cell phones, but my park post was clearly the quietest of the Walk to School routes.

It shouldn’t be surprising that people largely get around in cars here, but when you sit and watch it and are roughly tallying people’s transportation choices, it really sinks in: the car is king.