Growing Destinations
Your go-to source for insightful discussions on destination development. The Growing Destinations podcast delves into the strategies, challenges, and successes that drive community growth. Each episode features in-depth conversations with local and national experts, uncovering universal themes and innovative practices that can be applied to any city or region.
Growing Destinations
Wheels of Change with We Bike Rochester’s Erik Noonan
Today we delve into the transformative changes taking place in transportation, particularly in the rising popularity of biking that's becoming more accessible to a diverse range of individuals. Joining Growing Destinations today is Erik Noonan, from We Bike Rochester, a chapter affiliated with the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. We Bike Rochester is at the forefront of advocating for pedestrians and cyclists. Offering an array of programs and outreach initiatives, the organization conducts classes on safe cycling, adult learn-to-ride programs, and engaging social rides. Stay tuned as the Rochester community eagerly anticipates participation in a signature ride event in 2024.
We Bike Rochester
Experience Rochester, MN
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Erik Noonan:This is kind of this quiet revelation happening in transportation among bicycles in general just new form factors, including e-cargo bikes, and what this has really meant is that bikes are a lot more accessible to a broader range of people.
Bill Von Bank:Welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast, where we take a deep dive into destination development and focus on a wide range of topics, from tourism and entertainment to economic development and entrepreneurism and much more. I'm your host, bill Vaughn-Bank. Today, we delve into the transformative changes taking place in transportation, particularly in the rising popularity of biking that's becoming more accessible to a diverse range of individuals. Joining me is Eric Noonan from we Bike Rochester, a chapter affiliated with the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. We Bike Rochester is at the forefront of advocating for pedestrians and cyclists, offering an array of programs and outreach initiatives. The organization conducts classes on safe cycling, adult learn-to-ride programs and engaging social rides. Stay tuned, as the Rochester community eagerly anticipates participation in a signature ride event in 2024. Erik Noonan, welcome to the Growing Destinations podcast. Thanks so much for having me, eric. You are on the board of directors for we Bike Rochester, so we're going to talk about all things biking in Rochester, and maybe more broadly, in just a bit, but first I want to learn a little bit more about you.
Erik Noonan:Like many in our community in Rochester, I'm a trailing spouse. My wife is in training at Mayo. She's a fellow and I've kind of followed her now all over the country. We're from the Twin Cities originally and we spent four years in San Antonio, which is where she did her residency Prior to coming here. Correct, yeah.
Bill Von Bank:So I met you a few years back and every time I see you, you've always either got a bike helmet in your hand or you're on a bike. Let's take a look into your role as being on the board of we Bike Rochester and, for our listeners who may not be familiar with it, why don't you share a little bit more and the mission behind the organization?
Erik Noonan:Sure, we Bike. Rochester is a chapter of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota and we are kind of advocates for pedestrian and bikes all over the state. So here in Rochester that focus also tends to include a lot of accessibility and sustainability, as well as kind of the community health implications as well. And kind of in my role there, I'm the communications director, so I oversee a lot of our social media presence as well as some of our strategic partnerships.
Bill Von Bank:And education is a key component of your mission. How does we Bike Rochester approach, educating the community about, for example, safe cycling practices and other initiatives.
Erik Noonan:A couple times a year we teach a class called Safe Cycling and it's a two-day-long class and it's meant to give people a lot more comfort in riding around communities like ours, understanding the laws around it and then kind of handling skills, and people come out of it, I think, feeling a lot more confident and in addition to that also we do adult-learn-to-ride. So on our board, barb Beck is just a tremendous asset to have. She does one-on-one trainings with adults, a lot of whom didn't have access to bikes growing up. Maybe they grew up in a different country or kind of a different culture of our own and then you or I did Bill, and the benefits of that are just tremendous, kind of in terms of they're being able to access amenities around town without needing to own or use a car.
Bill Von Bank:What you provide to the community in terms of education and other efforts is across the spectrum of ages, correct?
Erik Noonan:It is, yeah, and we do a lot of work also with the school districts and so kind of the key players with that Olmstead County Public Health Joanne Dietz is that the name I definitely call out. One of those people is just doing 1,000% all the time. And then also, are this are safe for us? To school coordinator Dustin Morrow, so some of them for folks who have kids especially in the elementary age range. We were kind of part of the partnership that got a couple of fleets of balance bikes that are now kind of a part of the physical education programming and what they've really found is that teaching kids how to ride bikes is different than again probably you or I learned with training wheels. That that balance component is actually much more important to instill at an earlier age and then there's less kind of bad habits to have to unlearn later.
Bill Von Bank:You've kind of already alluded to some of this, but can you highlight some measurable impacts that we bike Rochester has had on the community of Rochester One?
Erik Noonan:of our other kind of bigger efforts is community bike workshop, and so Paul Klaus is kind of our primary point person on that but it works with the Alliance of Chicano, hispanic and Latino Americans and there's so this bike workshop.
Erik Noonan:It's a few different things but its primary focus is it takes in donated bikes, volunteer mechanics who often are learning how to do this as they go, repair those bikes and then we put them out into the community for folks who need reliable transportation, and in the past year we've taken that from, you know, around 60 bicycles a year to over 300. So kind of In just a year, in just a year, yeah. And that was kind of made possible through, again, another partnership with, in this case the city DMC, the parks department, that we were able to use the basement of the old fire station at Silver Lake and that was kind of on a temporary basis, which we've now been able to extend out kind of longer term. So we just signed it, actually a lease for the next five years on that space and that gives us just a lot more capacity to, even beyond that, expand some program potentially. So we're looking at some community education around bike repair in a more structured format going forward.
Bill Von Bank:We have 300 bikes that you can distribute. What's the process for people to access those bikes?
Erik Noonan:So the process that we're going to be moving forward with is gonna be relying on a lot of community partners and very much focused on equity. So folks who maybe they're living at or below the poverty line, who don't it's just not feasible as an option for other forms of transportation, but they also need to be able to access the goods and resources around town and even beyond that. We have a large population of people in town who maybe they're here working as interns and they're making money, but they are still looking for kind of opportunities to decrease their own expenses and they can come to different partners around town. Patheta Paro is one of them that we've really relied on the past and we don't do a lot of exclusion on who we're offering these bikes to, as long as they're able to show that there is need and that they have a secure place to store it Are they primarily used for, for example, get to and from work or just move around the city better.
Erik Noonan:Yeah, really all over the kind of spectrum on that one. So we do have a lot of people who maybe they're walking to work, and that's three plus miles, or they're having to kind of go out of their way to access our mass transit system. But it's also people who are just focused on, you know, maybe their own personal health. They're trying to set good examples for their kids. Sometimes we have whole families come in and that's you know. We're able to offer the kids some bikes often as well. And another kind of distribution point also is through the Safe Routes to School program. Every spring we have a ride to school day and Maybe the worst thing ever is to have some of the kids not be able to participate in that because they don't own a bike and so being able to kind of fill, fill in that need within our community to encourage those healthy behaviors again at a younger age.
Bill Von Bank:Could you share a success story or two about individuals or families who have been positively impacted by we bike Rochester's programs?
Erik Noonan:one of the people who comes to mind on this one is someone who's become a really good friend of mine.
Erik Noonan:Their names Mary Jones, and Back in the mid 90s she was diagnosed with MS and that really kind of came to a head about a decade ago when she really began to lose a lot of kind of mobility and balance which is pretty common for kind of that condition.
Erik Noonan:And and she's someone who just very active in the community I think that she's been working with the League of Windmill voters for 20 plus years and she, you know, huge sustainability advocate as well. As she lost some of those kind of motor skills. I think that there's an ability to be present in the community that has lost along with it. And her husband, who is on her board, built Her a E tricycle which she has been able to use for a lot of our social rides. If you see her around town, she usually has a dog in a basket in the back so pretty, you know, iconic. Look at the. She's always spoken just how much that means to her to be able to participate kind of in these community activities in a way that she likely wouldn't have been able to otherwise.
Bill Von Bank:That's great. Partnerships can play a crucial role in this success of community organizations. Are there any notable collaborations or partnerships that have strengthened we bike Rochester's impact?
Erik Noonan:one of our strongest partnerships is comprised of Olmstead County Public Health, as well as the safe routes of school coordinator and Through this we're able to do just a tremendous amount of especially youth programming and, coupled with that kind of the different ideas around how best to facilitate that in the school districts and funding sources which are always, you know, so key to nonprofits in promoting cycling.
Bill Von Bank:How does we bike? Rochester ensure that its programs are Inclusive and accessible to everyone in the community. So what? Immediately?
Erik Noonan:comes to mind with. That is kind of our approach to a lot of our Programming, especially our social rides. So we operate on what's called kind of no drop rides, which means no one's gonna left behind. We're gonna go at the pace of whoever is has the least ability and Try to really make sure that everyone does feel comfortable within that space. Everyone is kind of part of the conversations. That Even kind of when there there are needs that arise. If you arrive with a bike that needs a little bit of, you know, tune up, we're gonna do that on the spot for you so that we can make sure that you are able to participate.
Bill Von Bank:E bikes have seen a surge in popularity in recent years. What factors do you believe contribute to this growing trend?
Erik Noonan:the rise of e-bikes is something that's really been interesting to watch, and I'd actually expand that out to just this is kind of this quiet revolution happening in transportation Among bicycles in general just new form factors, including e-cargo bikes, and what this is really meant is that bikes are a lot more accessible to a broader range of people.
Erik Noonan:We live in a city that has some pretty steep hills, and if you live at the top of one of those, that's probably something that in the past you've been less likely to want to use. But if you can just get that little bit of boost on your way home, that a bike suddenly becomes much more accessible for you. So I think you know, especially as we look nationwide we're an aging nation and that kind of consideration of you know what, what Physical activity becomes accessible when you, you know your physical limitations are maybe increasing slightly. And it also added that I think that a lot of people are looking for Opportunities to save costs, and so they're looking to e-bikes as a car replacement.
Bill Von Bank:And you're seeing more and more retailers now open with e-bikes.
Erik Noonan:Yeah, and here in town We've seen new spin bicycles, which I correct. They just opened their second location about a year ago and they prioritized the location because it was a long kind of the bike trails.
Bill Von Bank:Speaking of bike trails, there's a lot of bike trails in Rochester and sometimes Rochester doesn't get the credit it deserves for its trail systems. You obviously hear about Lanesboro or others, but there's a great opportunity here to bring visitors to Rochester just because of our bike trails. Can you speak to that?
Erik Noonan:We have an award-winning bike trail system here and it's something that I think for a lot of visitors they maybe don't realize, especially if they stay just within kind of our downtown area. But really in most places in town you're no more than maybe a mile and a half away from a trailhead and once you get there you can get most places in town. The trail system locally too, is one of those things where it was something you know. I'm sure it was a hard-fought battle in the past, but it was something that there was an opportunity due to need to add flood mitigation around town and someone had this wise idea why don't we just, you know, connect all of these, pave them, and we can use those both for you know, to repair the different dams around town If we need to, but the rest of the year it's become the most used park of energy in town.
Bill Von Bank:In terms of getting around safely. It looks like Rochester has stepped up over the last few years to really create bike-friendly lanes and more safety along the roadways. What's your perspective?
Erik Noonan:I think that the biggest safety change has really come from decreasing the speeds, and you know some of that. It relies on kind of people going along with it and actually obeying those reduced speeds. But those, both in terms of kind of folks feeling comfortable on the roadways on a bicycle, but also the reality of the decreased kind of damage from a car should you be hit, has made a huge difference. And I think also kind of what it's providing is route finding to those trailheads that's so necessary. Again, kind of our downtown currently is not well connected to this amazing amenity that we have and the opportunity from the city and also you know, mayo and DMC, to have that be a component of especially long-term stay People here on a longer-term basis, maybe with a loved one who is seeking care.
Bill Von Bank:Minnesota cyclists will no longer be required to make a full stop at stop signs under a new law pass this past year, often called the Idaho Stop. It's designed to enhance bicycle safety. In what ways will it contribute to safer cycling on Minnesota roads?
Erik Noonan:So this has been a big one. First off, this was a huge win for kind of bike advocates around the state. To be honest, we're not expecting it to be something that would be as easy to pass as it was, and what we found was a lot of the state-level public safety officials took a look at the data, which is always kind of the hope, the approach that you hope that they'll take, and they looked at that and it just it makes the case for itself. So Idaho I kind of was the first state to do this and a study that was done there showed a 14.5% decrease in injuries for all people involved when a bike is hit in an intersection. Other states that followed Delaware actually saw a 23% decrease. And these are huge numbers. They are big.
Erik Noonan:If you went into your doctor and the doctor said, hey, here's some treatment that you can take, that's going to almost a quarter by a quarter reduce the implication of a condition, no brainer. And I'd even step back and say what this law isn't. This law isn't kind of an invitation for folks on bikes to go gunning through an intersection. This is when you're approaching an intersection you need to slow down, but it's the opportunity to make the decision for yourself what is safest for you while you're on that bike, and that sometimes is going to be stopping, and sometimes it's going to be when there's no other traffic there to be able to proceed through that Like a stop right now that has a flashing yellow.
Erik Noonan:Exactly.
Bill Von Bank:Solid red. On a personal note, what motivated you to get involved with we Bike Rochester and do you have a particular moment or story that resonates with you?
Erik Noonan:For this one I'd really take it all the way back where I grew up, which, again, it was a suburb of the Twin Cities. I grew up on a frontage road of a highway. On the other side of that highway was everything. It was parks, it was the library, it was movie theaters, it was friends, it was, you know, the comic book shop. But until I was old enough to kind of ride a bike the long way, the safer crossing, I didn't have access to any of those things unless an adult was driving me there. And so I think from a really young age I had this understanding that, like bike and car, infrastructure can provide a barrier to so many people and kind of those accessibility considerations. I think we're a primary motivator. And as I've gotten older, to the sustainability aspect has really kind of come front and center for me, I think, as a younger person, kind of looking at what the rest of our my life is going to look like and the challenges we're going to be needing to overcome.
Erik Noonan:You look at the primary sources of emissions in our state and it's just overwhelmingly automobiles. It's the single largest source of emissions and that's something that we need to reduce, especially for those shorter trips.
Bill Von Bank:I mean even coming here today.
Erik Noonan:For me it's about a three-mile ride, and that took me 15 minutes, instead of driving here, finding parking and all of those other considerations where it just kind of ends up making the case for itself. And there's also just the joy component of it too. There's so few aspects of climate resilience that do bring that sense of happiness the whole time, and riding a bike just is one of those Are you a year-round rider.
Erik Noonan:There are definitely days in the winter where I try to find excuses why I don't actually need to go and run that errand, and I think that that is true even for drivers.
Erik Noonan:Right, it's never fun going out and trying to have your car warm up on a cold morning. But yeah, I do ride year-round and that's something that I've been doing since college, and back then it was on kind of a beater of an old mountain bike and I think, being an adult and having a little bit more funding to throw at this, there are better solutions and it's been great being able to utilize those. But that's something, too, our bike infrastructure really allows for, because sometimes the trails are not the first things in town to get cleared of snow. Are fat tire bikes still popular? Yeah, especially in our state, and I think that that's kind of a growing solution. They're great at dealing with snow, even if that snow maybe hasn't been plowed yet, and I think that the prices of those have come down a lot too. They're no longer as much as just a luxury segment thing that there's some more affordable options.
Bill Von Bank:Give us some benefits to becoming a partner with we Bike Rochester.
Erik Noonan:For businesses especially. We have a lot of programming that there's a lot of business owners around town, business leaders around town, who have realized that kind of their profit margin. It's not how many car parking spots that they have, it's the amount of foot traffic coming through. And when you kind of aren't limited again by the number of parking spots, if you can make it a little bit more inviting at a bike rack, add some sort of an incentive program. We're running both of those and we are happy to have conversations about why it's worth it for businesses to kind of make the small changes that they can see really big benefits from.
Bill Von Bank:It's great to see your communication on Facebook, because you do such a great job of communicating a lot to the public. Even, for example, rochester Public Transit and every bus has a bike rack, and let us show you how to put your bike on the bike rack. I think that's great and a lot of it is experiential too.
Erik Noonan:So, whenever possible and this is something that unfortunately we didn't have as many opportunities during the pandemic to do but being able to bring out, like Rochester Public Transit has one of those that's just mounted to I think it's mounted to an engine block but being able to experience what that actually looks like feels like to have that as part of your morning commute, where for a lot of people maybe that's the change that between them trying to find parking downtown, paying for parking downtown or waiting to win the parking lottery, that they're only a mile away from that bus stop and that's almost nothing if they can ride a bike there. So kind of making those micro-mobility connections to the mass transit system.
Bill Von Bank:In terms of group rides, how often do you do those, and are there some that happen as a much bigger deal than others, because maybe it's tied around an event?
Erik Noonan:Here's the Bill von Bank exclusive actually is.
Erik Noonan:We're working right now we're in the initial planning stages on what's we're hoping will be a signature Rochester ride event and that the date that we're looking at right now is Saturday, may 25th, which is the Saturday, memorial Day weekend, and that would be a larger ride event.
Erik Noonan:So for folks who are familiar with, like the St Paul Classic or the Mankato River Ramble, it's long past time that Rochester had something comparable. What's the planning around it currently? So we're really looking at it as a very kid and family friendly event that would include a much a shorter accessible loop and then also a bit of a tour of Rochester. So hopefully, you know, in the coming years this can be something that, especially for folks who maybe they have been here before and they did have that experience of they primarily spent it downtown, maybe they were receiving care, maybe they're here supporting a family member, but to kind of have this as a juxtaposition, then this is an incredible and vibrant community that isn't just just medical care that you know. People live and thrive here and there's, you know, wonderful things, stories that are being told all over town.
Bill Von Bank:Is it modeled after a successful one in this community or that community, or is this really a homegrown?
Erik Noonan:It's really homegrown and I think that it's going to be something that does kind of fit the character of Rochester and he's able to showcase what makes us unique and there's so much of that too. And again, kind of going back, I had not spent much time in this part of the state prior to moving here and I was blown away by the beauty of the driftless and to be able to showcase some of those bluffs and I kind of the specific plant life that's down here.
Erik Noonan:especially to that time of year, there's different flowers blooming here in the twin cities and that's something that most people do, they take for granted, unless you are out there walking, rolling bike on a trail.
Bill Von Bank:Looking ahead, what are the future plans and goals for we bike Rochester and how do you envision the organization evolving in the coming years?
Erik Noonan:So I think that over the past A few years we've really realized that transportation, equity components and accessibility that that is a huge in our community need more voices focused on those concerns. And especially as we're looking kind of down the line of this historic investment in our community and we're looking at what that you know the potential of that that we have an opportunity that few communities do and we can be creating this community that Does not have as many of those accessibility barriers as other other places that we can be more community oriented, that when people are out there walking, rolling on a bike, that they're an active participant in their community and they're aware of those needs and they are Making those connections in a way that I think the benefits of it just just kind of compound.
Bill Von Bank:From your perch in your role with we bike Rochester. What's missing in the community or what's on your wish list?
Erik Noonan:I think that we are at almost at a tipping point and I think that there are some people who really really deeply understand kind of the benefits of creating that accessible, walkable bike will community and there are some people that they haven't reached that understanding yet. But again that tipping point means, I think, that a lot of those people, even kind of vocal critics of the bike lanes, for example, are going to begin to realize those benefits as we're able to connect more and more of those up to our existing trail system.
Bill Von Bank:If people want to get involved with we bike Rochester, how can they reach out?
Erik Noonan:Yeah, so we have a presence on all the major social media channels. And then we our website is also we bike Rochester dot org.
Bill Von Bank:Eric Newton from we bike Rochester. It's been great to have you on to learn more about the organization, your passion for biking and I really look forward to learning more in the coming months. On the family bike event on Saturday, may 25th, thanks for being our guests on the growing destinations.
Erik Noonan:Thanks for having me.
Bill Von Bank:Thank you for tuning in to the growing destinations podcast and don't forget to subscribe. This podcast is brought to you by experience Rochester. Find out more about Rochester, minnesota, and its growing arts and culture scene. Its international culinary flavors and award-winning craft beer by visiting experience Rochester MN dot com.
