Basu: Make bicycles, sense of freedom accessible

Tue April 21 2009
Posted Apr 21, 2009
2,789

Des Moines

By REKHA BASU rbasu@dmreg.com

A 12-year-old girl who lives at the Des Moines YWCA with her mother spotted a sign on a storefront window downtown last month. It offered a free bicycle.

Dana Drew no longer had a bike. She went back and was offered a deal: Volunteer five hours and get a bike to keep. She earned it that week, in time for spring break. And Kittie Weston-Knauer, the former principal of Scavo alternative school, escorted her on her first ride.

With that simple transaction, "her world just got expanded," said Carl Voss, a founding member of the Des Moines Bicycle Collective, which runs the Earn-A-Bike program. A kid learned the value of working to achieve a goal, helped maintain an inventory of bikes, and took the collective another step toward its mission: Encouraging more people to ride for recreation and transport, and making Des Moines more bicycle-friendly.

Riding a bike was once a subversive act. Claiming it promoted immorality among students, the Huntington, Long Island, school board in 1896 forbade female teachers from riding to school. Suffragette Susan B. Anthony extolled the self-reliance it brings, and "the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood," saying cycling had done more than anything else to emancipate women.

Launched one year ago this week, the Des Moines collective (dsmbikecollective.org) isn't subversive. But if its vision is fulfilled, the impact could be revolutionary. If more people rode instead of drove everywhere, there'd be fewer emissions contributing to global warming, fewer accidents, less need for highway expansions and a fitter population saving more.

The group isn't about flashing high-priced gizmos. With its motto, "An old bike is a good friend," it's about making bicycle-riding accessible to anyone. In its storefront at Sixth and Grand, donated old bikes are refurbished, sold at $25 and up, or traded for volunteer hours. Classes in bicycle maintenance and safety are taught. And office manager Graham Johnston answers questions, like from the caller coming to Des Moines for a conference who wonders whether there's a bike trail near his hotel.

Members have been to Scavo and the Oakridge subsidized housing development to teach bicycle safety. They gave 12 bikes to newly arrived refugees from Bhutan who needed to get around. And two nights a month are now designated as Susan B. Anthony Night, for women to drop in. (The next is April 13.) Weston-Knauer hopes it'll encourage more women to ride. "It's about as healthy an activity as one can get involved in, and it's low cost or no cost," she says.

While plenty of men are riding in Iowa, she says women still don't, in large numbers. She's one of only two female BMX bicycle racers in the state.

There are societal reasons: Friends and families don't generally encourage the sweaty activity beyond high school. Women might not know the trails or protocols, don't have a bike or don't feel they can steal the time from family.

It demands a cultural shift. The region now has good bike trails, but needs more bike lanes on streets, Weston-Knauer says. And the city should promote bicycle riding. At 60, she rides daily, logging eight to 10 miles in her basement with her wheels in rollers on winter days.

"I love the freedom," she says. "It allows me to be in control at all times. You have an opportunity to think, to be with yourself and commune with nature. We are such a 'Hurry up and get there' world." And she can eat anything she wants and keep her figure.

In my recurring dream, someone is pedaling a bicycle - hair wind-blown, leg muscles bulging, the sense of freedom absolute. In my fantasy world, that person is me. It's been at least 15 years since I got on a bike, and bridging that gulf has felt challenging. But it feels less so now. In fact, I can't wait to try again.