Biking in Roseville= Livable and Healthy Community

I attended the Explore MN Tourism (EMT) Bike Summit in Mankato recently along with Jill Anfang, the assistant director of Roseville Parks and Recreation.  There were more than 120 people in attendance.

When EMT first started hosting biking tourism summits with MN DOT they were lucky to draw 40 people from the tourism industry.

This summit kicked off the opening of Cuyuna County State Recreation Area’s new 25-mile mountain bike trails and the Mississippi River Trail (MRT) Bikeway in Minnesota. The MRT starts at Lake Itasca and, you guessed it, follows along the Mississippi River through eight  states until is reaches the Gulf of Mexico.  

As more paved bike trails open in the state and here in the Twin Cities  people are realizing that it is not only is it great exercise, it is also good for business.

In article entitled "Inside Minnesota’s Booming Bike Economy" written by Fred Mayer for Minnesota Business in August of 2010, he claims that bicycling-related businesses bring $315 million to Minnesota's economy annually.

That same year Minnesota was also ranked the fourth most Bicycle Friendly State in the nation by the League of American Bicyclists. A Bicycle Friendly State "promotes cycling through legislation, policies, programs, and by creating new places to ride, educating motorists and cyclists, and encouraging people to bike for transportation and recreation."  Washington State took the number 1 spot followed by Maine at  number 2 and Wisconsin number 3.

Jill and I met Kerri Kolstad who is the founder of Wahoo Adventures and working closely with EMT, DNR and MN DOT on promoting biking and biking activities in the Twin Cities. She tossed around ideas for Biking and Bridges and Biking and Breakfast, looking at a variety of route lengths from 10 to 25 miles.

‘Perfectly Positioned’ Roseville could do both as a cyclist could bike over a couple of different  bridges to get here from Minneapolis, St. Paul,  then dine at one of our restaurants.

I am thinking we could also do Biking and Bling (Arthurs Jewelers and Rosedale Center stores), Biking to Break – Caribou, Starbucks, Dunn Brothers or Biking to Books – Roseville Library.

Roseville has more than 60 miles of paved trails and bike paths and each year hosts the Tour de Roses with options to bike 10 or 25 miles.

My husband Bill and I did our first registered bike rides this year completing two 25 miles rides, though the pace we kept with our group made it more of a race as we averaged 13/14 miles an hour.

Kerry said the MN DOT, the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota and Twin Cities Bicycle Club hope to put on a series of seminars this coming spring for all levels of riders. I always thought that having a once ridden a bike you could hop right back on no matter how many years had passed. The apparently is not so as 30 percent of U.S. adults are not bikers and 60 percent are interested but concerned about safety aspects and/or looking foolish on a bike.  

Trust me, looking foolish won’t last long - I learned this past season, twice, never to shift gears when standing and pedaling hard uphill….the chain tends to fall off when you do that! Buying a bike helmet helps tremendously with safety – no matter how much it flattens your hair. Hopping back on one is ‘just like riding a bike’.