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E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
Freewheelin at the Conventions
Picture it. My Web team partner, Ariel Fox, and I are walking down the street in the hot sun carrying heavy camera and video equipment. We are trying to make our way from our media pavilion on the Pepsi Center grounds to The Big Tent for a few interviews.
A woman on a white and green bike rides up and tells us that, if we want help navigating the city, we can check out a bike from a depot nearby. She gives us a card and rides off. I figure I missed something, so I ask Ariel, “How much is it?"
“It's free,” Ariel says.
Free wheels?!
Indeed it is. It is part of a project called Freewheelin, created by the Bikes Belong Coalition and Humana to demonstrate that bikes are a healthy, energy-saving way to get around the city.
The project provided a thousand bikes in Denver, at the Democratic National Convention, and will provide a thousand in Minneapolis-St. Paul during the Republican National Convention with a goal of 10,000 rides and 25,000 miles between the two cities. The groups also track calories burned and carbon offset.
There's also a little friendly competition as well. On the day we visited, Denver had gotten 4,500 rides and 17,000 miles. We'll see whether participants in Minneapolis-St. Paul can outdo those totals.
All of this is to encourage people to bike it when they can, and eventually to encourage cities like Denver and Minneapolis to set up a more permanent bike transit system.
“Nearly 40 percent of all trips in the United States are two miles or less,” says Avery Stonich of the Bikes Belong Coalition. “That's the perfect distance for a bike ride.”
Other cities use the bike sharing system. There's a project a lot like it that began last year in Paris in which people pay to pick up bikes for short trips throughout the city.
So how do they make sure someone doesn't make off with a bike? There is a registration process much like checking out a movie from the local video store that requires a picture I.D. and a credit card to secure the account.
UC-Denver students Meggie Kratz and Nina Afshar were checking out bikes for the second time at the bike depot.
“It's one of the best ways to get around the town,” Afshar says.
“You can explore more places, and it's safe,” Kratz adds.
But most importantly, Kratz says, “It's free.”
If the project catches on the way the planners hope, it won't be free for long.