Last month, Bike Northfield held its second annual Soup and Cycles event. Sponsored by Healthy Rice County’s Statewide Health Improvement Program and the Minnesota Department of Health, the goal of the evening was to celebrate bikes and discuss plans for the future of biking in the local Northfield community.
The night began with a social hour, featuring homemade soup and Tandem bagels. Then we moved on to the real stuff: presentations by local biking groups. It’s no wonder Northfield has received an Honorable Mention as a “Bike Friendly Community” by The League of American Bicyclists, as there are dozens of bike-related groups in town and hundreds of bike-loving residents.
The groups included both Bike Northfield and Bike Faribault, multiple community cruise clubs and off-road cycling groups, representatives from both St. Olaf and Carleton, and even a speaker from the Minnesota Bike Alliance. All the presentations proved that Northfield is a frontrunner in the biking advocacy movement, as the town is host to a large assortment of bike-related groups as well as numerous community events.
The final part of the evening consisted of small-group discussions in three broad categories related to biking: Infrastructure, Education, and Tourism. Here are the general conclusions from each topic:
Infrastructure:
- Issues crossing major roads, for both pedestrians and bicyclists
- Need to connect more bike trails around town
- More bike parking needed downtown
- Need to connect housing developments together so it’s easier and safer to get to and from school
Education:
- Importance of classroom curriculum addressing bike culture and safety
- Drivers need to be educated on how to share the road with bikers
- Regional educational centers are important for pooling resources
- Importance of building a biking community
- Need to better connect the two colleges with the rest of town
- Should start doing demonstration projects encouraging car-free living
Tourism:
- Biking as a source of recreational tourism for Northfield
- Need to link small towns together through trails
- Important to link trails back to the Metro area
Overall it was a wonderful night, with great turnout from members of the town and both colleges. Interested in learning more about the work Bike Northfield does? Consider attending one of their meetings, occurring every 4th Thursday of the month at 6:30 PM in the Tavern Lounge.