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Conversations about Creating a Culture of Activity: Profiling the people, places, programs, and policies that help to promote a culture of activity within our communities.
Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:22:16
Laura Mitchell
So to be able to raise my kids in an environment where they don't have to have a part time job to go see their friends, they have transit all around us. They have bike infrastructure, all around us, and we have the density support to support walkability so that they can hike before we don't have an ingredient. I can send them down to the co-op, not yet, but in a couple of years I can send them walking by themselves down to the co-op to grab whatever we need for dinner.
00:00:22:16 - 00:00:42:29
Laura Mitchell
And that just is an incredible quality of life gift, and I share about that a lot. One morning I was actually out for a walk after I dropped my own kids off and I started taking photos of all the cargo bikes that I saw. And then I realized that I just was live tweeting cargo bikes, and I got to like 12 different cargo bikes that I see and, and kids on their own bikes.
00:00:42:29 - 00:01:07:07
Laura Mitchell
And I it's just incredible to see. And there are groups of like 12 to 16 year olds that I'll see in little herds, you know, biking together with their friends. And it's that's what we should all want for our kids is to have that ability, obviously age appropriate and all the things. But if the infrastructure supports it and the parents and the kids decide that it feels safe, like that's what we should do a lot for our communities and our families.
00:01:07:09 - 00:01:26:26
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman and that is Laura Mitchell from Minneapolis, Minnesota. We're going to be talking about her advocacy work out on social media as well as on the streets right there in Minneapolis. So let's get right to it with Laura.
00:01:26:29 - 00:01:30:21
John Simmerman
Laura, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns Podcast. Welcome.
00:01:30:23 - 00:01:32:29
Laura Mitchell
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
00:01:33:01 - 00:01:39:11
John Simmerman
Laura, I love giving my guests just an opportunity to introduce themselves. So what's the elevator pitch as to who Laura is?
00:01:39:13 - 00:01:57:03
Laura Mitchell
So I'm Laura Mitchell. I'm a parent of two young kids who are eight and five now. I'm a former public school teacher, now a nonprofit employee and an active transportation advocate. I grew up in the suburbs of the Twin Cities, spent ten years in Denver after college, and then my wife and I moved our family back here to Minneapolis.
00:01:57:06 - 00:02:13:13
John Simmerman
I love it, I love it well, so. So Denver and Minneapolis, two extraordinary cities, for active mobility. And both are getting better year over year. Very exciting. When did you make that move? From from Denver to Minneapolis.
00:02:13:15 - 00:02:22:07
Laura Mitchell
Summer of 2019. So we were very lucky to move closer to my family and in a slightly larger home before the pandemic hit. So yeah, good time.
00:02:22:08 - 00:02:25:04
John Simmerman
And of course, you didn't know the pandemic was about to hit.
00:02:25:07 - 00:02:26:06
Laura Mitchell
No.
00:02:26:08 - 00:02:48:06
John Simmerman
Boom. It happens. And you're you're like, okay, well, at least we're near family now. Absolutely. So, you and I have never met, this is our first time, you know, quote unquote, face to face. But we know each other through, social media. And I'm going to pull up your, your, your threads page here real quick.
00:02:48:06 - 00:03:09:26
John Simmerman
And, we'll zoom in on this just a little bit so we can get a better view of it. And, and I love this. I love the opportunity to, like, connect with people who I'm interacting with constantly on social media. And, and originally it was out on, on, on Twitter before it became X. And then I made the move over to threads.
00:03:09:26 - 00:03:34:17
John Simmerman
And thank you so much for making the move as well. Over, over to threads and cross posting, to multiple platforms. Talk a little bit about, you know, you in your intro, you basically introduced yourself as is a mom first and you know, and somebody who's doing some work in the nonprofit world. But what I really kind of know about you is you're always posting really cool stuff on the interwebs.
00:03:34:24 - 00:03:54:14
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about that. Why are you compelled to share so many of these images? And this is just a classic Laura Mitchell interview. Post, by the way, is just oftentimes they're beautiful and uplifting and inspiring. Why do that? Why are you doing this, Laura?
00:03:54:17 - 00:04:11:18
Laura Mitchell
It was not the plan at all. I when I was in college, actually, I was a journalism major, and I wanted to go into journalism and be a writer. I was interested in photography, but I graduated during the Great Recession, and that was a scary time to try to go into journalism. So I pivoted and became a teacher.
00:04:11:21 - 00:04:45:12
Laura Mitchell
And then through, you know, my career is taking all sorts of different paths. But my personal life, I found that I can find so much purpose and meaning and continuing to like, capture photos and tell stories I didn't think anyone would care about stories of like my bike rides, good and bad and everything in between. But as I started to share just photos of my life, videos of things I was encountering, things I was noticing on, bike rides and locks, I realized there was there were people who cared about that, people who were experiencing the same and wanted to talk with others who were experiencing the same, people who had no concept of like
00:04:45:14 - 00:05:00:07
Laura Mitchell
a life that would support people being able to walk and bike for transportation. And so I just started to share some photos and people started reacting and I shared more. And now I am so lucky to have just such a community of folks that I get to talk to about things I care about.
00:05:00:14 - 00:05:24:19
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And, and I'm going to keep it sort of topical here too, for, for the, the time being, in the sense that, yesterday you posted these at this beautiful post, I think of, this walk to school and give the background on this on this message. I'll bring the text into focus here so folks can also read it.
00:05:24:21 - 00:05:32:29
John Simmerman
But this is this is really kind of cool and kind of fun. Talk a little bit about, you know, the story behind this post.
00:05:33:01 - 00:05:46:27
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. Again, it's just like the mundane day to day stuff that I'm like, oh, maybe this actually is interesting. And so every morning before school, we talk with our kids about do we want, do they want, do they want to walk? Do they want to take their scooters? Or do we want to bike as a family to school?
00:05:46:29 - 00:06:16:05
Laura Mitchell
And my eight year old specifically said out loud, I don't want a bike because it's too short. Which was shocking to me because they love riding their bikes. Both my kids love riding their bikes, and they explained it as they wanted to have more time together, more time outside, more time moving their body. And I just thought that concept of wanting the trip to take longer and choosing the mode that would take longer is in many ways a really bizarre concept for a lot of Americans, for so many reasons that we just have to like, go, go, go rush to the next thing.
00:06:16:07 - 00:06:31:06
Laura Mitchell
Oftentimes use cars because they often are the fastest way to get wherever we want to go. Because of the way that we built and rebuilt our cities and towns. And so even just that concept of my kid being like, no, I want the trip to be slower. And there was a fun way to go with it.
00:06:31:08 - 00:07:02:12
John Simmerman
And I think this is and you mentioned that this is very much a part of an American sort of cultural thing, is that we we're like always in such a hurry and even and this is one of the pet peeves that I have, like with Google Maps route selection for bikes, is it always defaults, you know, pretty much to the quote unquote fastest route between A and B, it doesn't really give you the option to, filter in and say, well, no, I'm with my kids.
00:07:02:13 - 00:07:23:04
John Simmerman
I'd like to have the most comfortable and safe route or I'm not in a hurry. I'd like to see the most joyous, joyous, and beautiful route, you know, and it's that psyche's weird that we're so hard wired that it's all like, go, go, go. Let's gotta get there as fast as possible.
00:07:23:06 - 00:07:42:15
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. And in the case of cars, it usually doesn't make a difference whether you take the slow route or the longer route because you have the same relative safety no matter what. But obviously for walking and biking, that can make a huge difference. And so I actually have found I ran into that moving to Minneapolis, which while I grew up in the suburbs of Minneapolis, I didn't know Minneapolis proper that well.
00:07:42:15 - 00:08:03:13
Laura Mitchell
And so I had to relearn how to get places because I knew Denver really well, but I didn't know Minneapolis. And I found this app called points with a Z at the end. That does exactly what you say. And so you can you can put in it. I am flexible about how I get there, or I want the safest and most comfortable route, and it'll give you all the various options and prioritize the separated protected routes.
00:08:03:20 - 00:08:06:17
Laura Mitchell
If you if you choose that which is been so helpful for my family.
00:08:06:19 - 00:08:38:07
John Simmerman
Well, thank you very much for interacting with points and using their, their platform. I've actually been an advisor, to them since they're their launch and their startup and, and so they would send me, you know, like beta versions, the early, early stages. And I would try to use the, the app, to, to route from my home to the downtown area, and it would default and put me out on the road and I'd say, no, no, no, your, your, your algorithm is, is just defaulting.
00:08:38:07 - 00:09:08:10
John Simmerman
It's thinking like a car. And so it's wonderful to hear that that is continuing to improve. I actually need to get them on the pod so that we can, profile where they're at currently with it. How how is it working with them, or do you feel like it's it's making progress, and I know there's a a function to this where you as a user can also put information and provide, qualitative feedback, about routes.
00:09:08:12 - 00:09:30:16
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. I think it's working beautifully. And I think part of why it's working beautifully is, if I understand correctly, they use, a specific open source mapping like source in addition to the things that folks can add to within the app itself. And we have a couple folks in Minneapolis who have done an incredible job keeping all of our infrastructure very well mapped.
00:09:30:23 - 00:09:46:06
Laura Mitchell
And so it's a really accurate system that they're pulling from to, to use points on. And so I find it much more reliable than any of the other apps. And I've been loving up. Granted, I haven't had to use it yet. And fingers crossed I never will have to. But they also have the roadside assistance now through points.
00:09:46:13 - 00:09:55:20
Laura Mitchell
And so if one of my cargo bikes, for example, I needed support and needed help getting home, I could call the number and get picked up and towed back to my house, which would be incredible.
00:09:55:25 - 00:10:20:03
John Simmerman
I really appreciate you sharing that information about points. And yeah, I'm going. I've have to get them on. Definitely. That'll be fun. No. I want to share this image that you shared with me, because all the time that I have spent in Minneapolis and it's a fair amount, I've been up there, a couple of times and, and have, profiled, things like the Open streets programs and stuff like that.
00:10:20:10 - 00:10:48:26
John Simmerman
And so I think of my time in Minneapolis, I think of stuff like this. It's just to me, it's like there's so much there's it's such a vibrant, joyous sort of environment. When you look at the streets advocacy world there and, and the types of programs that are going on in the open streets. And this looks like it must be, like some form of, like, community ride or something like that.
00:10:48:28 - 00:10:52:24
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit more about that Zeit Geist. Yeah.
00:10:52:26 - 00:11:10:23
Laura Mitchell
This is a perfect image. So this image is not mine. It came from, a local organization here called of Minnesota who hosted this ride. And so the person in the yellow that you see there is on a trailer being hauled behind an electric cargo bike and they're a DJ playing live music that we all can hear.
00:11:10:23 - 00:11:31:00
Laura Mitchell
And then, of course, you see the bubbles. And the impetus for this ride was this street is Lyndale, which is up for reconstruction right now. It is a very high density, lots of businesses and housing all around it, and it gets a lot of car traffic and is not safe for people walking and biking. Currently, there's no bike infrastructure on Lyndale.
00:11:31:02 - 00:11:51:22
Laura Mitchell
And so now that it's up for reconstruction, there's a lot of interest in thinking about how we can make this street safer for all modes, which is going to require taking probably some parking out, maybe taking out a lane, you know, making more space for people who are traveling outside of cars. And so one of the ways that I, I love in Minneapolis, we push for change is by getting together and having fun.
00:11:51:22 - 00:12:06:14
Laura Mitchell
And so to help raise awareness about this project, a lot of us got together for this beautiful bike ride, had music, had bubbles, had fun and we rode on a street that I, in normal circumstances would not ride my bike on because it's not safe. And there we are, having fun.
00:12:06:21 - 00:12:35:06
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Another memory, that's popping into my head about riding in Minneapolis is and this was years ago, and I don't even know if this this particular bike lane exists anymore, but it was a bus and bike lane combination and it just made absolutely no sense to me. It felt like it was one of these, you know, wide roads, maybe sort of like this particular street that really needed to just be redone.
00:12:35:09 - 00:12:55:08
John Simmerman
But I kept playing Frogger with this bus, and it was just it was almost hilarious and comical in the sense that, you know, I'm rolling down the road. I think I must have had I must have had a downhill or whatever, because I kept, you know, easily passing the bus, and then the bus would have easily passed me and then stop ahead of me and I roll around it.
00:12:55:08 - 00:13:14:03
John Simmerman
And so I'm just like, what the heck is going on here? It just didn't make sense to me that this was kind of the way that it was set up, that it was a bus and bike lane combination. But what ended up happening is my my brain sort of clicked in and I'm like, you know what? This is an older city.
00:13:14:10 - 00:13:39:20
John Simmerman
This is all a grid, you know, here. And so I went, you know, I turned right at the next intersection, went to the street that was parallel to it, and found myself on an absolutely delightful, residential street that had an amazing tree canopy and, and and was a much more comfortable environment. Zero. In terms of bike infrastructure, you know, there was nothing there.
00:13:39:20 - 00:14:20:10
John Simmerman
There was really no traffic calming to speak of. It was just a quiet residential street. And it's one of the things that I mentioned when I, when I gave some advice to the points, folks, when they were working on their app is don't just rely on what a city gives you in terms of what their bike network is, because oftentimes the most comfortable streets that are out there, could be these quiet, low volume, low speed residential streets, which, you know, with a little bit of tweaking, like, you know, the way Denver's doing now and many other cities are doing now are putting in traffic calming and traffic diversions.
00:14:20:12 - 00:14:48:04
John Simmerman
To create it into an even more welcoming environment for walking and biking. That can oftentimes be a much more comfortable route than on these more major streets. So that was another kind of like image that just flooded into my brain, was playing Frogger with the, the busses and and then, you know, getting off into another just cherished memory of those quiet residential streets that are tree canopy.
00:14:48:07 - 00:15:19:23
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. And that's been my experience, too. I don't ride on bus bike lanes very often, but I have played Frogger on Nicollet Mall with busses and it's just not fun. And like, the reality is there's not there's no one size fits all best street, you know, set up because everyone has different preferences. It's constantly, situation here in Minneapolis within the bike community of, you know, some folks want to maximize speed on their bike because they're there either just really fast and want to ride quickly to get to their destination, or they're doing it for exercise.
00:15:19:25 - 00:15:38:09
Laura Mitchell
And then there's like me and my family, others on the other side where I'm riding with young children and I don't care how fast I am going, I just want to be as far away from cars as possible. And so it's nice to it's nice to be in a situation where I have access to things like points, and I have knowledge of the city now to be able to make the choices that work best for me and my trip and the situation.
00:15:38:12 - 00:15:56:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. And since I'm going down memory lane here on my time in Minneapolis, I have to go to this image here. Talk a little bit about this fantastic, photograph here and describe it for our listening only audience, too.
00:15:56:12 - 00:16:16:02
Laura Mitchell
So this is the Midtown Greenway, and this is a perfectly average scene on the Midtown Greenway. So the Midtown Greenway was previously a train route and is not used by trains anymore. And so far before my time, I don't even remember the exact year, like 2007 or something. The land was repurposed to be a, mixed use trail.
00:16:16:02 - 00:16:36:09
Laura Mitchell
So the the side that you see there is only for bikes, and then the trail on the left hand side is for pedestrians and something that I've, learned to appreciate as I've traveled to other cities is how wide the right of way is here for bikes and pedestrians that were not all squished into this tiny little space and trying to navigate large crowds.
00:16:36:09 - 00:16:57:14
Laura Mitchell
And so the Midtown Greenway is just and you can see it's obviously grade separated. And so the car there is car traffic up above on the bridges and on adjacent streets, but there's no cars on the actual greenway itself. And you're you're still within like pretty high density areas. And it's a quick, pretty easy to get off of the greenway and access destinations or to just ride the entire.
00:16:57:14 - 00:17:16:14
Laura Mitchell
I think it's about five and a half mile stretch for exercise, or to connect into the lakes on the west side of the city, and you see folks of all ages and abilities using it. Obviously, in this photo, that's my wife ahead of me with our eight year old and then another parent with, I don't know if it was a kid or a dog in Minneapolis, it's 5050.
00:17:16:14 - 00:17:28:02
Laura Mitchell
It might be a kid or a dog in a burley when you pass. And then folks on recumbent and the person in the background, I think was it was a lot more speedy on a road bike. And it's just it's just a wonderful place.
00:17:28:05 - 00:18:00:20
John Simmerman
And what I love about the Midtown Greenway, too, is it's one of, North America's best examples of, of, you know, creating, repurposing these rights of way that an old, you know, railroad right of way that was, you know, decrepit and abandoned and then repurposing it into a multi-functional, multipurpose, active mobility corridor. And you mentioned it there with good connectivity to all the other neighborhoods that it's passing through.
00:18:00:24 - 00:18:24:12
John Simmerman
And the other thing I wanted to emphasize here in this photo is what we see off to the right there is we also see that, you know, we, we, we have people who are are like loving it to, it's like they're there. It's there's articulation to the buildings there. They've got some flower pots set out there. They've got the ability to interact with.
00:18:24:14 - 00:19:00:03
John Simmerman
It's it's what I call the other Tod. Of course, the original Tod is transit oriented development. And this is trail oriented development where people are living and having, creative little offices and, creative spaces because many of these are old sort of factory locations because it was along a rail corridor. And so a lot of these spaces, you know, old lofts that have been turned into condos and apartments as well as, you know, affordable places for creatives to, like, have a studio or a local business.
00:19:00:05 - 00:19:22:13
John Simmerman
And as I recall, there's some really cool little shops and even, like, cafes that you can stop at, along the way through this, this greenway. So I just wanted to point that out that you know, great shot here because it also captures that articulation and interaction in integration with the side residences and businesses.
00:19:22:15 - 00:19:43:27
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. And we do have a bike shop and coffee shop combined. Venture Bike Shop is on the Greenway, which is incredible. And it's just such a gathering place for community like I have. So many fond memories. There just was one a couple weeks ago of for folks who organize group rides, the Greenway is often part of the group ride because it's so nice and wide and safe and protected from cars.
00:19:44:04 - 00:20:06:14
Laura Mitchell
And so frequently, if you're in a group ride, you will find yourself crossing paths with another large group ride going the opposite direction. People give high fives, ring our bells, wave at each other, even when it's like one of my favorite ones was. I was on a group ride that was filled with families with young children, and we passed a group ride of very speedy cyclists in their kits, on their road bikes, and the same thing people given high fives, cheering each other on.
00:20:06:14 - 00:20:10:14
Laura Mitchell
And I don't know, you just don't have experiences like that when you travel in your car.
00:20:10:16 - 00:20:18:08
John Simmerman
You know? Yeah. How dare you have fun, I catch you, can you do that? But again, this should be serious. Yeah.
00:20:18:10 - 00:20:38:07
Laura Mitchell
Well, and speaking of fun on the Greenway, actually, last weekend there was the nonprofit that, sort of helps to advocate for the Greenway called the Midtown Greenway Coalition held an event called the Greenway Glow, which is an at night event where people put lights on their bikes and have speakers. And there's musical performances and crafts and activities.
00:20:38:12 - 00:20:49:06
Laura Mitchell
There was a, glow in the dark water balloon catapult that was launching glow in the dark water balloons down the greenway, and it's just it was just so much fun.
00:20:49:08 - 00:21:19:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. So obviously that's that's a big part. I mean, I when I look back to the many years that I've been traveling back and forth to, to Minneapolis, the Midtown Greenway was, in my mind, one of the key. It was like the backbone of like, really what started establishing Minneapolis as a a much more activity, active, mobility friendly community.
00:21:19:07 - 00:21:43:20
John Simmerman
I don't even want to call it bike friendly community. I mean, it's like it's many of these images as we'll see as we go through them. It's not about bikes. It's not about that sporty or recreational cyclist. It's about mobility. And but the other thing that kind of harkens back to the image that we saw on your you're you're the very first image that we had here.
00:21:43:20 - 00:22:11:17
John Simmerman
Let's let's pull this up again. This very first image that we have here is the other thing that I remember and really appreciated about Minneapolis is, the Midtown Greenway and the orientation to the water and all of the opportunities for active mobility, walking and cycling around the various lakes, because there's an integration of a whole chain of lakes throughout the whole Minneapolis area.
00:22:11:20 - 00:22:41:13
John Simmerman
And yes, they're recreational and they're utilitarian both, and sometimes they're crowded. But I just found that to be just a powerful, powerful, beloved set of activity assets that the city had access to. And I had the opportunity to visit, Minneapolis, both in the summertime and in the winter time. So I've actually, ridden on the these, you know, pathways during the snow, snowy winter season two.
00:22:41:15 - 00:23:03:15
John Simmerman
And it's really, really snowy obviously, than it and and cold that it gets kind of repurposed in different ways. But talk a little bit about that, because I think that's one of the neat things is you've you've got those two things which I think then starts to set up what we're going to talk about next, which is the on street transformation of space away from the automobile.
00:23:03:18 - 00:23:29:00
John Simmerman
But that I mean, that's my take on it. You've been there a little longer, obviously, since the night in 2019. That's kind of my take is that it was the Midtown Greenway, and then it was this network of pathways off street network of pathways that connected the lakes. And then really shifting gears and looking at, the on street facilities and trying to make that safer and more attractive and more inviting.
00:23:29:03 - 00:23:45:23
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. I actually just had someone reach out to me saying that they are trying to plan a visit to Minneapolis and wanted to know about the like, what makes Minneapolis most innovative, and what are the most innovative on street bikeways that we've built. And I actually pushed back and said, I don't think that we're doing anything particularly innovative.
00:23:45:23 - 00:24:09:18
Laura Mitchell
I think what sets us apart is what you named that we have this history from the late 1800s, early 1900s of setting our lakes as public property and public space, and then building the parks around them and maintaining them through the centuries despite, you know, the pressure to build parkways, which we do have parkways for cars around the lakes, but those are separated still from the pedestrian and bike paths.
00:24:09:20 - 00:24:37:14
Laura Mitchell
And so having I think it's something around 100 miles of off street bike paths that we have, like around the lakes and the Greenway and Minnehaha Trail and those sorts of things that we've had for over 100 years. And now have been starting to connect things like the Greenway and our street grid to that, to make a really connected system for people to be able to get around again, either recreationally or, for transportation or both.
00:24:37:15 - 00:25:11:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. And so let's let's get to that point. Let's, let's get to the, the, the big challenge of North America is obviously trying to address and and do something to create a much more welcoming all ages and abilities environment out on our streets. And so this is pretty extraordinary. Walk us through this scenario, this scene, and why you feel so compelled to have to share this with the audience here today.
00:25:11:12 - 00:25:27:21
Laura Mitchell
I am the biggest fan of this street that exists. I this is Bryant Avenue South in Minneapolis. It is very close to my home, and I am so lucky to be able to bike on this. So in the photo is my kiddo, my eight year old in front of me. And then maybe a, I don't know, a 12 or 13 year old.
00:25:27:23 - 00:25:53:15
Laura Mitchell
And you can see here that they are riding on, separated. So it's sidewalk level, bike way, two way, bike way. And then to the left there's a little bit of, textured separate separation separation. And then a sidewalk. And this street previously, it's about a two and a half mile stretch. Previously, it was the most basic two way street with parking on both sides.
00:25:53:18 - 00:26:11:19
Laura Mitchell
And I would say that actually our approach here was a little bit innovative in the sense that we actually had the political will to take more space away from cars to create this, because we transformed this photo is in the one two block stretch where there is a second, lane just for busses. But the majority of the street is actually just a one way street for cars.
00:26:11:25 - 00:26:34:04
Laura Mitchell
One lane, one way with parking on one side from a previously two lane two way with parking on both side. So we, we, we essentially took away half of the space that cars had and repurposed it for people walking, biking and rolling and the building up to the left, there is actually a senior living facility, and they have a lot of like medical care in addition to just like 55 plus living.
00:26:34:06 - 00:26:54:15
Laura Mitchell
And so there's a ton of ambulances and like supports for for folks who live there. A number of them are in motorized wheelchairs or otherwise using mobility devices and seeing the way that they are able to walk or roll right out of their apartment and their living situation and enjoy the sidewalk or in the winter is another fight that we're trying to fight.
00:26:54:18 - 00:27:11:07
Laura Mitchell
The city is really good, actually, about plowing our protected bikeways, including Bryant, but not about the city doesn't clear our sidewalks. It's just up to property owners as it is and a lot of the US. And so oftentimes folks will be doing just what you see in this photo where there's ice patches and oftentimes the sidewalks of way worse than they do in this photo.
00:27:11:07 - 00:27:16:15
Laura Mitchell
And so folks are able to use the bike paths to walk and roll. And it's just incredible to see.
00:27:16:22 - 00:27:40:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I want to switch over. Skip this this photo here, it's a beautiful photo, but we're going to skip this together. I think this photo here really exemplifies also what you're talking about here is that, and this is something that many people do not appreciate about what a cycling, an all ages and abilities cycling network can provide for a city is.
00:27:40:09 - 00:28:15:01
John Simmerman
It gives mobility options for people who are in mobility devices. And so this this particular photo is extraordinary. I mean, we've you literally have three people on wheelchair type mobility devices, rolling down this two way cycle track that's protected with concrete. What a great shot. And what a great way to really say, you know, this is what we mean by all ages and abilities.
00:28:15:03 - 00:28:37:01
John Simmerman
This is not cycling infrastructure for, you know, people who are confident taking the lane. You know, sport and recreation, cyclists can certainly use this space if they so choose. But the reason why we're building this type of infrastructure is because it's all ages and all abilities. An emphasis here on all abilities.
00:28:37:04 - 00:28:51:26
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. And I mean, look at the two folks in the front actually being able to go side by side. Like exact we have decent sidewalks in Minneapolis, but almost no sidewalks would allow two motorized wheelchairs to go side by side. And then they're able to have a conversation just like so many of us enjoy doing on our bikes.
00:28:51:26 - 00:29:09:29
Laura Mitchell
And it's just I feel so grateful to live in a city that has the space set aside for people to safely move in whatever way they need to move. It's yeah, it's such a privilege. And so we see, especially on the new Bryant Bikeway that you were showing in the other photo, because that trail is so nice and smooth and new and not bumpy.
00:29:10:02 - 00:29:24:10
Laura Mitchell
We see folks on one wheels, on skateboards, on rollerblades, on roller skates, on scooters. Like every possible mode that you can imagine. That's not like a car or motorized. You'll end up seeing on those bike paths, and it's just a welcoming space for everyone.
00:29:24:12 - 00:29:48:12
John Simmerman
Yeah, I want to pull this shot up here, too, because this is, a wonderful, shot that also shows a two way cycle track that is, elevated from the roadbed. So we've got a raised and separated, cycle track and then, a little bit of a buffer, to where the, the sidewalk is. But this is in a more residential context.
00:29:48:12 - 00:30:21:03
John Simmerman
We've got the single family homes. You know, off to the right. Since I know that these are older neighborhoods, I wouldn't be shocked if there was a corner store or a corner cafe at the end of a block. On and on. Many of these places, because they were, these neighborhoods were really developed prior to exclusive, exclusionary single family zoning that, you know, made having neighborhood shops and, and cafes illegal, which is one of the things that's so great about our older cities like Minneapolis, is that you have that kind of stuff.
00:30:21:06 - 00:30:34:12
John Simmerman
But talk about this infrastructure or this again, is just so empowering. When you see the number of people out and the number of families that are out rolling down this piece of infrastructure, which is extraordinary.
00:30:34:15 - 00:31:02:00
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. So this one is also Bryant, but it is January 31st, 2024, which is very strange that like middle of January in Minneapolis, here we are out riding. There's no snow and ice on the road. But this this was actually a group ride that I hosted for a PTO fundraiser for my kids school. And it was incredible that we were able to get a number of families to come together to ride bikes to a restaurant that was about three miles away from the school.
00:31:02:03 - 00:31:22:20
Laura Mitchell
We met up and left at like 530 in the evening in January, and obviously the sun sets very early. So here we were headed to the restaurant. Our youngest rider was three years old on a strider that had pedals, and our oldest rider. I don't know, it's just parents, but we had a ton of like 6 to 8 year old riders as well who were able to to make this route all together.
00:31:22:24 - 00:31:39:24
Laura Mitchell
And then on the way home, we were riding on the dark and like, how often do you see families able to let their young children ride their bikes in the dark? Almost never, because it's usually not safe because of cars. But given this great separated, elevated infrastructure, sure, that's connected. Again, we were able to use the Greenway and Bryant.
00:31:40:01 - 00:31:46:28
Laura Mitchell
It was possible and it was magical. And we went under the bridges on the Greenway. The kids were howling like wolves at the moon.
00:31:46:28 - 00:31:49:02
John Simmerman
And it just.
00:31:49:05 - 00:31:56:00
Laura Mitchell
These things enable so much. Basically, the infrastructure really enables a lot of community and a lot of joy. Yeah.
00:31:56:03 - 00:32:03:09
John Simmerman
Well, gosh, you know, this this is all sounding so incredible. Yeah. There we go. Another wonderful image from.
00:32:03:09 - 00:32:15:26
Laura Mitchell
The ride on the way to the restaurant. Yeah, yeah. And that's our corner coffee store, right there. And it has a walk up window. I guess that was probably from one of my posts, actually. I can take the air off, but that's pointing to the walk up window.
00:32:15:27 - 00:32:42:27
John Simmerman
Nice. I love it, I love it. That's so great. That is so great. So again, Minneapolis rated one of the most bicycle friendly, active, mobility friendly communities. You know, every year, year after year after year. This is just amazing looking at all these images. So you know clearly there's no real challenges. Oh wait I spoke too soon.
00:32:42:29 - 00:33:07:26
Laura Mitchell
Yep yep. And this this is why I'm constantly talking about the good in the bad. Because yes, being rated number one by people for bikes, for biking in the US sounds fantastic. But when you compare Minneapolis is infrastructure and our car dependency to other countries like we have so far to go. This is an example of my wife walking our eight year old to school in a like our neighborhood is quite walkable.
00:33:07:26 - 00:33:26:14
Laura Mitchell
We have, you know, you can see nice sidewalks and a boulevard between the sidewalk and the street. And I can't even tell you the number of times we're on our short five block walk or bike to school. We come across shrapnel from car crashes overnight or have close calls with drivers. And this one was pretty extreme because it was.
00:33:26:16 - 00:33:38:05
Laura Mitchell
It seemed like there was two cars may be involved in the crash, and one of them was just left on the sidewalk for us to walk by. And the watch for children ten mile per hour sign just felt really well to see what the full scene all together.
00:33:38:07 - 00:33:47:26
John Simmerman
Good, good framing on this shot I like that. Yeah yeah yeah I see the journalism, you know, training coming through.
00:33:47:29 - 00:33:49:24
Laura Mitchell
I do my best.
00:33:49:26 - 00:34:36:29
John Simmerman
But yeah I mean reflecting on what we have in screen here. We see that again. Watch for children ten miles per hour is the sign. And yet the built environment says speed, speed, speed. It's just a massively wide over wide street. And I think this goes back to a very, very common thing that we all keep saying over and over and over again that we can't just rely on, enforcement, we can't rely on just, you know, saying, oh, well, let's reduce the speed limits in the area we actually have to and we can't keep blaming, we can't blame the not behind the wheel nor victim blame.
00:34:37:06 - 00:34:43:19
John Simmerman
We really need to work on changing the built environment. Get the infrastructure right.
00:34:43:22 - 00:35:07:01
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. Yeah. And and Minneapolis as a city a couple of years ago, three years ago switched our speed limit citywide to 20mph unless posted otherwise. Of course there are a number of streets that are posted. Otherwise, but the majority of like residential streets are 20mph. That's great. But without changing the actual street design, we are not actually seeing people suddenly lower their speed limit.
00:35:07:01 - 00:35:23:13
Laura Mitchell
And so this street is one that we have to walk along and actually is up for reconstruction, which I'm very excited to share all my opinions with the city about what we need to do to this one, which is just an overly wide, two lane, two way road with street with parking on both sides, and it happens to be right off of a highway.
00:35:23:15 - 00:35:43:27
Laura Mitchell
So of course we have urban highways that just cut through our neighborhoods, destroying them, you know, decades ago and continue to cause harm to this day. And so I've noticed that the behavior of folks when they come on or off of the highway into my neighborhood is, is very different from folks who are just right, you know, driving around the city, it's like they've got that mentality of driving really, really fast.
00:35:43:27 - 00:35:49:13
Laura Mitchell
And then they're frustrated to suddenly have to go down to 20 or 30mph, and it causes a whole lot of problems.
00:35:49:15 - 00:36:17:03
John Simmerman
Well, I would say even rightfully so, especially when the confusing message is, as you come off of a go fast highway, and then you get into a, into a more residential and or commercial district, and the roadway doesn't look that much different. It's like, yeah, I certainly don't blame the driver because I'm a driver too. And it's like, I'll get shocked frequently and be like, oh, wait a minute.
00:36:17:03 - 00:36:41:24
John Simmerman
No, I'm transitioning into a different context and it's really important. I just posted a video last week. Was it last week or earlier this week? Earlier this week. From Halton today we're recording this on Friday the 13th. It's not scary. It's not a scary day I promise. But yeah, earlier this week I posted this video from Halton in in the Netherlands.
00:36:41:24 - 00:37:10:00
John Simmerman
And one of the things that Kylie, the resident, was talking about was how when they designed the community, they made sure that when people were coming in from the ring road into the community, they built up like, almost like ramparts and, and like towers so that it was a gateway so that it was, in a sense, sends a clear message that you are now entering into a different realm.
00:37:10:00 - 00:37:31:14
John Simmerman
You're no longer on the ring road, you're no longer on the highway. You're coming into an environment where there's an expectation that you're going to be driving 30km/h or less, and you're going to have you're going to be mixing and intermingling with people who are walking and biking, because many of the streets are actually shared streets in that context.
00:37:31:16 - 00:37:56:15
John Simmerman
And so slow speeds are absolutely an imperative. Plus, in that particular neighborhood, there's no way to drive through the community. The only thing you can access is some local parking for residents and some local parking for people who are, you know, wanting to get into the rest of the city and commercial districts. But there's no way to drive through.
00:37:56:18 - 00:38:13:15
John Simmerman
And so the entire community acts as a as a modal filter. And so, and so that's a great example of changing the context is like there's like this gateway you're coming in, you're now in a different realm. Slow down.
00:38:13:17 - 00:38:38:00
Laura Mitchell
Yeah. And we obviously have not done that in the US for the most part. It's like you're on the highway and then suddenly you're in a neighborhood and the people who live and walk and bike through that neighborhood are just going to deal with all the consequences of the scary driving. But to your point, understandably happens. Like, that's something that I'm, I'm talking about regularly is I am I own a car, I use a car when I need it, I also walk, I also bike, I also take transit.
00:38:38:03 - 00:38:57:27
Laura Mitchell
And I think our country's over reliance and like just built environment that emphasizes the need to use a car forces people to think that you have to pick one mode when in a lot of circumstances you do have to pick a car because that's your only option. But in so many situations, you actually don't. And so I, I don't consider myself like a cyclist.
00:38:57:27 - 00:39:02:13
Laura Mitchell
I'm just a person who bikes. I'm a person who walks. I'm a person who drives. I'm a person who takes transit.
00:39:02:17 - 00:39:27:22
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, I, I'm glad you mentioned that too, because I think that's one of the most important things for us to be able to have a significant impact on trying to transform our built environment. We don't get anywhere if we're just shouting at each other and and blaming the other side, side, you know, it's like setting ourselves in camps and tribes and then warring the war on cars kind of thing.
00:39:27:25 - 00:39:50:10
John Simmerman
And again, the war on cars, folks, that that name is tongue in cheek. It's it's not a war on cars. There's a war out there. It's mostly cars killing people. But we won't go there. What you're talking about is the fact that, yeah, we're on on any given day we might be taking transit, we might be walking, we might be biking, we might need to drive.
00:39:50:12 - 00:40:26:22
John Simmerman
And so that's why it's so incredibly important to continue to grow, the tent and continue to educate and increase awareness because as we've bit our minds have been so shaped by this concept that drive everywhere for everything, all the time, which was perpetuated by motor dumb and motor normativity. Car brain has kind of seeped in. And so we're trying to present a different way presents different opportunities and mobility choice.
00:40:26:24 - 00:40:38:26
John Simmerman
And that's where your nonprofit comes in that you're very much involved with. And so our streets Im in, dawg, I believe you are on the board, right?
00:40:38:29 - 00:40:40:12
Laura Mitchell
Yep. Yeah, I'm the board president. Yeah.
00:40:40:12 - 00:40:53:10
John Simmerman
Board president. Talk a little bit about this organization and what you all are trying to do there. And this is statewide or is this just Minneapolis?
00:40:53:12 - 00:41:16:12
Laura Mitchell
It used to be just Minneapolis. And we recently made the shift to be statewide. And it's it's really amazing because of living in Minnesota and especially in the Twin Cities, we are so lucky to actually have a number of nonprofits focused on advocating for safe streets and land use and transportation and all the things. And so there are some really fantastic nonprofits, that we share the space with.
00:41:16:15 - 00:41:33:10
Laura Mitchell
But our streets is near and dear to my heart. I've been lucky to be on the board for the last two years, and you can see there, our mission is really about transforming transportation in the Twin Cities, and we try to make it make, our streets, places where people can easily and comfortably walk, bike, roll and use public transit, just as we've been talking about.
00:41:33:12 - 00:41:56:28
Laura Mitchell
We previously also hosted the Open Streets events we're currently in conversations with the city over a few things, so we did not host them this past year, but we hosted our own similar series called imagine. And that's actually what what brought me into our streets is the I mentioned we moved to the summer of 2019, and in September of 2019, there was an open streets on Nicollet, which is right like feet from my house.
00:41:57:05 - 00:42:17:12
Laura Mitchell
And so to be able to walk out of my home with at the time, I had a three year old and an almost one year old to experience. The Nicollet is one of the most highest injury streets in the city, and we had already experienced a lot of really scary behavior on the part of drivers running red lights, not yielding when they take right on red.
00:42:17:14 - 00:42:35:04
Laura Mitchell
It's pretty a scary street, and to experience that, even just a few months after moving here, closed down to cars and opened up to people and seeing what my neighborhood was like, being able to walk in the street and feel safe was a game changer for me. And so I started to thinking, okay, what is this our streets all about?
00:42:35:04 - 00:43:00:24
Laura Mitchell
I'd been involved in some advocacy in Denver, but, I hadn't served on a board before, and so I was lucky enough to be able to join the board and our current initiatives. You know, going back to the conversation about urban highways, we have an opportunity right here in the Twin Cities around I-94, which is a major urban highway that has all of them, for the most part, in America, cut through cities and destroyed Bipoc and low income communities.
00:43:00:27 - 00:43:21:29
Laura Mitchell
With really lasting effects. And it's now I-94 is up for reconstruction right now. And so we are really advocating for a change there to change it into an actual boulevard. We also are working on an initiative called Bring Back Sixth, which we similar idea there. It's a slightly smaller highway, but a highway that cut through a predominantly black and Jewish community.
00:43:22:01 - 00:43:43:03
Laura Mitchell
And we actually were recently awarded a really amazing Reconnecting Communities federal grant for that one, which is going to be a game changer for us to be able to have access to resources to really do our work. And then we also have municipal sidewalk plowing, which, as I was speaking to earlier, is just such a challenge in the city that gets as much snow and ice as we do to rely on individual property owners to clear that space.
00:43:43:03 - 00:44:17:21
Laura Mitchell
Because they for so many reasons, some of them are not able to, some of them can't. And then it impacts the mobility of, of everyone. And so I just feel so lucky to be able to work for a nonprofit that does the work in the way that our streets does, which is really having a focus on centering the voices of the communities that are most impacted, by our historical and our current choices around, transportation infrastructure and really amplifying the the effects of systemic racism and classism and the ways that the systems continue to make life really hard for so many folks.
00:44:17:21 - 00:44:26:23
Laura Mitchell
And so it's an incredible organization. Encourage everyone to check out our website and donate. If you if you have the ability to or volunteer if you're local to the twin Cities or Minnesota.
00:44:26:28 - 00:44:45:23
John Simmerman
Yeah. And that's what we're looking at right now here folks, is our streets m n o o rg I'll have that link, in the show notes, for you as well. I love this shot here with the roller skater. This totally brings back memories, for, one of the open streets events that I was able to attend.
00:44:45:23 - 00:45:09:04
John Simmerman
Probably back in. Oh, gosh, it must have been 11 years ago. Like 2013. So those those events had been around for a long time. Very, very successful as I understood, they would rotate around to different neighborhoods and different groups and focus in on different streets. Is that kind of the approach to to the way Minneapolis have done that in the past?
00:45:09:07 - 00:45:40:17
Laura Mitchell
Yeah, for sure. And in recent years, we really tried to focus on streets that had opportunities for reconstruction coming up, so that it could be a double duty of giving folks the opportunity to experience that street without cars, and then also giving them an opportunity to learn more about the reconstruction project and to weigh in and give feedback, to the city or county or whoever was responsible for the reconstruction and I think that's part of what what's so unique about the way that our streets does our work is in addition to the events that we hold and the and the typical advocacy work that we do, we actually have a team of on staff,
00:45:40:19 - 00:46:01:15
Laura Mitchell
paid canvassers who are out knocking doors to share information, to get feedback from and from the communities that are impacted by these projects. And we're especially doing that for the Twin Cities Boulevard. And just noticing even years into this project, how much the Department of Transportation hasn't yet reached, you know, the Mindy is working to do their own outreach, but they haven't reached folks.
00:46:01:15 - 00:46:23:08
Laura Mitchell
The average person who lives in these communities actually doesn't even know that this project is ongoing and has a lot of thoughts. And we need to be centering their voices and their values and their perspectives the most because they have been and will continue to be the most impacted by whatever we choose to do with these projects. But our hope at our streets is that whether we end up doing the city contract through open streets or our own events, we would love.
00:46:23:08 - 00:46:43:06
Laura Mitchell
We think every neighborhood in the city deserves to have an open street style event. So we have about 13 wards throughout the city, and the dream would be to have an open street style event in each of the 13 wards. We just had one in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood, a weekend a week or two ago, and it was incredible.
00:46:43:06 - 00:47:04:07
Laura Mitchell
Like, our staff are so good at making sure that the events are not just closed down the street, it is closed on the street to cars and in infuse the local communities everything into it. And so in that community we had the winery is a hot dog restaurant that is really well known and beloved there. And they had a wiener dog race.
00:47:04:07 - 00:47:19:18
Laura Mitchell
Actual dogs, like pet dogs, were racing outside of the winery to see which dog was the fastest. We had camel rides. We had cardboard fights like kids dressed up in cardboard and making little swords and battling each other. It just was so joyful and and wonderful.
00:47:19:20 - 00:47:26:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it when there's, you see the dogs and races. That's great. The wiener dogs. That's awesome.
00:47:27:00 - 00:47:36:01
Laura Mitchell
We bend the rules a little bit. Pretty much. If the dog was small enough, they got to race. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, definitely not nonsense. But it was. It was also cute.
00:47:36:04 - 00:48:01:18
John Simmerman
Yeah. One of the things that I love about Open streets events and events that take place out in our streets is, you know, it brings up, you know, my coffee mug here in the declarative statement of streets are for people. And that's part of that challenge that we have is to like, reframe, well, what are our streets for?
00:48:01:20 - 00:48:22:20
John Simmerman
And and again, we had mentioned earlier the car bring the motor normativity, you know, kind of thinking that, oh, no, streets are only for driving and for driving as fast as possible. And that's not what streets are for, you know, streets have been around literally for thousands of years, and the automobile is the new interloper, into that environment.
00:48:22:23 - 00:48:51:20
John Simmerman
It really is the platform for coming together, socialization and platform for building wealth. And so I love these events because of what you had just said. It helps reinforce and reframe how people are relating to the streets. And you said something there as well about, targeting streets that are up for redo and, you know, rebuilding and re reimagining what they can be.
00:48:51:22 - 00:49:17:28
John Simmerman
And I do remember back to that Open Streets event that I attended back in 2013 where, there was actually a demonstration of this is what a protected bike lane was. And so, there was there was a protected bike lane that had been set up, you know, as everybody was milling around, they did it with, with very nicely done with flower pots, you know, very similar to like, like the rectangular ones and high.
00:49:17:28 - 00:49:41:16
John Simmerman
It was like, you know, a significant sort of approach similar to the these self-watering, protected planter boxes the city's actually use. It wasn't that, but I think it was like, constructed like it I think is as memory serves, it might have even been constructed out of wood to look like and feel like what a planter protected bike lane would look like.
00:49:41:19 - 00:50:10:13
John Simmerman
And, and so folks would be able to roll through or stroll through if they wanted to, if they didn't weren't on roller skates or bike or scooter. But they would, you know, go through, you know, there was a volunteer at the one end to, to say, oh, yeah, this, this is what this is, there's information in that they could hand over to them a leaflet about the, the prospect of doing a protected cycling infrastructure, either on that street or in that neighborhood.
00:50:10:15 - 00:50:42:18
John Simmerman
I can't remember which. And then there was another volunteer at the other end to do sort of a debrief. What did you think? You know, what was that experience like? Could you see yourself being, you know, comfortable in this type of environment if this were to come to your neighborhood? And I love that, because when we talk as advocates, when we talk about these things in sort of like these high level stuff, and we throw throw terminology out like protected bike lanes and separated infrastructure and all that.
00:50:42:20 - 00:51:04:08
John Simmerman
The, the average person is just like, what the heck are you talking about? But when you can see it and feel it and ride down it, roll down it, it really helps open the eyes of the community at large, because they're not eating, drinking, believing and breathing this stuff the way we are.
00:51:04:10 - 00:51:29:15
Laura Mitchell
That is part of why I have found it so valuable to share photos and videos of the things that I'm talking about, because I think so many folks just don't have a concept for what this infrastructure looks like and what it might feel like. And I have shared a number of photos and videos of Bryant Avenue. There was a number of the photos that we looked at that were off that street, and almost since it was constructed, it finished last fall.
00:51:29:15 - 00:51:48:28
Laura Mitchell
So it's almost a year old now. Almost every time I'm on that street, which is every day, I hear someone either walking or biking by clearly giving a tour of Bryant Avenue to a friend, a family member, or someone visiting whatever, or someone who just is there for the first time and commenting on like, whoa, look at that bike lane.
00:51:48:28 - 00:52:13:29
Laura Mitchell
I've never seen anything like that. That's so cool. Look at look at whatever and the things that can happen on streets that are redesigned to actually be for everyone and not just cars are really incredible. Like I just was on Bryant, I think two nights ago going past the senior living facility, and there was a parent and a parent on a bike, a kid on a scooter, adult like senior on a motorized wheelchair.
00:52:14:01 - 00:52:31:00
Laura Mitchell
And they were headed towards a corner store. And I watched them ahead of me, stopping to talk to each other. I don't know what the guy was saying to the the parent and the kid, but they were having a very friendly chat. And then the mom and the kid went into their apartment and the guy in the motorized wheelchair continued down the street.
00:52:31:00 - 00:52:53:28
Laura Mitchell
He crossed the street, got to the corner store, and two teenage boys on skateboards stopped and opened the door to the corner store so that he could get in easily. And he had a chat with them. And I'm just like, these interactions seem so small and so insignificant, but they build up to make people feel really part of a community and to feel like the streets are actually used to support that community, and not exclusively for cars to move through as quickly as possible.
00:52:53:28 - 00:52:55:27
Laura Mitchell
And it it just is really powerful.
00:52:55:29 - 00:53:15:25
John Simmerman
Yeah. To close this out, I wanted to go back to this photo and and say kind of my last word, but then give you an opportunity to, you know, to address anything that we haven't already talked about. And you had mentioned that, you know, this is your daughter riding up ahead of you. I'm about eight years old or so down.
00:53:15:25 - 00:53:48:16
John Simmerman
Bryant, you mentioned that this was probably like an 11 or 12 year old, you know, boy, come in the year. I think it's a boy, coming, the child coming the other way. And the point I wanted to make about this is yes. Not only is all ages and abilities, infrastructure makes it super, super empowering for, you know, the folks that we had just mentioned, you know, the people in the mobility devices, the all abilities side, but again, emphasis on the all ages for young and old being able to be able to have the freedom of mobility.
00:53:48:18 - 00:54:21:18
John Simmerman
And one of the things that I'm very, very passionate about, and I'm sure you are as a parent, is that you're able to have a situation so that you can have kids that develop, have the ability as a 12 year old, to be able to go out on the ride for themselves, be able to do something. Had Lenore Skenazy on recently, the author of the book Free-range kids, and we talked about how empowering it is to have an environment like the Dutch have where, you know, kids from very young age can get themselves to where they need to get to under their own power.
00:54:21:20 - 00:54:40:08
John Simmerman
Talk a little bit about that address. You know, from a parent's perspective, how empowering and powerful that is. You know, for you guys to, you know, have this network being built out and coming together. I know it's not there yet completely, but it's making progress.
00:54:40:10 - 00:55:01:28
Laura Mitchell
It's an incredible quality of life factor for my family, and it's a huge reason why we've chosen to live in the neighborhood we live in and inner city. I grew up in the suburbs where I did not have this. I. The nearest transit stop was three miles away. I could bike to two friends houses who were in my neighborhood, but everything else was separated by highways or high speed, unsafe streets.
00:55:01:28 - 00:55:21:09
Laura Mitchell
And so I relied on my parents to drive me anywhere, anytime I wanted to go, anywhere, they had to drive me. And I actually worked in high school, a part time job, just so that I could pay for my car so that I could go hang out with my friends who many of them, due to zoning for schools, lived eight miles away, so I didn't have any other way to see them.
00:55:21:09 - 00:55:44:06
Laura Mitchell
And so to be able to raise my kids in an environment where they don't have to have a part time job to go see their friends, they have transit all around us. They have bike infrastructure all around us, and we have the density support to support walkability so that they can hike before we don't have an ingredient. I can send them down to the co-op, not yet, but in a couple years I can send them walking by themselves down to the co-op to grab whatever we need for dinner.
00:55:44:06 - 00:56:03:15
Laura Mitchell
And that just is an incredible quality of life gift, and I share about that a lot. One morning I was actually out for a walk after I dropped my own kids off and I started taking photos of all the cargo bikes that I saw. And then I realized that I just was live tweeting cargo bikes, and I got to like 12 different cargo bikes that I see seen.
00:56:03:15 - 00:56:28:14
Laura Mitchell
And kids on their own bikes. And I it's just incredible to see. And there are groups of like 12 to 16 year olds that I'll see in little herds, you know, biking together with their friends. And it's that's what we should all want for our kids is to have that ability, obviously age appropriate and all the things. But if the infrastructure supports it and the parents and the kids decide that it feels safe, like that's what we should all want for our communities and our families.
00:56:28:18 - 00:56:30:04
Laura Mitchell
Yeah.
00:56:30:06 - 00:56:36:21
John Simmerman
Is there anything that we haven't yet talked about that you want to make sure to leave the audience with?
00:56:36:23 - 00:56:39:19
Laura Mitchell
I think we covered everything. That was a lovely conversation.
00:56:39:20 - 00:57:04:29
John Simmerman
Yeah. No, it's it I and and again, I want to re-emphasize that, you know, for folks, if you are out there in social media, again, my, my platform of choice these days is now, obviously YouTube where I'm producing all this content. But, on social media, I'm out on, threads all the time. Laura, you do such a great job of sharing what you're seeing out there.
00:57:04:29 - 00:57:08:28
John Simmerman
And I remember when you posted that about the, all the.
00:57:08:28 - 00:57:12:05
Laura Mitchell
Different. Yeah, yeah, there's the little herds of kids.
00:57:12:05 - 00:57:41:16
John Simmerman
There's a herd of kids. Yeah. You do such a great job of of of of capturing and sharing this and very much in the same genre of, my good friend Brandon, last, American feature of capturing the mundane, the normal stuff that happens the day in and day out. And these images of you know, this is what it's like when you you have an environment where we can have free-range kids.
00:57:41:19 - 00:58:09:25
John Simmerman
And, you know, Brandon likes to to emphasize that this is powerful because you have no idea how many lives that you're touching. Very few people who actually see the content out in social media actually engage with it and, and comment and like, but they're they're getting exposed to it and you just never know when you're influencing it in impacting, somebody I hear people, you know, people will come up to me all the time.
00:58:09:25 - 00:58:31:25
John Simmerman
I'll be on an airplane going somewhere, and they'll be like, is that you, John? They reckon my guys, my voice from the podcast or or my face from YouTube and and they're like, thank you for doing what you're doing. I really appreciate it. I'll introduce myself. They'll introduce themselves. It'll be somebody I've never heard of. They've never interacted with me on social media or online.
00:58:31:27 - 00:58:47:03
John Simmerman
But it's a good reminder that we're making an impact by at least broadcasting out. So thank you for doing that. I hope you have that. Those wonderful opportunities to to hear back from some of your audience that's out there.
00:58:47:05 - 00:59:02:23
Laura Mitchell
I actually I was on a bicycle ride recently. Bicycle is a local group that hosts a lot of rides for all ages and abilities, but we do get a lot of families with young kids and had a parent come up to me and say that seeing the things that I post online help them have the courage to start biking with their young kids.
00:59:02:23 - 00:59:15:13
Laura Mitchell
And I was like, that is the best thing, that that's the best compliment anyone can give me that I aspire to at least one person to get out there and start riding and find the joy in it. So it's it's such a privilege to be able to share things with others. And I have so much fun with it.
00:59:15:20 - 00:59:30:26
John Simmerman
Yeah, well, and I had so much fun doing this. Thank you so much, Laura, for joining me on the Active Towns podcast. This has been an absolute joy and pleasure and, can't wait to make my trip up to, Minneapolis to to meet you in person at some point in time.
00:59:30:28 - 00:59:33:02
Laura Mitchell
Yes, I would love that. Please do.
00:59:33:04 - 00:59:55:22
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Laura Mitchell. And if you did, please. Hey, give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, be honored! Have you subscribed to the channel? Just click on that subscription button down below and remember to ring that notification bell and if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming a Patreon member.
00:59:55:28 - 01:00:18:19
John Simmerman
Patrons do get access to all my content early and ad free, and get an additional benefit of 15% off in the Active Town store. And speaking of the Active Town store, pop on over to get your own Streets are for people mug t shirts as well as water bottles. And oh, and got a brand new Active Towns embroidered hat out there as well for you.
01:00:18:19 - 01:00:45:13
John Simmerman
Again, thank you so much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. And until next time, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers and again sending a huge thank you out to all my Active Towns Ambassadors supporting the channel on Patreon. Buy me a coffee YouTube. Super! Thanks. As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the Active Town store, every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated.
01:00:45:16 - 01:00:46:24
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much!