Thank You, Friends!

It's your pal Ryan AKA Fire Wally here. I did a big ol' bike ride on May 5, 2018 to support the Midtown Greenway Coalition. A bunch of my friends and a few internet strangers chipped in to make me bike more miles and that was a super nice thing to do.

We raised $680 for a 68 mile bike ride.

Below is what this page looked like before

Wait, What's a Midtown Greenway?

The Midtown Greenway is a beautiful pedestrian and bike path that travels across south Minneapolis. USA Today named it the Best Urban Bike Trail in the Country, and for once those dingalings got it right.

What's So Great About it?

It's mostly seperated from the street in a rail trench, so there's no dodging cars. It gets cleared of snow in the winter and there's a Bike Shop right on the trail. It connects to schools, lakes, neighborhoods, bars, coffee shops, light rail stations, and all sorts of other places people want to go. It's even got a beautiful bridge where it crosses over Hiawatha Ave.

And We Want to Extend it?

Yep! The Greenway Ends at the Mississippi River, but it could use a rail bridge called the "Short Line Bridge" to continue into Minneapolis' Prospect Park neighborhood and then on to Saint Paul

I am a Nerd and Want to Learn More About Trains and Bridges

That's not really a question, but me too! Andy Singer of the Midtown Greenway Coalition wrote a great article about the existing bridge and various options for making it safe for cyclists, walkers, and trains

Why Should I Care?

Because climate change will screw up everything for the next generation of humans unless we start making small sacrifices to reduce fossil fuel usage. Safe, separated bike paths encourage more people to walk and bike to places and enable more people to live car-free or car-lite lifestyles. Good bike infrastructure also has the nice side effect of preventing people from dying by being run over by car drivers.

But What if I Drive Everywhere?

Did you hear the part about mucking up the planet with CO2...? You know what? I get it. Forget that for a second. Bike paths help you too! If you are forced to drive a lot for whatever reason, you should be bending over backwards to encourage everyone else to get out of their cars and onto bikes and transit. Every cyclist and transit user is someone who is not clogging up the roads and not taking up a parking spot at wherever you're going. You ever heard about the concept of Induced Demand?. I'll let you read about it, but basically it says that you can't fix traffic congestion by building more roads, because people will just move further away from their jobs until their commute is about the same. If you want less traffic, you need to encourage people not to use cars.

Okay, Cool! How Can I help?

The Midtown Greenway Coalition is running a fundraiser to pay for a study on the existing Short Line bridge and prepare for the next phases of the project. To encourage you to donate, I'm going to Ride The Greenway to Make More Greenway!™. Make a donation between now and May 5 and Tweet or Email me a screenshot of your confirmation page. I'm going to ride laps of the Midtown Greenway on Saturday, May 5th because riding bikes is fun for everyone. I'll add a mile to my ride for every $10 donated

So if We Raise $100?

Then I'll ride 10 miles! That's about one trip from West River Parkway to the Chain of Lakes and back.

And if We Raise $1000?

Yep, 100 miles. I've never ridden that far in a day before but I'm in moderately good shape and I probably won't die

What About $2000 and 200 Miles?

By that point, I'll probably have to split it into multiple days but I take my internet promises very seriously

What if it's Raining?

I've got pretty nice rain gear, so this ride is Rain or Shine!*

*(Unless there's like a freak early-May thunderstorm or something else that threatens my safety. In that case, I'll reschedule)