Even though I love bikes and biking, and I’m a huge advocate for biking, sometimes I make excuses to avoid climbing on my bike. Sometimes it’s raining, or there’s too much snow on the ground. Sometimes my bike has a flat that I haven’t gotten around to fixing. Sometimes I’m just running really late. Sometimes I don’t want to face the traffic on Franklin, or the Greenway at night. Everyone has different reasons for making the decision to bike or not to bike.

As part of my research for the Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition this summer, I set out to discover what keeps people from biking. Overcoming these barriers is key to determining what initiatives would most help people start to bike, and will help people who already bike do so more frequently. I partnered with Lindsey Wallace, bike blogger (bikinginmpls.com) and community health researcher, on this project.