Rachel Whipple #bikewalkprovostories Rolling confidently and cautiously down University Avenue on a sage-green, hybrid, Novara Fiona Rachel Whipple made a left turn across the hectic rush-hour traffic to pull into the parking lot at Provo City Library at Academy Square. Days before, I had made arrangements to meet Rachel at this location for an interview. She easily shoved the bike’s front wheel over one of the heavy u-bars of the bike racks adjacent to the south entrance and secured her bike with a cable; all this without a smudge on the smartly dressed Associate Attorney who had just come from her law office two miles away to the north. Rachel often rides her bike to work, a bike she bought especially for commutes, and her husband, Associate Professor Clint Whipple, walks five to six days a week to his place of business, the main campus of BYU where he teaches. I will soon learn that this is an active transportation family—their three children included. One of the main reasons Rachel and Clint chose to live in Provo was its “bikeability and walkability.†Rachel began biking around town thirteen years ago “because it was faster and to cover longer distances†than one could walking. On other more casual days the whole family would walk to the movie theater (at the time, “Movie 8â€) located 3.4 miles away on No. University Parkway. All this activity started when they decided “to give up using the car during Lent,†and the whole family would ride bikes, and slowly worked its way into daily routines the rest of the year. When their youngest daughter, a student at BYU, accepted an after-classes job four miles from campus on South State Street there was a problem: Rachel didn’t feel that the route was safe enough for riding a bike, so the use of a car was decided. But due to BYU policy the car couldn’t be parked on campus and this didn’t allow enough time for Claire to get to work on time. They then bought Claire a scooter to solve this problem, giving her enough time to reach the car and still drive to work. (continued in comments)
View on Instagram https://instagr.am/p/CaIECdyJ5i1/