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Dylan Cindrich #bikewalkprovostories This winter’s erratic weather patterns, snowy single digits lows to sunny mid-sixties highs, ice and puddles, hasn’t discouraged Dylan Cindrich from continuing his daily ride to classes at BYU’s Main Campus. Last year Dylan bought a nice set of Bontrager fenders for his Trek Verve 2 hybrid bike and some waterproof clothing that has made all the difference. No longer does he need to commute in his car on those inclement weather days, and tells me he even sometimes finds the bad weather amusing. Dylan began bike commuting when he first started high school in Portland Oregon. He didn’t want to be seen with his mother dropping him off in front of the new school, and the distance being too great for walking he decided to start biking. “Portland is a pinnacle of bicycle culture,” he interjects, “people like riding their bikes there.” It was “a pretty ride, by a golf course, and bike friendly streets with sharrows.” After graduating in 2017 Dylan entered BYU and moved to Provo, mostly walking to classes, but within a year he received the call and left Provo to begin serving a two year mission in Texas. Dylan’s father knew his son would be covering more than a few miles during his tour of service, so he made a phone call to a local dealer and ensured that a new Trek Verve 2 was waiting and paid for when Dylan arrived. The climate and culture in Texas is somewhat different from that of Portland, PeopleForBikes puts Portland’s overall city ranking in the 92nd percentile and one can expect rain 140 days a year on average in the N/W coastal city, but biking is biking wherever the road takes us, and Dyland was ready to roll. In his new environment he faced much hotter and drier weather with little need for rain gear and fancy fenders, when Dylan returned to Provo two years later it was another story. Today he continues to biking for transportation, using his car only for trips to the grocery store (still he’s considering buying a rear-rack and saddle bags) or for those longer trips, like to see friends in Alpine. And there’s much more to his enthusiasm. (continued in comments)

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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 8”) 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)

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