RNC: View from the bike lane (Part II)

The Greenwash Brigade

Monday, I started out at 9 am to see how the freewheel!n borrow-a-bike-free program was working.

I visited three stations, two in parks ringing downtown Minneapolis, and one down the bluff from downtown Saint Paul (and the RNC).

My hunch about less-than-ideal bike station locations was on target. Two stations I visited were quiet, and the 8-10 volunteers all wanted something to do. Highlighting the dearth of riders, as I left the first station, a Humana-hired film crew asked whether I’d ride around the park while his crew took video. He didn’t want to wait for new riders to come along! I saw no one visibly RNC-related at any of the three stations. In Saint Paul, the few other cyclists I saw seemed to be leaving the protest.

The stations ran smoothly. The volunteers were well-trained, and 15 minutes after arriving, I was on a bike, borrowed lock in the bag, heading out on an errand. Easy.

It wasn’t perfect, though.

The check-out equipment wasn’t as slick as on the freewheel!n website - staff struggled to get the bar code readers to work (but thankfully didn’t insist on giving me a pink bike.)

One of the three bikes I rode didn’t have a quick-release seat, and the volunteers lacked the tool to adjust it. Nor could they tell me how to get around or even to downtown Saint Paul on the bike, given the blocked-off streets. When I asked, they suggested I ride along the Mississippi (so much for Freewheel!n’s suggestion to “pedal your way the 4 or 6 blocks from your hotel to the convention center, or from the light rail stop to your office or, well, anywhere else.”)

Security perimeter on Chestnut Ave., downtown Saint Paul. Photo credit: Janne K. Flisrand

I give the bikes a mixed review. On a 90 degree day, somewhere to keep a water bottle would have helped. Of the three bikes I rode, only one had a properly functioning computer. (One didn’t work at all, and a second was upside down and read 40% too fast - good for Gustav relief!) Two of the bikes were nice to ride, but one was hard work to pedal. If the hope is to get people who haven’t ridden in years to ride more, people who try out a bike and think, “this is hard work!” don’t help the cause: they’re gonna jump right back in their cars.

The problems could be easily fixed - and since some of the bikes will be left behind, I hope they will be. Relocate stations, spend a little time making sure everything works, get freewheel!n kiosks instead of volunteers, and wait for the RNC to pass.

Is this effort greening the RNC or greenwashing it? Greenwashing, as I see no evidence of RNC attendee use. But, with some luck it will green the Twin Cities.

As for my other questions, the entire excursion gave me an opportunity to roll and thread my way through standstill traffic in downtown Saint Paul, with an excellent view of two large crews of riot police, smashed plate glass windows, police officers trying to get a massive cement trash bin out of the road, and people laying down in front of a bus and being pepper-sprayed by police.

September 3, 2008 by Janne K. Flisrand
1 comments

tags: bicycles RNC

Comments (1)

Allen | Respond
December 21, 2008 1:10 AM PT

Exactly why I think Denver's claims of 25,000 miles are a load of hogwash. Who's going to wear a suit, go out on a day 90+ in a strange city and in the thin air ride some bike down some streets they don't know to go a few blocks when they can just take a shuttle bus back to the hotel (almost all hotel space was outside of downtown) or over to the Pepsi Center or catch a cab? Sweaty bikers huffing and puffing a mile above sea level in 90+ degree heat? Maybe it happened.... but are most Democrats really all that different from most Republicans?

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Our hand-picked environmental professionals, each part of the Public Insight Network, are on the hunt for "greenwash" as they examine eco-friendly claims by companies, governments and other groups. They ask tough questions about the mainstreaming of green, from the perspectives of people in the trenches who are focused on these issues 24/7.

Jim Nicolow is a nationally recognized expert on sustainable design and leads the sustainability initiative for Lord, Aeck & Sargent, overseeing the incorporation of sustainable design strategies and features into the firm’s design projects. He is a LEED® Accredited Professional with extensive knowledge of the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) LEED rating system.

Janne K. Flisrand has worked as an affordable housing and urban planning research consultant for five years, primarily supporting local non-profits. Her focus is on transit, transit-oriented design, affordable housing, and sustainability. Currently, she’s the program coordinator for Minnesota Green Communities, a program promoting affordable, healthy, sustainably built housing throughout Minnesota.

Dennis Markatos-Soriano recently completed a Master's in Public Affairs at Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School. He is now launching Sustainable Energy Transition (SET) to help individuals and institutions move from dependence on oil and gas to an efficient use of renewables. Previously, he co-founded SURGE (Students United for a Responsible Global Environment), which aims to bring young progressives together across issues of environmental and social justice throughout North Carolina and beyond. In the summer of 2006, he helped to start a small green company, Greenway Pedicabs, to provide a greenhouse gas-free transportation option for people in the Triangle of North Carolina.

Heidi Siegelbaum is a principal with Calyx Sustainable Tourism and works primarily on advancing sustainable tourism practices. She also specializes in science translation, cross-border indicators with Canada, cross-disciplinary planning and environmental technical assistance to businesses. Previously, she was in-house legal counsel for EPA for industrial chemicals and biotechnology and the senior performance measure analyst with the Washington State Department of Ecology. She is on the technical advisory committee of the Seattle Culinary Academy and a long standing member of the Chefs Collaborative.

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