Bob Mann, bicycle shop owner, shares tips
June 29th, 2008 by bethpineSource: Fort Wayne Journal Gazette (Original Article)
Bob Mann is the owner of Summit City Bicycles and Fitness and a Northwest Allen County Trails board member. Mann spoke with editorial writer Stacey Stumpf about how more people are using bikes to get around town because of the rising cost of gasoline. Here are excerpts from the interview.
1) Are the higher gas prices helping business? I’ve got to say, it’s affecting us in mostly a positive way. Not only are people turning to bikes for some transportation - maybe making that trip to the grocery store or back and forth to work. But also we’re seeing a lot of people turning to bicycles for recreation. It’s a pretty inexpensive way for a family of four to go out and enjoy the afternoon riding on the Rivergreenway versus spending the day on a boat on the lake.
Also, our repair business is through the roof. People are pulling old bikes out of the garage that they haven’t had out forever. We’re always busy in the summer, but right now we are having an exceptionally good summer selling about 100 bikes a week right now.
2) Can the trails and greenways play a role in transportation, or are they just for recreation? The trails are certainly a nice place to go and have fun, but, I think more importantly, they can be an important part of the city’s infrastructure - transportation, a way to safely get from one neighborhood to the next, to get down to the grocery store, to go to get an ice cream cone.
I think more people would ride their bikes to work, to school if there was a safe way to do it. Forty percent of all car trips are less than 4 miles, and I think that’s certainly doable by bicycle if there is the proper infrastructure in place.
3) What can be done to make it easier for bikes and cars to share the roads? Certainly sharing the road is a wonderful concept, but in reality bicyclists need to share some of the responsibility in picking the route that they choose, picking roads at budgettraveladvice times of days that are less …continue reading