Pedal power

Most people dislike their commutes, but some Bay View residents eagerly anticipate theirs because they pedal to work.

“I arrive at work exhilarated and happy,” said Bay View resident and bicycle commuter Becky Tesch. Rather than viewing the journey as a chore, she considers it “really enjoyable.” Almost every day, Tesch rides an eight-mile roundtrip to work at the Milwaukee Public Museum and her fiancé Andrew Temperly bikes an 11-mile roundtrip to his job at Crank Daddy’s Bicycle Works on the East Side.

The couple lives together and has a long history riding bicycles, both individually and together. Tesch rode occasionally in high school and regularly in college at University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. As a working adult, she got to know Temperly through biking. “The second time we met, we were on bikes,” said Tesch. Besides commuting by bike, they are also mountain bike hobbyists.

Tesch and Temperly bike so frequently and find Bay View so amenable to car-free outings that they were able to go from owning two older cars to just one newer vehicle. 

They considered one car an experiment to see if they could handle the arrangements. While there have been some adjustments, the couple hasn’t regretted the decision. “We’ve never had a conflict where we were like, ‘oh, no,’” said Tesch.

Bay View’s proximity to employers in the Third Ward, downtown, the East Side, and elsewhere help make it feasible for locals like Tesch and Temperly to bike to work. But they’re among just half a percent of all Milwaukee County commuters who choose pedal-power and chain lube over the accelerator and engine oil.

As such, commuting by bike is rare enough to be a topic of break room conversation.

Tesch has become an informal biking advocate and fields coworkers’ questions about dealing with “helmet hair” and needing to change shoes and clothes. She requires a haircut that can handle being crushed by a bike helmet and specifies as much to her hairstylist.

In the morning on most workdays, she dresses in sportswear and packs the day’s professional work clothing in a waterproof backpack. Then she hops aboard her single-speed commuter: a Salsa Casseroll Triple. When she arrives at the museum on Wells Street, she locks her bike to a railing and heads inside to the locker room. She leaves her biking clothes there to dry and switches into work attire and one of three pairs of shoes stored in the locker. The locker room helps make her commute possible because it facilitates her switch from sportswear to office attire. “If you bike somewhere in winter, you need a place where you can change out of sweaty gear,” she said.

Temperly is able to shower and change into fresh clothes at work but he passes morning riders who are already in business attire. “I see guys on the bike path downtown in a three-piece suit with their tie flapping in the wind,” he said. He figures these riders are going slow enough to avoid sweating.

The couple’s enthusiasm for their lifestyle is typical of regular bike commuters, a tiny but diehard group that is well represented in Bay View.

Bay View resident Bill Sell is well known for his campaign to make the Hoan Bridge accessible to bicycles. He has been regularly riding city streets to his Third Ward office year—round for several years—”six winters,” as he puts it-and gave up his car in 2003. He enjoys his bike and being free of his car.

Sell began commuting on a sturdy hybrid-style bike but then treated himself to a new 21-speed road bike, a LeMond Etape so light he said he can “lift it with one finger.” He wears a courier bag that catches some of his back tire’s dirt, and wipes that and his coat off with a rag when he gets to work. In the winter he has too many layers on for the office so he peels some off. In the summer he changes into a T-shirt at work. In both cases he switches out of athletic shoes into work shoes that he stows at the office.

During his years on the saddle, Sell has noticed improvement in motorists’ attitudes. “I have noticed that cars are more used to bicycles. I used to get horned if I would take the whole lane,” he said. Nevertheless, Sell has learned to bike assertively and defensively, for example occupying more space in the driving lane. Bicycle safety literature frequently recommends bicycling farther to the left than might seem instinctive-it makes a rider more visible to drivers, for example at cross streets, and often causes drivers to give the rider a wider berth. Sell uses a handlebar or helmet mirror to watch traffic approaching him from behind. He doesn’t have the proper tires for the slipperiest of days, so if conditions merit he walks or rides the bus to his office.

While Sell himself feels very comfortable, even in heavy traffic, he is a little uneasy about other bikers’ habits. “I’m a little concerned when I see bicyclists going through red lights. That makes me nervous,” he said. “We will be safe among automobiles if the drivers can expect certain behavior from us.”

The riders interviewed for this article all feel comfortable in traffic, though they have experienced minor accidents over the years. Tesch collided with someone exiting a parking garage but she was not injured and her bike’s wheel was only slightly damaged. Passersby, including a doctor, came quickly to help her. Temperly was riding downtown one Sunday morning when a delivery van started backing up and knocked into him. The van driver was very apologetic and offered him a ride. The couple feels that non-riders they talk with tend to overestimate the likelihood of accidents and their severity. Temperly is so confident on his bike that he said he feels, “I can avoid accidents better on my bike.”

These riders always wear a helmet and stay alert for doors suddenly opening or cars driving unpredictably. Temperly hears about accidents through his work at the bike shop, but considers really serious accidents rare. “As a whole, drivers are getting much better,” he said. Designated lanes also help bikers feel comfortable and avoid accidents. Milwaukee city streets include over 47 miles of bike lanes painted on the roadway, many added in 2005. Plans include an additional 100 miles of bike lanes.

“Every spring I get one or two cars full of people who scream at me,” said Tesch. Though she is able to laugh it off, she points out that “It’s really dangerous-if you were really startled, it could cause an accident.”

For bike commuters, the benefits of the lifestyle far outweigh the risks.

Michael Seidel owns a car, and carpools to work with other Bay View residents when necessary, but prefers his bike.

“If I never had to get into a car, I’d be a very happy person,” said Seidel, who from April through early November rides between his Bay View home and his employer on Brown Deer Road. Each 17-mile ride takes about an hour and 20 minutes during April. As the months go by and Seidel gets more fit, the trip shortens to an hour.

Riders keep fit because bicycling 10 miles burns about 360 calories. While bicycle commuting seems unusual to some, Seidel points out that, “A lot of people go to the gym after work and they don’t think that’s too crazy.”

Frequent bike riders also save money by avoiding wear and tear on their cars-and minimizing or eliminating their payments at the gas pump. “To be free of that expense is really a big change in life. It’s a different kind of budget. To have access to that money is really significant,” Sell said.

People already in the routine of bicycle commuting encourage drivers to step out of their cars and onto two wheels, especially during Milwaukee’s Bike to Work Week June 6-12.

“A freedom from that metal and that gasoline is spiritually energizing,” said Sell. “It’s such a pleasure to be free of that. I invite people to dip into that if they can.”

More: bfw.org and milwaukee.gov/BicycleTaskForce3727.htm

How Bike-Friendly Is Milwaukee?

Milwaukee is recognized with a bronze rating by the League of American Bicyclists. Dave Schlabowske, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator, said the city would be closer to achieving a silver rating if more people began bike commuting. The state also gets accolades: Wisconsin merits a second-place ranking for its commitment to bicycling from the league. The league’s website notes the state’s “thriving bicycle industry and growing advocacy movement” and predicts Wisconsin could eclipse first-place Washington.

Bike-Friendly Bay View

“There are two things that are important in bicycling. There’s facilities like bike lanes and trails. Bay View has that…” said Dave Schlabowske, the city’s bicycle and pedestrian coordinator. “The other key element that creates more bicycle traffic is trip generators. Those are things like stores, bars, and restaurants where it’s convenient to bike. Bay View has that in spades.”

Bike Racks on Buses

Bicycle commuting is expected to increase when bike racks appear on the Milwaukee County Transit System buses this summer. The racks will allow a rider to store a bicycle while riding the bus, eliminating the concern of being stranded by a mechanical problem or bad weather. Materials distributed by Milwaukee’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force predict that MCTS will experience a 0.2-percent to 1-percent ridership increase from the rack installation based on results in peer cities.

Some people might use the bus bike rack on the way to work or school, then ride their bicycle home. Commuters would stay clean and dry on the ride in but get exercise on the return trip. Those who work late might ride into work during daylight and ride the bus home through twilight and darkness.