Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:09 - 00:00:21:13
Megan Ramey
When you do it right, when you're catering to kids in a city, how it can be life changing. So Genesis on that that waterfall ride he said. She was like, we were riding next to each other on the store, Columbia River Highway Trail. And she says to me, I never thought this would be my life. And I just look at her and I'm like, What are you talking about?

00:00:21:13 - 00:00:43:17
Megan Ramey
And she's like, Two years ago, I never thought I'd be riding a bike for fun or to get places. She joined the club and learned a bunch of like how to get places around town. Then the Free Bikes for Kids nonprofit called Anson's Bike Buddies that I helped run got her this flight that she uses to bike to school every single day.

00:00:43:19 - 00:00:49:19
Megan Ramey
Like, she is the epitome of how a kid's life can be transformed.

00:00:49:22 - 00:01:12:03
John Simmerman
Hey everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman and that is Megan Ramey from Hood River, Oregon. She's back again. We're going to get an update from her on all of her amazing things that she is doing in the city of Hood River now that she is officially part of the government. I guess there's the safe routes to school coordinator.

00:01:12:05 - 00:01:25:24
John Simmerman
It is a good one. But again, it's a long one. And this is the very last episode of season six. So let's get right to it with Megan.

00:01:25:26 - 00:01:30:08
John Simmerman
Megan, thank you so much for joining me on the town's Towns podcast once again.

00:01:30:10 - 00:01:34:11
Megan Ramey
Yay! I'm so honored.

00:01:34:14 - 00:01:57:00
John Simmerman
I do say once again, because you have been on the on the podcast before, it was way back in season three. This was January of 2022, and I really appreciate you coming back on after just about two years to give a little update on everything that's happening there in Hood River, Oregon. But what did you do this month?

00:01:57:00 - 00:02:01:12
John Simmerman
You just take a moment to introduce yourself to the audience.

00:02:01:15 - 00:02:32:17
Megan Ramey
Yeah. So my name is Megan Rainey. I'm joined by my unofficial therapy, Cat Kubo. Kubo. I'm Sergio. Like, look at the camera a couple of times, But I am the safety school manager for Hood River County School District. And I'm then a long time bike advocate. And mostly because I became a mother and becoming a mother opened my eyes to how unsafe our streets are.

00:02:32:18 - 00:02:43:15
Megan Ramey
So yes, I am really into like music and cooking and getting outdoors and yeah, that's just a little bit about me.

00:02:43:17 - 00:03:00:21
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. And in the safe house to school manager role that you have is relatively new. You sent over this little clipping. Talk a little bit about that process because this is new from the last time you were on the podcast.

00:03:00:24 - 00:03:37:14
Megan Ramey
Yes, it's great to have that timestamp of January 2022 because right about then I was in the process of helping the school district apply for this grant from ODOT to find a permanent position for the school district and I didn't throughout the process, I didn't realize I was writing a grant to pay for a job for me, but I realized that in writing the grant, I was honest with the superintendent at the time and the team that, I actually do want this job.

00:03:37:14 - 00:04:02:00
Megan Ramey
And so maybe I shouldn't. I should take a little step back. But yes, it was announced in May that that we won the grant. And then the superintendent said, I would be crazy not to offer you the job, but you've gotten so much done, not getting paid. I can't wait to see what happens when you get paid.

00:04:02:03 - 00:04:24:29
John Simmerman
Yeah. So when you get paid and and we'll encourage folks to go back and watch that first episode. And we talked extensively about some of the activities that you were involved with, which included, you know, the bike train slash bike bus, basically the same thing, you know, and you had been doing that for a little while. We'll talk a little bit about that.

00:04:24:29 - 00:04:41:11
John Simmerman
We'll talk a little bit about the bike rodeos that you do. We'll talk a little bit about that demonstration project that you did. We'll talk a little bit about school streets. There's so much that we have to talk about. It's going to be fun. So much. But but I first have to wish you a happy birthday.

00:04:41:13 - 00:05:03:24
Megan Ramey
Thank you. Yeah, it feels really good. I, I don't know. I've just been reflecting a lot this past year, and I I'm just I'm really happy to be at the age I am. I still don't know what I want to do with my life. Like, we're all. I'm still figuring it out, but I'm following the. I'm following the passion and the joy.

00:05:03:25 - 00:05:05:22
Megan Ramey
So thank you so much.

00:05:05:27 - 00:05:28:07
John Simmerman
You are quite welcome. Yes, we are recording this on December 14th and this is going to go live. By the way, I didn't tell you this yet, but this would go live on Friday, December 29th. And so it will be the final episode of season six and it'll be the final episode of the year. So you have that honor of being there.

00:05:28:09 - 00:05:46:28
John Simmerman
But as you mentioned, you know, it's been it's been a wild and crazy year. You've done a lot of amazing things and you've run into a lot of amazing people and including, you know, some past guests on the podcast here we see Italy and Sam as well to talk a little bit about this gathering.

00:05:47:01 - 00:06:27:14
Megan Ramey
So this was the Brooklyn Bike bus tour for the Vision Zero Conference, and it was one of those I think for like at least 2 hours I was on the brink of like pinching myself slash my arm hairs, like we're constantly going goose bumps and and just getting very emotional because of this amazing group of people from all over the country that came together to see what Emily is doing in Brooklyn and just getting to meet Emily in person.

00:06:27:16 - 00:07:10:27
Megan Ramey
You are very much responsible for this, John. Like she was inspired. She told me my face that she was inspired by seeing the first Act of Towns podcast I did, and and it was just so wonderful to connect with her. And, and, and then Sam, just the energy that he brings to this whole movement and community and to see folks from around the US just be kind of in awe of them is it's always just I could just be part of the congregation of Sample too, and it would be a great time.

00:07:11:00 - 00:07:14:21
John Simmerman
Yeah, you know, fantastic. Who's the fourth person in that photo there?

00:07:14:23 - 00:07:39:18
Megan Ramey
That's Vivian Ortiz. And she is so, so crazy because I had very little interaction with Vivian when I lived in Boston. Same with Sam. I never even met Sam until I moved to Pacific Northwest. But Vivian is a force in Seyfried's to school from Massachusetts and doing pretty fantastic things. She's also on the League of American Cyclists Board.

00:07:39:18 - 00:07:43:24
Megan Ramey
And so this is this is a dream team.

00:07:43:26 - 00:07:47:05
John Simmerman
It is a dream team. I'm going to have to have her on the podcast, too.

00:07:47:07 - 00:08:02:04
Megan Ramey
Yes. He's she's doing some some shit. And she was on the board of Livable Streets right after I left from from Boston, which is my bootcamp for advocacy. And yes.

00:08:02:06 - 00:08:22:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, we talked about that a little bit in the first episode. You know, you were there at the era when Jonathan FERTIG was in that area and in all that. So yeah, and that that kind of speaks a little bit to the power that we have as community members who, you know, just say, Hey, I'm going to roll up my sleeves and do something.

00:08:23:00 - 00:08:45:18
John Simmerman
You mentioned Sam. You know, he kind of caught a target tiger by the tail because he started posting stuff out on Twitter and TikTok and it just exploded. You just never know when one of these silly little podcasts that I'm putting together might, you know, inspire some of you to do something. And Emily has shared that story quite openly that, you know, she was inspired to do it by your first episode.

00:08:45:18 - 00:08:49:00
John Simmerman
So yeah, it gives you, you know, chicken skin.

00:08:49:03 - 00:09:15:14
Megan Ramey
Yeah, it was constant during this tour. And then just having it felt like we had this like paparazzi surrounding us with both Jonathan Mouse from Portland and Clarence from three films. And they were just capturing all of it. And yes, this is I have to talk about this. This is Kyle Johnson in the center. And it's so appropriate that he's wearing a Mister Rogers neighborhood shirt.

00:09:15:14 - 00:09:43:24
Megan Ramey
In this picture. He's between Sam and I. And so Kyle started the first ever I'm calling it the first ever bike, train, bike, bus and in the world. But there is it's so interesting because there could be one in Germany and and he inspired me with his appearance on Clarence Street films when I saw that it was about neighborhood greenways in Portland.

00:09:43:24 - 00:10:00:06
Megan Ramey
And he was interviewed as part of that. And I saw that podcast and I was like, that's what I'm doing. Like, that's a no brainer. And so yeah, and so yeah, just having the three of us together and this was a bike bus meet up in Portland.

00:10:00:09 - 00:10:09:22
John Simmerman
Yeah, fantastic. That is so, so much fun. Yeah. So I mean, you got to be pinching yourself of just how much has changed in the last two years.

00:10:09:25 - 00:10:41:01
Megan Ramey
Yes. And in so many magnificent ways. Like I, I keep telling people I feel like I'm in this cash grabbing machine where if you if you do what you love, the money will follow. And it's not for me, it's for my community. And there has just been so much good that has happened in the past two years that, you know, I was just watching.

00:10:41:03 - 00:11:12:16
Megan Ramey
I don't know if you've seen the crown documentary and not documentary biopic, I guess, is what it's called. And there is this moment, it's the episode with Princess Diana when and I was never really a fan of I just wasn't wrapped up in that world of royalty. But watching those final moments before she died, there was this fictitious interaction she had with I totally forget the name of her boyfriend who had also died with her.

00:11:12:16 - 00:11:41:19
Megan Ramey
But she he told her they were giving advice to each other and he said, you need to slow down and look at what you have accomplish in the past year. And you're still like trying to figure out what's next. And I just I need to like I started crying during that episode, so I was like, she's like talking to me, like, need to slow down and enjoy this moment because it's unbelievable.

00:11:41:21 - 00:12:04:16
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's interesting that you say you need to kind of, you know, slow down and enjoy this moment and you have had a little bit of an opportunity to get out with the family and explore and and enjoy the moment a little bit. Because you're right. You mean you catch a tiger by the tail? You're you're doing this, you're doing that.

00:12:04:16 - 00:12:24:29
John Simmerman
Next thing you do, you will get to all the the demonstration project and all that. But now that you mention London and or, you know, the royalty and all that. And so we need to talk a little bit about your trip that you did. And so yeah, so you put the family together and you grabbed your Brompton and you're part of the Brompton family.

00:12:24:29 - 00:12:38:17
John Simmerman
I also travel with my Brompton, as you well know. Talk a little bit about the trip. And because the trip ended up being culminated with another bike bus gathering. But before that, you guys were just out exploring.

00:12:38:20 - 00:13:07:03
Megan Ramey
Well, the bike bus gathering, the summit was the reason for the trip like that. They I believe it was Sam that just flew the idea out there that he said, let's just get together in Barcelona, where it all started. And so I started planning. From there I was like, okay, I got to see I can't wait to see Barcelona because this is all So I have like two hats that I wear.

00:13:07:04 - 00:13:31:20
Megan Ramey
One is the favorites, the school manager, and the other is the founder of Bike About. And so I was like, I have to see as much of Barcelona and eat and drink and sightsee my way through it. But also I you know Paris is right there too, and I wanted to check up on London, so I used to live there a long time ago and that guide is now.

00:13:31:20 - 00:13:55:24
Megan Ramey
So I write travel guides and how to sightsee cities by bike. And so the London guide is now live. And then just so I was also like, this is a tangent, but I was also a surrogate. I had a baby for a couple in the south of France and Penelope was born in 2018 and then COVID happened, so I hadn't seen her since.

00:13:55:26 - 00:13:57:17
John Simmerman
that's right. Yeah.

00:13:57:19 - 00:14:25:14
Megan Ramey
And so to be able to visit her in the south of France and she was for going on five just learning how to ride a bike and I got to spend a really good time, a really good time with her. It's like our family tree kind of like was grafted with a new branch. And so now but that's like, that's like a very personal visit that I attached to this whole trip.

00:14:25:16 - 00:14:48:19
John Simmerman
Yeah, fantastic. And as you can see here, folks, and for the listening audience, we have pulled up Megan's bike about a dot com that's b I k about dot com. And you can take a look at all of the different profiles that you have done. You've done bikeable North American vacations and there's a whole bunch of them on there.

00:14:48:21 - 00:14:55:27
John Simmerman
And of course you've got London that is we're looking at at the moment. Are you going to do one for Paris too since you were in Paris?

00:14:56:00 - 00:15:01:25
Megan Ramey
Yeah, Paris will be my next one. And that's a beast I have to wrap my head around.

00:15:01:27 - 00:15:04:17
John Simmerman
Yeah, Paris is crazy now.

00:15:04:19 - 00:15:31:23
Megan Ramey
Yeah. And in Spain with Barcelona. Honestly, those two cities, I had no prior visit there, so I had no reflection between my visits. London. I had a lot of reflection, but. But yes, those two cities are just doing amazing things in very different ways. But but yeah, it was a it was a pleasure to be able to bike around with my daughter.

00:15:31:23 - 00:15:55:26
Megan Ramey
And you mentioned the Brompton. That was the maiden voyage, a voyage of her having her own Brompton. So going going through the entire process. So she's always like, since she was nine months old, we visited Brooklyn by bike and she was in a Burnley trailer. So now she's on her own bike with us instead of being us. Yeah, that's.

00:15:56:02 - 00:16:17:00
Megan Ramey
That's Annika and she's in a she was in one of the protected bike lanes and that's her bike. And so she, so she got to do a custom paint job from like courtesy of straight up. Right. Which is an amazing company and she's carrying all of her luggage here And so that's that's how we got around is folding these things up, putting them on the train.

00:16:17:00 - 00:16:37:24
Megan Ramey
And I have to give a shout out to this picture quick. So this is in London, and I don't know if anybody knows Travis and Sigrid, but they're social media famous. Sigrid is a Norwegian. I forget what type of kitty, but she's a beautiful white cat. And my daughter, well, we all are cat lovers in this house, obviously from two loves sitting on my lap in the beginning.

00:16:37:24 - 00:16:59:27
Megan Ramey
But it was a very big moment for my daughter here, Annika to meet Sigrid. She bike she bike to see us in the rain. And she was cold, but she had her little rain cap with her hood on it and my gosh, it was just a joy to be able to meet. And Travis grew up in Stevenson, Washington, right across the river from from us.

00:16:59:27 - 00:17:05:19
Megan Ramey
And so being able to meet him in London was just it was it was great. Yeah. Yeah.

00:17:05:21 - 00:17:13:24
John Simmerman
That is fantastic. Yeah. And you know what? A trooper, she's she's just like, boom, let's go. We do this.

00:17:13:26 - 00:17:41:07
Megan Ramey
Yeah, this is on no sleep, because we arrived in London that morning at 7 a.m., Took the Heathrow Express into town, into Paddington Station, which is a totally different experience than what I had. It only takes like 30 minutes to get from the airport to downtown. Now, we're used to take almost like an hour plus. But anyway, we were had the mission to stay up to see the city.

00:17:41:07 - 00:18:01:18
Megan Ramey
It was one of the most rainiest days ever. We brought all of our rain here, so we were fine. But it was it did start soaking through. And this is a picture of Annika and my husband Kyle, biking in one of the separated bike lanes next to Buckingham Palace. And so we had just watched all of the Crown series that day.

00:18:01:22 - 00:18:07:18
Megan Ramey
And so she had this background familiarity with obsession with the royal family.

00:18:07:20 - 00:18:17:09
John Simmerman
Yeah, I love it. That's so great. And and she she's riding her bike for fun and for recreational little bit these days, too, right?

00:18:17:12 - 00:18:56:04
Megan Ramey
Yeah. No, she we only live about a quarter mile from the middle school. If she walks to school, she prefers walking and which I love. I like I, I'm a lot I like walking around in Hood River because it's so small and dense. But she knows how to handle herself in very highly nuanced city situations. And yeah, here is us and the Eiffel Tower, which is, yeah, I could go on about this whole trip, but she she holds her own now, more so than a lot of adults live with.

00:18:56:04 - 00:19:30:09
Megan Ramey
And it's, it's a I feel like a proud a very proud mom that all those if somebody asked about this on Twitter recently or X whatever it is saying like they're very much struggling with this transition where you go from you go from the kids riding on your bike, riding a bike next to you. And I, I wanted to offer that mom comfort because it doesn't happen overnight.

00:19:30:09 - 00:20:13:24
Megan Ramey
It happens very gradually over the course of five years. And by necessity and all of those investments in time with Annika here we are biking on then this is right after the the cycle track and Western Avenue in Cambridge. I spoke at the ribbon cutting in her and I biked away from it side by side as it should be for a mom and daughter like this is a gold standard and in American bike infrastructure and yeah the all these little investments of time and putting her on her own bike next to us has paid off like it a joy to say see cities now and it always has been but it's like even more so.

00:20:13:26 - 00:20:20:02
John Simmerman
Yeah and she's correct me if I'm wrong she's also competing a little bit like in cyclocross.

00:20:20:04 - 00:20:43:03
Megan Ramey
Yes. So she so for the first time, I don't believe at the last podcast she was here yet, but for the first time she now competes in the same time bracket as me. So I get to race with her. And I always have said this. I look forward to the day where she starts to overcome me physically because I am.

00:20:43:03 - 00:21:07:25
Megan Ramey
I love my athleticism and I am competitive and I cannot wait until she gets to my level and starts pushing me. So she starts in a in a heap, like right in front of me. And we always have this game of how long is it going to take for Mama to catch up to ARCA? And there was a race where there was a race where I caught up to her and passed her and I thought that was it.

00:21:07:25 - 00:21:27:08
Megan Ramey
And she like passed me like 15 seconds later and held on in front of me for a whole lap. And I was just like having so much fun tailing her around. We were laughing and yes, so, yes, she also has that dual mind of recreational and transportation biking.

00:21:27:10 - 00:22:00:12
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I think that's really important. I the reason I intentionally wanted to do that is because too often in the bicycle advocacy world, we see the different camps in the between recreational sport, you know, cycling versus utilitarian cycling. It's just there's no reason for it to be, you know, at loggerheads at a battle. You know, you know this about me as well as, you know, I've got a garage full of bikes, you know, that are utilitarian in nature, you know, the cargo bike and the Brompton and the day to day bike.

00:22:00:12 - 00:22:14:21
John Simmerman
But then I also have my racing bikes. And so I love having that duality as well. And it's so wonderful to see that she's into that spirit and she has that joy of of cycling and competing and having fun with Mom.

00:22:14:23 - 00:22:38:07
Megan Ramey
Yes, it's I think we're so much stronger together and it's like one of my missions to bring those two contingents together because there are so many people who use their bikes for recreation that if they could just use their voice a little bit more than USA Cycling would follow suit and start using their power to make it safer in the street and we would all be better off.

00:22:38:10 - 00:23:21:17
John Simmerman
Yeah, you know, in fact, you and I have not had this discussion, but when I first started the nonprofit Advocates for Healthy Communities, my very first initiative was an initiative called Every Day Race Day. And the reason why I called it that was the tagline was Everyday Race day. Wouldn't it be nice if every day out on our streets and in our community felt like race day where the community was coming together and to applaud you as you rode your bike by and yes, and the origins of that particular initiative was something we had done a few years earlier, a couple of years earlier during Iron Man in Kona, which is where I lived at

00:23:21:17 - 00:23:44:17
John Simmerman
the time and at the World Championships for Ironman. We had a nice little booth and we called that initiative every day, race day. And so we were introducing the Iron Henderson's triathletes that would come by the booth that, you know, the Iron Man organization was gracious enough to give us that booth space to be able to talk about bicycle advocacy.

00:23:44:17 - 00:24:17:21
John Simmerman
And we would have that discussion with these athletes. And in fact, we would ask, you know, they say, well, where are you from? And in and they'd say, we're from Boston. And so we would pull up the map on Boston. And we say, Your bike local bicycle advocacy organization is this and this is the contact information and get that to them because we wanted that engagement, you know, from them, you know, between them, like you said, the quote unquote, different camps where they don't they shouldn't there shouldn't be different camps.

00:24:17:21 - 00:24:24:27
John Simmerman
It should just be you know, we really should be advocating for, you know, any opportunity to get on a bike and have some fun.

00:24:24:29 - 00:24:52:20
Megan Ramey
Yeah. It's so needed that what you did and it should be just part of any type of race registration for it that involves biking. There should just be a link to the local partnership with the advocacy organization and Oregon Bike Racing Association. Oprah, for short, is starting to get there because we're starting to have cross-pollination between cyclocross and and advocacy.

00:24:52:20 - 00:24:54:04
Megan Ramey
So yeah.

00:24:54:07 - 00:25:14:17
John Simmerman
And I actually see this kind of blending over since I was a triathlete and we were, you know, talking with triathletes, they're also about running, you know, on the streets, too. And so, you know, really talking about street safety in a much broader term in terms of not just for safety for cyclists, but also safer for pedestrians as well.

00:25:14:17 - 00:25:28:23
John Simmerman
And so having these discussions and talking about safer streets advocacy and Vision Zero advocacy, you know, includes not just people on bikes, it includes literally everybody on our streets trying to create safer places.

00:25:28:25 - 00:25:52:06
Megan Ramey
Safer and more joyful, too, for runners because I just went I just went running like two nights ago. It was dark out. And my friend who I was running with, we had to wait at least 45 seconds to cross the road. And so that's like one of those things where as a runner, you just don't want to sit there idling, like waiting for a car to, like, let you let you go.

00:25:52:06 - 00:25:55:09
Megan Ramey
It was like a crosswalk. They should have been stopping for us.

00:25:55:12 - 00:26:07:27
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. I'm lingering on this particular photo of Brattle Street here 2014 versus today. Talk a little bit about Brattle Street and why this is so special for you.

00:26:08:00 - 00:26:38:17
Megan Ramey
This is special to me because I live the quarter, not even like now, even a quarter mile away from both these images. So we live down in eastern or sorry, western Cambridge, far west or Cambridge, where it borders on Belmont. And my daughter is on the left in the front. She's riding your bike in a painted bike lane at the time, which was actually nice compared to the rest of Boston Metro at that time.

00:26:38:20 - 00:26:57:00
Megan Ramey
But at that time and she was one of the very few kids riding, she started riding her bike to schools like a pre-K at three years old on a balanced bike. And here she is on like a I don't even know what real size that bike is, but joined by one of her friends on a bike to school day that I led.

00:26:57:00 - 00:27:29:08
Megan Ramey
And I always I had such high hopes for Cambridge as being such a progressive city like there was like this joke of like zip code 02138 is the most opinionated zip code in the country, but it was always my hope that you would start to see more kids riding and being on their parents bikes. And so fast forward now, just like when I just visited Boston this past time, Petros CEO, who's a may I?

00:27:29:08 - 00:27:30:28
Megan Ramey
You need to have him on your show.

00:27:30:28 - 00:27:41:10
John Simmerman
I thank you. Thank you. I need to follow up with him. And I'll mention to him that his name came up and I think he's his he's got a you've got a photo of him somewhere in here.

00:27:41:12 - 00:27:43:02
Megan Ramey
Yes. Yeah. And I'll get we'll.

00:27:43:02 - 00:27:44:09
John Simmerman
Get him on. We'll get him on.

00:27:44:10 - 00:28:05:01
Megan Ramey
I'll get into that story too, because he is an amazing human being who is. Anyway, I'll go into that. But he took me on a tour of the Brattle Street. All the knew I wanted to see, like all the new bike lanes in town. And so he took me on this tour of the street and it's just so much better.

00:28:05:01 - 00:28:31:27
Megan Ramey
Like I used to be a salmon going through Harvard Square. It was I was going again to in one way, like it was a one way of two lanes of car traffic, because just to make the point, there needs to be a protected bike lane. That was contraflow and now it's there. And this is such a marvelous this again is the gold standard and biking way.

00:28:31:27 - 00:28:34:18
Megan Ramey
So I'm so proud of Cambridge.

00:28:34:21 - 00:29:06:04
John Simmerman
Yeah and you know and it's it's worth saying too because you know as as you also mentioned earlier this this earlier photo is also, you know, part of the Cambridge infrastructure that is there in 2019. Of course, the the Cambridge Safe, the street law, Safe Streets law or whatever was passed, I don't know the exact name, but yeah, for those that don't know, Cambridge, Massachusetts, is doing some pretty amazing things.

00:29:06:04 - 00:29:35:25
John Simmerman
What we're looking at right here on screen and for the listening audience, this particular image is a continuous elevation bike way, which means that both the crosswalks and the the bike walks or the bike crossings are all at the elevated level, at the curb level, and not at the street level. And so that creates a raised crossing at each of those minor streets that the cars are doing.

00:29:36:01 - 00:30:02:28
John Simmerman
And what was really, really wonderful to to learn from the Cambridge City staff and I do have a video on this where they talk about how they were able to install those raised crossings through a lighter, quicker, cheaper sort of approach. It's like an overlay of of asphalt that they did and tested it out because they they wanted to move quicker and get some stuff on the ground and test it out and pilot it.

00:30:03:00 - 00:30:06:23
John Simmerman
And in Western it's been in for a while now.

00:30:06:26 - 00:30:10:01
Megan Ramey
Yeah it was I by chance with Cera.

00:30:10:04 - 00:30:28:00
John Simmerman
Let's say you're on. Yes. Well actually that particular day wasn't I was with CARE the day before, but then the city staff that I was with, that particular day because I was filming a tour with Naito at the, at the time and Kara was, was not able to attend that one.

00:30:28:02 - 00:30:46:27
Megan Ramey
But yeah, yeah. Kara's early influence there on my advocacy. I was on the Cambridge Spy Committee and she was our ringleader and she always was wonderful about pinging me. Whenever there was an important community meeting coming up that parents needed to show up and I needed to rally.

00:30:46:29 - 00:30:50:03
John Simmerman
And she's another past guest here on the on the podcast too.

00:30:50:03 - 00:30:52:29
Megan Ramey
So yay.

00:30:53:02 - 00:31:20:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, that's great stuff. I do want to get over to some of the the things that that sort of came about with the work that you were doing in safe routes. And I think that probably getting to that demonstration project is, is where I want to go next with this, because it's one thing to be doing the bike busses and the bike trains and the walk to school days and all that.

00:31:20:20 - 00:31:50:19
John Simmerman
That's what I call the software activity assets. These are the things that we do that are the policies and the procedures and the engagement activities and the awareness activities. It's completely different to, you know, grab the bull by the horns and say, how do we get some infrastructure down on the ground? We were just talking about, you know, Cambridge there and the fact that they're building, you know, first class infrastructure in in their environment now and moving quite quickly.

00:31:50:19 - 00:32:06:03
John Simmerman
And the data is showing that it's having a difference. It's completely another to be like in Hood River, Oregon, and you're like, okay, we need help. And we talked a little bit about that in our first episode. So talk a little bit about the Safe Routes School demonstration that you pulled together.

00:32:06:06 - 00:32:36:26
Megan Ramey
Yeah, So this goes back about four years when I was just a mom advocate. Portland State University had a has a program called Better Blocks and they want to help cities and towns put in essentially like demonstrations there quick build infrastructure. And they want their students to get hands on experience, engineering students and planning students get hands on experience helping cities and towns plan this.

00:32:36:26 - 00:33:27:29
Megan Ramey
So I applied for the program on the city's behalf, just submitted the application and didn't ask any permission, and we want it. And so COVID happened kind of delayed it. But then we got started, I believe, right after the last time we talked, which was January 2022, and the students came and visited us, we observed the student behavior around and this was the middle school apologies to Hood River Middle School and the student, the PSU students observed the middle school students what their desire lines were, how we can make it safe to snap to the behavior of the students instead of trying to design a solution that wouldn't be adopted by them.

00:33:28:01 - 00:34:06:05
Megan Ramey
And so they drew up a plan. And the City of Red River was excited about it because some other background pulled demonstration was a solution to the chicken and egg situation where cities don't do anything about the streets because they don't have magically $1,000,000 to play with. I wanted them to take a baby step and raise some public support for projects like this so they could see, people actually do want this stuff.

00:34:06:05 - 00:34:31:13
Megan Ramey
Even though I know that so many parents want it, they still don't really quite have a grasp on that yet. So instead of so, the city applied for two grants for this exact area. One was for $800,000 and one was for $1.2 million. And that was just to create a painted bike lane and a sidewalk and some missing parts.

00:34:31:15 - 00:34:58:07
Megan Ramey
And they ODOT denied them the grant. And I was like, okay, we got to break the cycle. And so that's why this demonstration was so needed. And so, okay, where do I start? So yeah, so forth. So yeah, four years ago we got the design and the city was like, we need funding. So I started applying for a grant, got it funded and it was a partnership.

00:34:58:07 - 00:35:40:11
Megan Ramey
It was a grant that included an after school club, which we can talk about. I wanted there to be a good marriage between the students and their engagement with the process, but also and have them see the demonstration go down and engage the students along the way. So that's what the original grant was for. ODOT came to me actually the week before I left for the Europe trip, which is March, and said we can't fund the demonstration materials because next year, whoever it's called the National Highway Safety, they were like, We can't fund infrastructure.

00:35:40:14 - 00:36:07:14
Megan Ramey
And so I had to pivot within three days and try and find a magical $5,000 to help fund the demonstration materials which we ended up using. So that's a whole nother story. And I would say it was like three or four grants that we ended up getting to fund this $12,000 demonstration. So there was I think I think funding was one of the biggest barriers.

00:36:07:15 - 00:36:27:11
Megan Ramey
But after I got that, the city was on board, I would say 90%. And then there was one more hiccup the week before. Again, I was applying for grants, but the week before I left, my my awesome partner Jonathan with the city said, we need to pull a rabbit out of a hat. And I was like, What are you talking?

00:36:27:18 - 00:36:48:08
Megan Ramey
I'm leaving on vacation in four days. He's like, We need to pull design drawings in. Like by the time you leave because Public works manager is retiring and we need to get this in front of him before he goes. And I'm like, okay. And I got off the phone. I almost had a panic attack. So but there's no way I can deliver it.

00:36:48:09 - 00:37:12:01
Megan Ramey
So yes. Petru to the rescue. Holy cow. So I put it out on what I call my TaskRabbit, which is Twitter, and was like, Can somebody help me? I can pay. Petru answered my call. He talked to me for 30 minutes about what he saw the PSU design, what did I actually need? He said, Well, I have to take this.

00:37:12:08 - 00:37:14:09
Megan Ramey
He's on Saturday morning.

00:37:14:12 - 00:37:22:08
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So pause. Just sort of pause. Just a second. Yes. I need to take the S.A.T.s. Yes. Petro is a teenager.

00:37:22:10 - 00:38:06:29
Megan Ramey
Yes, He's a senior in high school, and he. I was like, Of course you need to take the S.A.T.s, take whatever time you want. And. But I'm not joking. Saturday morning, you just that Saturday afternoon I had the full design drawings. This guy is like, not only does he have like a heart of gold, he's an advocate, but he's a brilliant engineer who just I joked with Peter Koons, was not like an amazing engineer in Portland area that, you know, he's going to have whatever job he wants to and he's like, he's going to be running our D.O.T., like our federal D.O.T. And I, I the people can't like, it's not a kid.

00:38:06:29 - 00:38:17:14
Megan Ramey
He's like, I mean, he's a high schooler, but he doesn't so much hope for the next generation when I know how much talent and heart is out there.

00:38:17:16 - 00:38:32:00
John Simmerman
Yeah and and he's not new to this game. I mean, he got passionate about Safe Streets advocacy work a couple of years ago, several years ago. And yeah, he's quite the savant in this area for sure.

00:38:32:01 - 00:38:56:17
Megan Ramey
Biking around Cambridge was him was like it was like my brain on steroids in terms of I used the time all the signals to not have to stop my bike. He is like that on like a savant degree. It was wonderful being able to like listen to his like inner monologue like, that light's about to change. We can go.

00:38:56:17 - 00:39:31:16
Megan Ramey
And I'm like, this is wonderful. So he put together this design and it was like more than sufficient for the city of Hood River. And he said this demonstration project, it was not going to happen unless we had this. And so he in addition to he became busy towards the end of the project. We needed some more little design work and another Twitter like Twitter person, Robert Cole, who's also an engineer, ended up coming to my rescue again later on in the project.

00:39:31:16 - 00:39:43:28
Megan Ramey
So this was truly a crowdsourced trauma mereka project for me, and I would not have been able to do it without all the help.

00:39:44:01 - 00:39:57:17
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. So what's the status now on that pilot? Because it, it ran itself out and then what happens and what will happen hopefully in the future.

00:39:57:19 - 00:40:24:07
Megan Ramey
Yeah. I don't know if you can show the YouTube video of the project, maybe on mute, but it was installed in in August during a 100 degree heat. Shout out to my public works guys who work through that heat to get it installed over about a course of a week. He so it was installed. It was always going to be three months.

00:40:24:07 - 00:40:54:20
Megan Ramey
We got a late start because of supply chain issues and so it ran its course and it was it was a great project. Okay, So, so yeah, it was, it was a two way protected side pass according to the is the Rural Highway Design Guide, which is brilliant for small towns and I've I've taken so much good infrastructure recommendations from that.

00:40:54:20 - 00:41:39:23
Megan Ramey
So it was a side path that you can also walk in byton and you can see some of it here this is my afterschool club. I love them. They're like such energy for me. But we're on the demonstration right after it was removed and that's where you see the sad face with Corbyn. And we're essentially here. It's like a weekly interview called Detox Thursday, inspired by Jack Handey from Saturday Night Live, where I interviewed these kids and asked them what their impression was on the demonstration because I wanted to capture their thoughts so our leaders could see, like if it was kids in charge, the thing would have stayed in.

00:41:39:26 - 00:42:03:09
Megan Ramey
And it really does make a difference in their lives. They couldn't articulate. They would articulate a lot. Like I would say 95% of them said it's a safe card. As you can see in the background there, they have their own space. And that's what they said, that we have our own space now. It feels they said it feels faster, it feels more convenient.

00:42:03:09 - 00:42:42:14
Megan Ramey
I can talk to my friends what came through on the interviews, but they never said was the social dynamic, how they could walk side by side. There were somebody from the school board I presented on the demonstration, somebody from the school board that was like sat and made her day to see the kids like walking or biking in groups because she realized how valuable that was before and after school to get them to get them more socialized for the school environment, especially after COVID when there was so much isolation and they didn't know how to talk to each other.

00:42:42:17 - 00:43:05:17
Megan Ramey
So it was like this. It was like, I don't know, like Starbucks on our street, like a community gathering space that connected people. And it and even the students that didn't use it, like they were honest, like I never used it. They all said it makes me happy to see a safe place for my my fellow students. Yeah.

00:43:05:17 - 00:43:14:04
Megan Ramey
Here I am reading one of the deep thoughts columns that I closed with every and it was a way to make myself laugh and not take myself too seriously.

00:43:14:06 - 00:43:15:03
John Simmerman
Yeah.

00:43:15:05 - 00:43:20:14
Megan Ramey
That's great. But I never answered your I never answer your question to, like, where we at right now.

00:43:20:16 - 00:43:23:10
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Go for it. Yeah. Where we at right now?

00:43:23:12 - 00:43:47:08
Megan Ramey
So with the demonstration, it was removed and so Halloween was the last day and that was super symbolic. And we had plans because Halloween is not only one of the deadliest days for children because of road safety issues, but it's also a time where kids can play in the streets and have joy. So we wanted that last day to be Halloween.

00:43:47:08 - 00:44:11:06
Megan Ramey
And then the next morning I we were riding our bike to the bus stop to go on our vacation to Boston, and they were taking it out and it was I knew it was coming. And I had I you know, I had a lot of questions about the fact that it was temporary and it was always the plan.

00:44:11:06 - 00:44:37:11
Megan Ramey
But when you see it actually going out as kids are biking in it, it's it was really hard. And then it's so funny. Simultaneously, the same day bike with Portland was actively standing in front of a machine that was removing a bike lane, you know. And so it was so crazy to see the juxtaposition between Hood River and Portland on the same morning.

00:44:37:14 - 00:45:15:20
Megan Ramey
But yeah, it's, it's run its course. We got some amazing data and surveys and we're presenting to city council next month about what are where do we go from here, what are the lessons learned, how can the design be tweaked and what is, what is the permanent solution for our community and for these students and I can tell you that one of the city councilors is going to be I mean, there's going to be a lot of cheerleaders on city council, but one especially, he took time out of his mornings to volunteer and go to town and observe behavior at least 10 to 15 times.

00:45:15:27 - 00:45:29:27
Megan Ramey
And so it's been wonderful to have the ally on council. He knows how cheap it was and how easy it was. And so now he's like he I think he's going to be a big advocate for demonstration projects going forward around the city.

00:45:30:00 - 00:46:10:22
John Simmerman
Yeah. And, you know, I guess there's a good lesson here, too, especially from the previous experience of the city applying for the grants for the big, big ticket items and not getting approved for them is that we don't have to wait for a boatload of money to be able to do something lighter, quicker, cheaper. Let's get something out there, let's test it, pilot it, and you can even do interim materials like the Ziegler's here, as well as the Flex post and other types of designs that, you know, can be, you know, preserving that real estate for future implementation with concrete, with, you know, the fancy stuff that we saw there in Cambridge.

00:46:10:24 - 00:46:37:27
Megan Ramey
Yes. Yeah. It's so it's not it's not rocket science. It's just it's it's so much more of a prudent way to install infrastructure because you get real time feedback from the community, especially people that most people can't look at a rendering and understand how that's going to affect their daily lives. This is like this project with $12,000 simultaneously.

00:46:37:27 - 00:47:00:14
Megan Ramey
There's a big streetscape design project going on with the city of Hood River that I think costs $600,000 just for the plan. And so I get that that was that's a necessary plan that needs to happen. But I get a little frustrated when we we're just planning fatigue all the time. And why can't you just put something in the ground?

00:47:00:17 - 00:47:19:26
Megan Ramey
I want to give a shout out on this On that video was City Councilor Gladys Rivera, who's our first lab, not anything on city council. And she's she's a fantastic friend and ally. I really appreciate all of her all of her time on this.

00:47:19:28 - 00:47:47:07
John Simmerman
Yeah. I mean, that's really important that you point that out is you do need to have allies within city leadership on city council and the mayor, etc.. You need to have that interaction that takes place because ultimately the city leaders, if they do put their neck out and decide to do something and go something, we know the haters are going to come out.

00:47:47:07 - 00:48:17:13
John Simmerman
We know that they're going to come out and complain that change is is very fear inducing. And so having them board will help them, too, especially when they know how much the community appreciates and loves something like this and that it is, in fact, very valuable. It gives them that backstop of knowing, okay, the community has got my back, I'm going to be able to have this level of political will to actually see this through.

00:48:17:15 - 00:48:41:15
Megan Ramey
Yes, that's exactly. It is like giving them the courage, the energy, the the positive way to frame the issue. And you can't argue with childhood safety or joy. I mean, it's like impossible to come up with an argument against. And this whole what you just said reminds me so much of this quote that I keep in the back of my head.

00:48:41:18 - 00:49:04:25
Megan Ramey
Chris and Melissa Brundtland have given me so many gems over the years. One is, and I am not going to do justice. They always have such a great way with words, but they say, Stop wasting your time on bad faith arguments from people that don't want to see your project happen. Focus on the leaders that believe in you and believe in the vision and you'll go somewhere.

00:49:04:25 - 00:49:23:12
Megan Ramey
And it's like, Holy, I'm paraphrasing it, but that's that's what I do now. I like I focus on the leaders, the positive and ignore the bad faith. I mean, I love taking criticism from people that are want to move forward. But yes.

00:49:23:14 - 00:49:47:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Chris is is famous for saying yeah, all of those excuses of, it's too cold here, it's too hot here, it's too hilly here. Those are all examples of some of those bad faith arguments that are there. Now, earlier you had mentioned as part of this was pulling together a club. This is so freaking cool since I'm a kid of the eighties.

00:49:47:17 - 00:49:50:14
John Simmerman
Talk about Eighties Walk and Rock Club.

00:49:50:16 - 00:50:17:03
Megan Ramey
Yes. So I saw my principal role at middle school. I told him my idea to do a partnership club with a demonstration. And, you know, of course I get into like walk the Walk, the urban planning and transportation training. And he's like, You got to work on your sales pitch. Meghan These kids, like, won't even think they have a hard time recruiting kids for the robotics club.

00:50:17:03 - 00:50:47:20
Megan Ramey
So I was like, Okay, I'm on it. And then it just suddenly like the light bulb went off like they are all completely infatuated with stranger things. And one of the critical elements of Stranger Things is the fact that they ride bikes around and they're problem and they go on adventures. And that hearkens back. There's so many good articles written about this Goonies and E.T and, and Steven Spielberg and it's just that was like the light bulb moment.

00:50:47:20 - 00:50:54:04
Megan Ramey
It's like, okay, I need to frame this as what's going to take adventures around town and yeah.

00:50:54:06 - 00:50:57:18
John Simmerman
And I love the mix tape in here to look at that.

00:50:57:20 - 00:51:21:00
Megan Ramey
Yeah just the eighties boombox I mean yeah music is music is my religion so I had to infuse that in it actually. So what we do with the Eighties Rock and Roll Club is every we meet twice a week and we I asked them in the beginning what are their favorite spots around town within like a mile. And I put together a Google map of all of their favorite places.

00:51:21:00 - 00:51:40:22
Megan Ramey
And these are like places like bakeries. That's actually in Portland where we took a field trip. But I can talk about that where we go all over town and it's just like silly little things like they want to play in this water or have popsicles. We go get popsicles from like the grocery store and it's kind of like, choose your own adventure.

00:51:40:22 - 00:52:06:07
Megan Ramey
We did yoga in the middle of like a this is going to be a future trail one day. And so I like to say through fun, I am very subversively teaching them transportation etiquette and they actually listen when I talk to them about very highly nuanced laws like the the Rolling Stop law or the fact we can bike in a crosswalk, but you need to bike at walking speed.

00:52:06:09 - 00:52:29:04
Megan Ramey
So when it comes time to actually learn, they are there the summer time the club went through the summer, we had 4 hours together instead of two, so I was able to pair my love of taking bikes on transit. So we took our bikes on the bus and went all over the gorge and they saw waterfalls we've never seen before.

00:52:29:04 - 00:52:57:25
Megan Ramey
So we did transit bikes to trailheads and then hiked. And so it was like the trifecta of all adventures. This is Bridge of the Gods they're posing underneath and it was right on this trip, actually, that Genesis is in the bottom right. And she's like an OG member of the club from last January. She her life has been completely transformed by the club and I'm going to start getting emotional again.

00:52:57:25 - 00:53:29:12
Megan Ramey
People, I wrote this article this article is based on the presentation I gave at the Vision Zero Conference and Kids Cities just this past October in New York and I wanted a powerful story to tell about how when you do it right, when you're catering to kids and a city, how it can be life changing. So Janice, on that that waterfall ride, she said she was like, we are riding next to each other on the historic Columbia River Highway trail.

00:53:29:19 - 00:53:50:18
Megan Ramey
And she says to me, I never thought this would be my life. And I just look at her and I'm like, What are you talking about? And she's like, Two years ago, I never thought I'd be riding a bike for fun or to get places. And it's it's just a lot of fun. And I just, I, I had to look away because I got really emotional.

00:53:50:21 - 00:54:19:23
Megan Ramey
And, you know, she I saw her I first met her in fifth grade when she was in my bike rodeo when I got that first first ever grant, it was like $20,000 to do bike rodeos. Then she joined the club and learned a bunch of like how to get places around town. Then the Free Bikes for Kids nonprofit called Anson's Bike Buddies that I help run got her this bite that she uses to bike to school.

00:54:19:23 - 00:54:31:14
Megan Ramey
Everything day like she is the epitome of how a kid's life can be transformed. So. So, yeah, this is my bike.

00:54:31:16 - 00:54:38:15
John Simmerman
This this one on your bike. And this is your bike with a whole bunch of donation bikes for this this bike program.

00:54:38:18 - 00:54:57:21
Megan Ramey
Yeah. So Anson's, bike buddies, I get to ask, I get to raise my hand in class and be like, okay, who rides their bike to school? And I get a chance to see who needs a bike at home. I get a ton of a ton of hands, so I get to deliver bikes to these kids and, and yeah, so.

00:54:57:22 - 00:55:10:28
Megan Ramey
Well, we got another grant. I can't even tell you how many grants are gone. It's up to like $11 million now, working with partners. But to fund all of this is.

00:55:11:01 - 00:55:17:12
John Simmerman
Let's pause on that just a moment, because you had mentioned it earlier, you almost feels like you're a cash machine bringing in the money.

00:55:17:12 - 00:55:21:08
Megan Ramey
And it's this grabbing machine grabbing machine.

00:55:21:10 - 00:55:42:10
John Simmerman
It's important to to point out that, you know, try try again. It's like, you know, the city they applied for a couple. They didn't get them. And you're like, okay, that doesn't work. We got to find a way to make it happen. You made it happen. You're continuing to, you know, apply for grants, get engaged, get involved. You rolled up your sleeves.

00:55:42:10 - 00:56:00:03
John Simmerman
We talked about this two years ago. You just got, you know, you know, be in your bonnet or whatever, and you wanted to roll up your sleeves and get going and get involved and get engaged. And you did. And there's money out there to be had. You just have to take the initiative, go through the steps and the hoops.

00:56:00:03 - 00:56:12:03
John Simmerman
And yes, money always has strings attached. It's that's the way it goes, but it's worth going after it. So I just wanted to emphasize that it's out there. You just have to go after it.

00:56:12:05 - 00:56:36:19
Megan Ramey
It is so out there, especially for this type of work. I mean, there's not just foundation funds, but all of our state duties. Recognize how between electric bikes and this drought, this new of I'm going to call it the second wave of safe routes to school where we're doing more than just yes, the rock and roll school days.

00:56:36:19 - 00:56:58:00
Megan Ramey
It's like you need to go beyond that to actually address the barriers with walking and biking to school. And so I find these these grants come across my desk. I never turn them away in last, like even I sometimes have 24 hours to apply for one with just happened with a specialized grant. And we'll see if we wind up.

00:56:58:00 - 00:57:18:21
Megan Ramey
But I'm waiting on two grants right now to see if we won, but I never turn them away. Even if I'm not the one to fill it out. I will put together a rough draft of what the grant application should be. I send it to the agency that should apply for it, and then it's in their hands to say we can't do it.

00:57:18:23 - 00:57:49:21
Megan Ramey
But most of the time it's just that little baby stuff of giving them the idea that they can win it. And now it's like, now Hood River understands that they're worthy of money and investment and why it's needed. And it's like they it's like I finally woken up like a beast. And I'm so happy that these different agencies are realizing that it's important to invest in this type of work.

00:57:49:24 - 00:58:30:19
John Simmerman
Yeah. And part of what's so inspiring about the story of, you know, of of her saying, you know, this is really, you know, changed my life. I never imagined my life would be like, this is the fact that not only is it just fun that she's having fun, but it's about empowerment and it's about, you know, hopefully they're able to go beyond the club and get out there and do things, you know, on their own and have that sense of of of, you know, exploration and doing things on their own.

00:58:30:21 - 00:58:54:16
John Simmerman
And I love the fact that you're sort of, you know, engaging with the kids and saying, well, who needs a bike at home? You know, it's like because we know that this is so incredibly empowering for being able to create free range kids and being able for them to have that sense of self-efficacy and self-confidence within themselves that they can navigate on their own.

00:58:54:19 - 00:59:20:11
Megan Ramey
Yeah, just in watching this video of the kids biking in the street, I saw I went to this one of the best workshops I've ever been to in my life was about behavior change with Doug Mackenzie Moore, who is like the godfather of behavior change and the way he breaks down how you would dress barriers and get to the behavior that you're looking for.

00:59:20:12 - 00:59:43:20
Megan Ramey
That's the that's kind of the methodology, a methodology. I approach the safe routes to schools like, okay, we need to see what all the barriers are. And then one by one, I'm going to knock them down. It's like kind of like whack a mole. And there are so many in transportation. That's why it's so interesting is because I think it's the hardest behavior change to address.

00:59:43:20 - 01:00:10:11
Megan Ramey
And but through these kids who so want to be connected to each other and out in the street, like the high school teacher just reached out to me and said the number one goal of the teenager she works with at our first bound are first what is it called? First generation college bound. Their number one goal is to get outside.

01:00:10:14 - 01:00:18:10
Megan Ramey
And so we're going to create a club even for them where I get to take high schoolers on bikes around just like this.

01:00:18:12 - 01:00:49:15
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. So your name has come up a couple of times recently in talking about the the challenge and the opportunity that we have with regards to, I think a really interesting trend that, you know, just sort of popped up and I don't want to say it just sort of popped up, but it really kind of emerged and we're like, holy moly, we're seeing middle schoolers and teens out on bikes like crazy.

01:00:49:20 - 01:01:30:07
John Simmerman
And it's got a lot of people very, very concerned because they're understanding, my gosh, this is mobility, this is freedom. And I can get around the town just like you were just talking about, is that sense of of self-efficacy and being able to get around and explore. And they don't have to rely on their parents. But at the same time, with the the new that are coming out, especially with the throttle not just easiest but with the throttle, suddenly we have a motor vehicle where it's like, got a lot of people in the bicycle world, especially bicycle advocacy world, very, very uncomfortable.

01:01:30:10 - 01:01:35:17
John Simmerman
But you really leaned into it and I'll let you take it away from here.

01:01:35:20 - 01:02:03:12
Megan Ramey
Yeah. So credit again to Chris Pratt for giving me this gem of a metaphor. He was that and I'm talking about the Teach from the Fly, the title of my presentation and I gave at the Safe Routes to School National Conference. So I was talking to Chris about this topic and it's so nuanced. It's like one of those things where you're just like when see the kids go by.

01:02:03:12 - 01:02:26:06
Megan Ramey
And so the double riding thing has been happening in Hood River for about four years. You see them go by and it's just like, my gosh, the Netherlands is here finally, like where we're doing it. But unlike the Netherlands, these kids are going upwards of 25 miles an hour. And so it's a it's a very it's different.

01:02:26:08 - 01:02:51:29
Megan Ramey
But anyway, so I was talking to Chris about it and telling him that a lot of people want me to teach them abstinence or teach that or essentially shut it down. And he's like, No, why? No, don't cut their wings. Teach them to fly. And I was like, Yes, that's so brilliant. So there is a path forward with this amazing opportunity, but it involves many different stakeholders working together.

01:02:51:29 - 01:03:21:00
Megan Ramey
It's education first, so they never have had education on on bikes. And so this is a great opportunity to actually give them bike education, whether it's on acoustic or electric bikes. And but then also the manufacture, the design of the bikes themselves in the laws that inspire creativity and new adaptation in e-bikes. So right now I still don't have the answer to this question.

01:03:21:00 - 01:03:49:19
Megan Ramey
It drives me crazy. Our class to throttle e-bikes, the cheapest ones because it's easier to make a throttle class to e-bikes. Or is that what the manufacturers think that everybody wants? So that's what they're making. So I am in the camp of we're in Oregon right now. There's you have to be 16 to ride an e-bike, which is not happening.

01:03:49:19 - 01:04:11:18
Megan Ramey
It's the Wild West. There's so many 10 to 15 year olds riding e-bikes as they should be because they don't have a car. But I want them to be riding essentially pedal assist by the class one. And right now the law prohibits them from even doing that, which means that the manufacturers will catch up and design teen appropriate e-bikes.

01:04:11:18 - 01:04:41:16
Megan Ramey
So it's like, again, this downward spiral we're in where it could be rapidly changed with just a law adjustment. And I think it's very valuable for kids to learn how to ride regular acoustic bikes and then they get up to ride, pedal, assist and yeah, this is me in front of our our legislature in Oregon trying to get them to understand how e-bikes solve a ton of problems.

01:04:41:16 - 01:05:12:16
Megan Ramey
And I wanted them are we are part of us wanted them to take e-bike incentive or rebates seriously. And unfortunately I don't think it's going to happen this year because of our law issue, as there are representatives out there that don't want to vote for an e-bike rebate until the the kids on E-bike thing has figured out if he's proposing a levy, Bend is proposing a law adjustment.

01:05:12:16 - 01:05:14:26
Megan Ramey
So this is my daughter, Danica.

01:05:14:29 - 01:05:17:25
John Simmerman
She's breaking the law, breaking the law.

01:05:17:28 - 01:05:42:01
Megan Ramey
Breaking the law. And I'm proud like I. That's right. She is. She's breaking the law here because it's a it's happened. Yes. It's a stupid law. And this is a pedal assist, big bucket bike by urban arrow. We've had this since 2016 and it's just an amazing machine. It's a car replacement. You see my 88 four runner behind, which always just in the driveway.

01:05:42:03 - 01:05:59:27
Megan Ramey
So Annika came to us on the day before, a couple of days before Thanksgiving. It was the weekend and she was like, I want to go get some ingredients to make us forget, it's a desert Thanksgiving. And I was like, Would you mind picking up other things for Thanksgiving? And she's like, okay. And she put together a whole shopping list.

01:06:00:00 - 01:06:25:08
Megan Ramey
We got the urban area ready, or this was not her first time riding the urban arrow. She's actually she's driven, driven. That's the right word. She's driven my husband around it on Father's Day. She's going to be around on it. And so she has good bike handling skills. And I feel confidence that she's fine. She went to the grocery store by herself, picked up all the groceries for Thanksgiving and came back.

01:06:25:08 - 01:06:52:17
Megan Ramey
And it was just like one again one of those like little transitional moments where you're like seeing a child grow into a resilient, competent adult. And this is what we should be breeding in America right now, especially given these kids are going to have so a profound challenge with climate change and being able to take care of themselves.

01:06:52:19 - 01:07:02:28
Megan Ramey
And they need to see a bike as a tool to take care of themselves and to be happier doing it. Yeah, you know.

01:07:03:01 - 01:07:11:19
John Simmerman
We've covered a lot, but is there anything that we haven't covered that you really want to leave the audience with this episode?

01:07:11:22 - 01:07:23:08
Megan Ramey
I would say scroll streets and and how this is not a big city issue.

01:07:23:11 - 01:07:40:19
John Simmerman
Yeah, I like that. I like that. Bring that back around because so many so often when we're talking about these types of things, they think it's, it's Boston, it's Portland, it's Austin, You know, it's Amsterdam, you know. Is that what you mean by it's not just a big city issue.

01:07:40:22 - 01:08:10:05
Megan Ramey
Yeah. So we're so I really love big cities, but I also chose to live in Hood River for a reason because I needed access to the outdoor bars. And so I would say small towns are where so much love is needed right now. And This is safer. School can affect these children in such a such a profound way.

01:08:10:07 - 01:08:45:07
Megan Ramey
So like a good example, I now have five elementary schools that I work with and three or two of them are in situations where I would most kids live like two miles outside of town, so they don't really have an opportunity to bike to school. They take the bus. But on the days where we do have walk and roll to school days, I have them meet me at a landmark that's near their school to showcase the barriers that those kids have when they can walk or bike to school.

01:08:45:07 - 01:09:14:12
Megan Ramey
Like there's a good video that is in my walk and roll folder if you want to show. But I had Odell, Oregon, which is like less than 3000 people, we all walk to school together from this park and it over a hundred kids and parents walking on a truck highway. This is actually Cascade Locks, which is also a very rural, small, small town community.

01:09:14:18 - 01:09:43:01
Megan Ramey
And these kids are just like so jazzed about being able to bike school and they one of the highest low income rates in in the country. And they are so excited about being taught how to bike to school and in class and that also these walk and roll school days. But Odell Oregon I'm in the process of waiting to see if we got a grant to create a crosswalk.

01:09:43:03 - 01:10:18:26
Megan Ramey
They don't have any sidewalks or crosswalks in their town and they're still so excited about walking to school, like over hundred of them walking along a truck highway to show their support for it. And I use those images in my grant application. We'll see if the governors highways Association. Yeah, this is the video of them walking. And this is such a such a special day because the whole it's like I felt like almost all of Old Owl was out there walking these kids to school in no infrastructure like zero.

01:10:18:26 - 01:10:42:01
Megan Ramey
And this is the same kids that when I take them for a bike ride to celebrate what they learned in their bike rodeo, they are like, we are free to do what they vanilla America. They just like say all these things from behind me that like I realize the untapped potential in rural towns and, how we how we need to invest in them.

01:10:42:03 - 01:11:14:17
John Simmerman
Yeah yeah, yeah it it's amazing to me how much can be done. This is a little bit along the lines of the spirit of bike. Bus is what you're really doing is you're just sort of getting out there and taking over the street and kind of reinforcing that we've allowed our streets to become so hostile to people and so when we do come in and we retake the streets, you know, streets are for people.

01:11:14:20 - 01:11:26:24
John Simmerman
And it's so empowering and so inspiring, you know, especially for the kids when they're like, my gosh, I love this. I'm with all my friends and we're going to school and we're doing it in the middle of the street.

01:11:26:26 - 01:11:57:04
Megan Ramey
Yes, It's the most powerful advocacy tool to see kids in the streets like they not only understand that they have a claim to it and whereby they're asking teachers the following days after these events, like when are we going to do this again? Because it was so much fun. But then also adults, it's like a a fog is lifted from eyes where they like, this is what's possible and this is what we need to be fighting for.

01:11:57:06 - 01:12:06:29
Megan Ramey
So, yeah, it's, it's, it's hearkens back to the critical mass movement, but it's but it's in a more like joyful positive way. Yeah.

01:12:06:29 - 01:12:34:15
John Simmerman
Now we have a picture and especially for the listening only audience here we now have a photo of a school street barricade and really the school streets movement is just taking off internationally right now. Paris is is building school streets by the hundreds in London. They've done the same. And really explain for the audience that may not be, you know, super, super up on the terminology.

01:12:34:15 - 01:12:37:05
John Simmerman
What is a school, street.

01:12:37:07 - 01:13:14:09
Megan Ramey
School is a a place to open. It's like essentially the open streets movement, but just in front of schools to give those give that space to the children who are walking and biking to school and giving them an opportunity to connect before and after school. So a lot of most school streets have like this kind of semi-permanent barricade where local residents and school staff or delivery vehicles or whatever need, if they need to be able to drive around it, they can.

01:13:14:12 - 01:13:34:24
Megan Ramey
But it restricts through traffic, meaning drop offs like school drop off, because what we have found it again, it's this chicken and egg thing where parents are like, I don't want to I want to drive my kid to school. So I know that they're safe from other cars, but they themselves are making the street unsafe for the kids to walk and bike to school.

01:13:34:24 - 01:13:58:21
Megan Ramey
So what have found with our we've done for school street pilots now and this is actually going to be my what I what's my next demonstration project is hopefully we can get this on the ground for Earth Day through the end of this year. But this specific schools had some tremendous challenges with congestion so much so the neighbors are calling the police.

01:13:58:24 - 01:14:16:25
Megan Ramey
They are they're tired of the congestion. They're tired of not being able to walk out their door and leave their driveway because the street is completely clogged up with cars. And so their neighbors are now asking and so are the parents that walk and bike their kids to school. They say it's just kind of gotten out of control.

01:14:16:27 - 01:14:38:22
Megan Ramey
So but what we found with installing a school street is even the parents who drop off their kids love it because they can drop them off literally at the spare, can watch them walk down the street, don't have to worry about a car hitting them in a car and they save all that time. And so it's it's a win for everybody in school.

01:14:38:22 - 01:15:07:02
Megan Ramey
Streets are super. It's again, it's this light infrastructure that has such a rapid effect in so much so that people take it for granted. When I when the school street goes and the parents are like, we thought that was going to be happening like all the time. This was this was just a one day thing. And I was like, Yeah, unfortunately we need to work things out with the city to make it more of a semi-permanent issue.

01:15:07:05 - 01:15:07:26
John Simmerman
Yeah.

01:15:07:28 - 01:15:35:11
Megan Ramey
Yeah, yeah. But school streets are. I can't recommend them enough. I know it's it's hard to figure out placement of them because every school is different, especially if you have like a neighborhood based school, like where it's by homes and neighborhoods, streets. This is the easiest, but sometimes it's like your my middle school is on an arterial street and we can't just shut down that street.

01:15:35:11 - 01:15:42:27
Megan Ramey
So there's got to be you have to really have some brain effort into designing streets.

01:15:42:29 - 01:15:45:06
John Simmerman
Yeah.

01:15:45:09 - 01:16:05:00
John Simmerman
Well, Megan, once again, thank you so very much for joining me here on the Active Towns podcast. And once again, happy birthday. I you know, when when we realized that this was going to be your birthday for this recording, we were both excited because it's so much fun to celebrate with you.

01:16:05:03 - 01:16:31:17
Megan Ramey
I can't imagine celebrating my birthday in a better way. This is just wonderful, John. And you. I want to thank you personally for what you are doing for our world. So it's it's podcasts like this that are making everybody have like both the light bulb moment, but also the energy to actually do something. So thank you.

01:16:31:19 - 01:16:48:24
John Simmerman
You are quite welcome. And right back at you. And I can't wait to catch up with you. And in fact, I need to come and bring the Actor Towns tour to Hood River, Oregon, and get some profile videos in person. So we'll have to make that happen perhaps in 2024.

01:16:48:27 - 01:16:55:04
Megan Ramey
Yeah, there might be an event in 2024 that will draw you here, but I can't talk about it.

01:16:55:07 - 01:16:56:25
John Simmerman
Okay. Keep me posted.

01:16:56:27 - 01:16:58:08
Megan Ramey
Yes.

01:16:58:10 - 01:17:13:16
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in. I hope you enjoyed this episode with Megan Rainey, and if you did, please give it a thumbs up. Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And if you haven't done so already, be honored to have you subscribe to the channel. Just click on this subscription button down below and read the notifications bell.

01:17:13:24 - 01:17:37:17
John Simmerman
And if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts as an active town's ambassador. It's easy to do. Just head on over to the Active Towns website at Active towns dawg, and click on the support button. And again, this is the last episode of season six. I'll be back in January for the kick off of season seven.

01:17:37:19 - 01:18:00:19
John Simmerman
So until then, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers. And again sending a huge thank you to all my active town's ambassadors supporting the channel on patron buy me a coffee YouTube super thanks. As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active town store, every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated.

01:18:00:21 - 01:18:01:28
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much.