Transcript exported from the video version of this episode - Note that it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:43:28
Nicole McSpirit
Visibility is just key for safety, especially in school zones. So I was having trouble keeping people from parking too close to the intersections. The crosswalks. So I was spending all my time kind of shooting people away. And I thought and just because they did not realize I kind of the safety hazards that can create. So I not only started using cones to keep people out of out of visibility issues away from the intersections, but then I decided I can even do more and started creating these chicanes forcing people to slow down because I used to have a a little ten mile an hour sign there and that wasn't working.

00:00:44:01 - 00:01:03:02
Nicole McSpirit
So I decided rather than ask people to slow down and I was going to force them to slow down. So you can't, you know, it's just kind of a little bend in the road and it just makes people slow down and take back the turns and go through the intersection a little bit slower.

00:01:03:04 - 00:01:24:20
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. I'm John Simmerman and that is Nicole MC Spirit from Denver, Colorado. We're going to be talking about her job as a crossing guard at the local elementary school where her kids once went to school and also how she got radicalized as a everyday utilitarian cyclist and advocate for safer streets. It is a good one.

00:01:24:20 - 00:01:36:10
John Simmerman
So let's get right to it with Nicole. Enjoy the call. Thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.

00:01:36:12 - 00:01:38:26
Nicole McSpirit
It's a pleasure. Thanks for having me here.

00:01:38:29 - 00:01:45:01
John Simmerman
Sir. Nicole I love having my guests just share a little bit about themselves. So who is Nicole?

00:01:45:03 - 00:02:11:27
Nicole McSpirit
Well, I guess, you know, it's kind of confusing as it is. I'm someone who who grew up thinking that, you know, taking a bike and walking was a normal, you know, growing up in the seventies and eighties. But then, like many people, just became very car centric and needed a car to get everywhere. Then when I realized that wasn't really working for me anymore or my community, I decided to make a change.

00:02:11:27 - 00:02:32:07
Nicole McSpirit
And this is just kind of the process that I've been going through, being inspired by different things, kind of being involved with advocacy groups. So, yeah, I'm just I'm, I'm muddling my way through this, trying to kind of help other people discover the benefits of active mobility and improve the safety of our streets.

00:02:32:10 - 00:02:34:21
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Now, where did you grow up?

00:02:34:23 - 00:02:57:19
Nicole McSpirit
I grew up in New Orleans, which is a very like there's a high ridership in New Orleans, mainly because of poverty issues. Yeah. When I was riding a bike there, there were no bike lanes or anything. I just stuck to small side streets. And even when I, you know, I rode my bike to school and back and to my friends, my grandparents house, which all was pretty close.

00:02:57:19 - 00:03:17:00
Nicole McSpirit
But even when I ended up getting a car and getting older, I rode my bike a lot because I worked in the French Quarter where parking was just not happening. So it made sense doing that, but kind of rediscovering that love of biking for transportation in my later years.

00:03:17:02 - 00:03:31:12
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Now the other neat thing about New Orleans that I love is that the relationship to the street is just completely different there because they're always occupying the street space.

00:03:31:14 - 00:03:59:08
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, well, and it is because of the water table issues. There's the streets are pretty rough a lot of times. So a lot of times you'll see drivers going very slow. So it's more of a shared space and it's narrower. You know, their old streets. I think I would love to see the French Quarter be completely pedestrianized. So that kind of needs that I think with the damage that a lot of the bigger vehicles coming through is doing.

00:03:59:11 - 00:04:20:24
Nicole McSpirit
But yeah, it's a different it's a different atmosphere there. There is there's people out biking, so there's just more common for for drivers to kind of pay attention. Not that if they have their safety issues there as well, like anywhere. But yes, it's definitely different than some other places in the United States.

00:04:20:27 - 00:04:42:08
John Simmerman
Yeah. You know, I've had this conversation with folks from New Orleans that I've had on the podcast before and it's like, yeah, it's like when you have a different relationship to your street and there's always a street party, there's always a parade, there's, you know, the stuff going on. And so it reinforces that idea that streets are not just for cars.

00:04:42:08 - 00:05:00:19
John Simmerman
They literally are for people and correct. They've been around for thousands of years, much longer than cars have. And so it's the one city that I can think of in North America where that sort of that ownership of the street is, is just. Yeah. Oh, no, this is our street.

00:05:00:22 - 00:05:28:09
Nicole McSpirit
It is. And you know, you're used to that. If you're a driver in New Orleans, you're like, oh, I have to detour, you know, like, but it's it's part of life. It's not, you know, here where people just kind of lose their minds if there's a race and the road gets closed for a little while, it's just a normal part of life and people walk in the streets and, you know, they're just kind of there mainly because a lot of our sidewalks are also kind of not not the best in New Orleans.

00:05:28:09 - 00:05:31:18
Nicole McSpirit
So you're just used to sharing space. So a bit more.

00:05:31:21 - 00:06:08:11
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And and just recently there in Denver, just the day before Nando, you guys had a leave the streets and so you had that opportunity to, you know, to experience that as well, which is something that's so incredibly important, I think, for from a North American perspective is for open Streets events to happen. Because again, it helps in that process of trying to help people, community members, imagine what streets can be for other than just driving a motor vehicle as fast as possible.

00:06:08:13 - 00:06:32:05
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, it was really amazing. Just an amazing experience. My face hurt the next day from so much smiling. I think like everyone else, you know, a lot of times we did not bank on those streets that we were had opened to everyone because they were not the most pleasant. So I noticed shops that I had never noticed before.

00:06:32:08 - 00:07:03:19
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, it just having a different perspective and just the peace and quiet. All you heard were laughs and, you know, bike bells ringing and people laughing and some music. It was, it was a really just amazing experience for all involved. And thanks for all the all the, all the people volunteering that made it happen. It took a lot of work to do this and they just made it so pleasant.

00:07:03:22 - 00:07:26:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And it was so wonderful that it was literally the day before the NACO conference, the Design Act of Designing Cities Conference was taking place there in the downtown Denver area at the Convention Center. We had street films represented there with the clearance, and JR was also there to film. And so he was able to capture the of the streets.

00:07:26:11 - 00:07:51:25
John Simmerman
Folks, if you haven't seen the Viva Streets video that Clarence put together is super, super fun as they always are. And yeah, it was just I was so stoked that a Naco was happening in Denver and that Viva Streets was going to happen the day before. Oh, and I forgot to mention there's more. There's several other dates. And so we've got July 9th and also August 6th coming up.

00:07:51:27 - 00:08:11:04
John Simmerman
So if you missed that first Viva Streets in May and you're from the Denver area, make sure that you try to make it to the other ones. I'm not even sure when this episode is going to be going out. So it may be the next one is July night, right? Oh.

00:08:11:07 - 00:08:13:13
Nicole McSpirit
Well, I'll be there. No, no, no.

00:08:13:20 - 00:08:36:08
John Simmerman
Either way, you're going to be there. You're going to be there. I love that you said that, though, that your your your your base was just hurting because you were smiling so much. It's for those people who haven't experienced and open streets. Can you kind of summarize what is so special about them?

00:08:36:10 - 00:09:10:21
Nicole McSpirit
Well, you know, biking for transportation has its own joys. I mean, there's just a joy in getting out there and being a part of your community, really kind of traveling through and seeing things. But we all have to pass across these busy arterials and we're constantly looking over our shoulder and being wary of our surroundings. And if you're in a bike lane, that's great, you know, a protected bike lane, but still then you're probably going single file with the people you're with and it's not very social.

00:09:10:21 - 00:09:35:23
Nicole McSpirit
So this at one point during the the streets, we were four abreast and we were laughing and talking and waving to people and ringing our bells. And it was it was literally just kind of like, oh, kind of we were all just just completely amazed by the joy that we saw every experiencing. And it's contagious to see, you know, seeing kids out there scooting and biking.

00:09:35:23 - 00:09:56:06
Nicole McSpirit
And they can we you know, they because, you know, they're wobbly or whatever, you know, you can give them space. It wasn't so like restricted. You could actually just go out there and enjoy yourself and people rollerblading and just, you know, just enjoying the streets that we so infrequently get to enjoy.

00:09:56:08 - 00:10:29:00
John Simmerman
Right. You know, now I try to make it up to at least one event up in Fort Collins each each summer. So I'm going to look at the schedule and see if I can actually coordinate with one of the VA streets and one of the Sun events that typically happens up in Fort Collins. Last year I was able to catch the the Tour de fat on one weekend up in Fort Collins and then the following weekend, or maybe it was the other way around, I was able to to catch the The Sun Open Streets event there.

00:10:29:00 - 00:11:07:01
John Simmerman
So it's super empowering and powerful because it helps, again, as I said earlier, reframe the community's idea of what a street is for. So we have never met in person, but we have been, you know, sort of in touch with via the Twitter and so doing Dutch de and Fitz there Nicole is is your handle out on Twitter and you and I, before we hit the record button we were talking a little bit about my good friend Brandon the Last American Feet, sir.

00:11:07:03 - 00:11:18:01
John Simmerman
And he gets a chuckle of of the the increased number of people who are on Twitter now with the feature Norman Slater and name talk.

00:11:18:01 - 00:11:19:03
Nicole McSpirit
A little bit about.

00:11:19:05 - 00:11:22:15
John Simmerman
Going Dutch Denver Where did this come from?

00:11:22:18 - 00:11:53:00
Nicole McSpirit
Well, it really came from, you know, meet me trying to my little way to kind of become a bicyclist here or like be a person who used the bike for transportation in Denver. And it was tough, you know, like, I just I would stay pretty much in my neighborhood and not be, you know, not able to go too far away, you know, having to pass these these large arterials that were scary, you know, and not very not very pleasant there, you know.

00:11:53:02 - 00:12:13:28
Nicole McSpirit
And so I just when I went to the Netherlands for the first time, I was had my mind blown and decided that I was going to come back and and do something about it to try to promote that kind of activity here, knowing that I was not going to have a chance to to move to the Netherlands anytime soon.

00:12:13:28 - 00:12:50:25
Nicole McSpirit
I have to, you know, at that time, teenager and young adult daughters who I wasn't going to leave but just kind of wanted to bring some of that here. What I what I kind of was I mean, in fact, the first time I went to Amsterdam, I didn't even ride a bike. I just watched. I walked everywhere. But I just would sit and watch and be amazed by this almost it almost seemed like they were kind of this unified element of just like weaving in and out and just so perfectly kind of cohabitating, you know?

00:12:50:26 - 00:13:21:09
Nicole McSpirit
No, no stop signs. No, you know, just everyone just kind of was going about their business and using, you know, like eye contact and body language to let you know where they were going. So, yeah. And so I definitely ride a Dutch bicycle. This is my e-bike, which I am this close to getting 4000 miles on. I ordered straight from the Netherlands because I really could not find anything that suited me here.

00:13:21:12 - 00:13:53:21
Nicole McSpirit
There are a few more options now, but even like Gazelle, US market bikes aren't quite as upright, right? So this was this has been a phenomenal bike for me. It's an ace or e-bike. Like I said, it's shipped directly from the Netherlands and luckily I ordered it and received it right before the pandemic hit. So it was really kind of something that kept me sane and active during all of that.

00:13:53:24 - 00:14:14:03
Nicole McSpirit
Just kind of I made a lot of masks during the pandemic and would deliver them for free by bike just to have a purpose to get out there and ride. I've never been one that can kind of just go like, I'm just going to go for a bike ride. I need a purpose, a destination. So that that allowed me to do that.

00:14:14:06 - 00:14:22:08
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Well, sometimes, you know, sometimes the purpose or destination may be, you know, to take a friend out.

00:14:22:10 - 00:14:45:24
Nicole McSpirit
Yes. Well, and this is my buddy Viera, who you'll see in a lot of the photos and videos if you follow me on Twitter. But this was her. She injured her foot and I needed to take her to the vet and she rides all the time. But it kind of it made it okay for her because she loves the bike and had to drive.

00:14:45:24 - 00:15:05:23
Nicole McSpirit
She typically throws up in the car and does not like it. I wonder where she gets that from. But so this was like her way, you know, I was able to take her to the vet and give her a little bike ride too. So it made everything that she had to go through kind of. Okay. Yeah. But like, you know, it shows that you can do it.

00:15:05:23 - 00:15:14:15
Nicole McSpirit
You know, she's only a £25 dog, but there are ways of of transporting kids and animals around by bike.

00:15:14:17 - 00:15:24:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And clearly, you ride this bike during cooler temperatures because one of my you.

00:15:24:11 - 00:15:47:25
Nicole McSpirit
Is my hoagies which are they are lifesavers. Yeah. Yeah. I have them for all of our bikes because you know wearing gloves in the winter makes you kind of you can't really do much. So having those those little hoagies kind of even on the coldest days I like normally have to wear like gloves and you can retain your dexterity.

00:15:47:27 - 00:15:54:10
Nicole McSpirit
Right. They make a huge difference there. There you go. That's my real winter transport.

00:15:54:12 - 00:16:19:05
John Simmerman
That that's what we're really that's where we're really decked out now. So for many people who may be watching this or listening to this and going, by the way, for those listening, we the photo that's up on the screen right now is actually really cold weather. So this is you can see the the snow and ice crystals on the glove, the pokies there, the bar mitts.

00:16:19:08 - 00:16:52:09
John Simmerman
And you can see that it's snowing in the background or had snowed. And it looks like a very, very cold environment. Talk a little bit about this. I mean, from New Orleans, you know, it's you know, for many people this may seem extreme, you know, in like, oh, gosh, well, I don't want it to be that difficult or that hard as just, you know, don't don't be offended by me saying this, But, you know, it's just a normal person going about their normal day activity and using a bike for for everyday purposes.

00:16:52:11 - 00:17:05:09
John Simmerman
Why would you subject yourself to this? Is, you know, is there something about getting out there and riding on a day like this day that is special for you?

00:17:05:12 - 00:17:25:14
Nicole McSpirit
Well, yeah, and part of it is just saying I did it, you know, like we had a very long and tough winter here in Denver. We saw a lot more snow, a lot colder weather. I think if I'm right, this was about six degrees. But again, like if you have the right kind of bike and equipment, I you know, I wasn't cold.

00:17:25:18 - 00:17:43:03
Nicole McSpirit
You know, I wouldn't have done it if I was freezing. And this is I think this is on my way back from my crossing guard shift that I work at a local elementary school, which is not far away This winter. I still rode, but I wasn't going huge distances just because of the conditions of the road a lot of times.

00:17:43:06 - 00:18:06:22
Nicole McSpirit
So I'm I'm out standing in this weather for half an hour or 40 minutes, so I have to dress warm anyway. And it was just easier to kind of to jump on my bike and go. And especially when you have the right gear, it's really it's not that much of a hardship or, you know, it's still nicer than driving.

00:18:06:27 - 00:18:34:07
Nicole McSpirit
I've never enjoyed driving in the winter either. So this is fine. You know, I definitely did not do as much riding in the winter. It's that kind of sucked in not being able to go to the distances and the places that I would like to go. But it was fine. I just kind of learned to love it. And yet I never, never considered myself ever doing something like this growing up in New Orleans.

00:18:34:09 - 00:18:50:25
Nicole McSpirit
But I have to tell you, I've never been as cold as I've been in New Orleans when it's like 28 degrees, because the humidity there is is frigid. So it's really it's really not as tough as it looks. I know it may look horrible there, but it. Yeah, but I was toasty and warm.

00:18:50:28 - 00:19:02:08
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And you mentioned distances not that far a distance is when you put this into context in terms of how far it is for you to to ride to your your crossing guard shift.

00:19:02:11 - 00:19:25:21
Nicole McSpirit
So it's a half a mile so it's in and it actually probably would be shorter because I am literally right off of the a parkway that the street is also off of the school is also off of but it's on the other side and it's not that pleasant of a street to bike on. People do, but people go regularly pretty fast.

00:19:25:24 - 00:19:48:24
Nicole McSpirit
So I kind of go a block away and turn up and then walk around. So it ends up being about half a mile. But I would still ride to the grocery store, which is about a mile away. But I wasn't going across town regularly, mainly because I didn't know what the conditions were there. And I really have no bike infrastructure in my neighborhood.

00:19:48:24 - 00:20:05:12
Nicole McSpirit
It's all side streets, so it kind of really can be sketchy at times. There was some sidewalk riding I did this winter because I literally had no other option. Not that I enjoyed doing that, but you know. Right. You got to stay upright. Yeah.

00:20:05:15 - 00:20:15:28
John Simmerman
Yeah, I hear you. Now we're going to do some more bike photos here just because you sent in a few bike photos, so. Oh, no, this is a different bike.

00:20:16:00 - 00:20:50:29
Nicole McSpirit
That is so. That is my first. Well, actually, no second Dutch bicycle. This is my one that I ordered from J a JD Leonard in Chicago. Okay. It's a work cycles and it really is what kind of started me on like being able to to see exactly what I could do. You know, I have a small eBay business and a lot of times I would have to go mail a lot of packages and more than like maybe a normal bike, whatever that is to carry.

00:20:51:01 - 00:21:13:17
Nicole McSpirit
But with that, this bike as as does my e-bike has a front rack that holds quite a bit. You know, you have panniers that holds quite a bit. So it just kind of it really kind of made me see that ability to to do more things, get groceries by bike, you know, go to the nursery center and buy plants and things like that.

00:21:13:17 - 00:21:33:14
Nicole McSpirit
And so it just, you know, it makes you kind of realize how much more you can do by bike that you just automatically assume you would need a car for. Yeah. Yeah. So this, this I rode for about a year. Okay. And then I decided I needed electric assist if I wanted to ride even more.

00:21:33:17 - 00:21:54:20
John Simmerman
Yeah, right. Even more. And this is a is definitely a workhorse and I was delighted to see this and it's a, it's a work cycles bike. And I've had the opportunity to meet with Henry Cutler at the Work Cycles headquarters there in Amsterdam. And in fact Jason Slaughter with not just bikes delivered me to his doorstep, which was fun.

00:21:54:22 - 00:22:21:25
John Simmerman
But and again, we've mentioned him earlier Brandon Lust with with American Pizza he also has a work cycles and and it helps really kind of reframe that whole concept of oh yeah you know you can do everyday tasks on these on these devices, on these, you know tools their mobility devices and they're very, very practical and functional. And so it's absolutely and.

00:22:21:27 - 00:22:46:14
Nicole McSpirit
And something I haven't touched on is so I do have some mobility restrictions. When I was 13, I had surgery, back surgery for scoliosis. So I had a metal rod and inserted into my spine, which, you know, kind of limits my mobility. And then I ended up turn twisting my neck and my lower back too much because that's where I, I had flexibility.

00:22:46:16 - 00:23:13:16
Nicole McSpirit
So there were quite a few years where, like regular American bikes were just uncomfortable that, you know, leaning forward, your head lifted up to see just was not working for me. So when I discovered true Dutch bikes that you are sitting upright, it made a lot of difference like this. It was comfortable, it felt safer because I had better visibility, turning my neck around, seeing who was there.

00:23:13:23 - 00:23:24:24
Nicole McSpirit
So in those ways, I also kind of really pushed for people to look for Dutch bikes or like super upright, comfortable bikes because it really makes a difference.

00:23:24:26 - 00:23:27:29
John Simmerman
Yeah. Like this. Yeah, yeah.

00:23:28:02 - 00:23:50:15
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah. So this we had the great e-bike rebate here in Denver and I was able to purchase this bike, which this was, is my winter bike which because the lower center of gravity really helps keep your balance and snow. But this is also a shareable family bike because it is kind of fits all different sizes. And it's my loaner bike.

00:23:50:15 - 00:24:03:06
Nicole McSpirit
So whenever I take someone out to kind of wants to get more comfortable riding, wants to see if this is for them, this is the bike that they get to borrow just to kind of come out and experience it.

00:24:03:08 - 00:24:27:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah. And I also have a term, I have a GSD and just absolutely love it. It's again, it's a workhorse that can I can load that thing down with, you know, pounds and pounds and pounds and kilograms of groceries and it's fine as well. And well that and I can take an adult for a ride too because they've got it set up with the back seat there.

00:24:27:07 - 00:24:45:23
John Simmerman
And that's, that's quite fun to be able to do that. I love that you mentioned that it's, you know, it's it's adjustable. You can have other people be able to ride on. It becomes like a family bike as well as it can be. Become a a loner bike for for somebody who needs one. And I think that's important.

00:24:45:25 - 00:24:53:11
John Simmerman
We're going to do a tour of bikes here. And this one, I think I recognize that this is probably in New Orleans, right?

00:24:53:13 - 00:25:20:05
Nicole McSpirit
It is. So that was that was one of the blue bikes. They went away for a while, but I believe they're back now. But yeah, this was my husband's first Jazzfest and my first and many year. And this was another sense of joy where we just hundreds of people riding to Jazz Fest together, you know, people with coolers strapped onto their bikes with folding chairs strapped on their backs.

00:25:20:07 - 00:25:29:13
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, just kind of all riding in the same direction. We all knew where we were going and it wasn't. It's. It is. It's a great place to ride a bike.

00:25:29:16 - 00:25:30:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah.

00:25:30:24 - 00:25:32:05
Nicole McSpirit
If you watch out for the potholes.

00:25:32:12 - 00:25:40:02
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I love the hat action too, which is another great thing that I can remember of my time in New Orleans is, is there's.

00:25:40:04 - 00:25:41:23
Nicole McSpirit
Any sense of style.

00:25:41:23 - 00:25:43:14
John Simmerman
And flair to it and all.

00:25:43:14 - 00:25:48:07
Nicole McSpirit
I guess that's practical too, because boy, it gets hot and that sounds beaten down on. Yeah.

00:25:48:09 - 00:26:14:02
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So you have a fairly active scene there in Denver again, striving to do what you can to take back the streets and give it to people. I've actually been on on the street for parking Day in the past there in Denver. So I have filmed and I have a video on parking day. I think it's up on YouTube, but maybe, maybe not.

00:26:14:02 - 00:26:18:21
John Simmerman
I'll have to double check on that. Is that what's happening here? Is this a parking day?

00:26:18:22 - 00:26:54:02
Nicole McSpirit
It is. My friend Devin here in the plaid shirt organized this, but I had a yeah, I had a solar generator and this was like our fueling station of the future. So, you know, using solar energy to recharge, we gave free chargers to everyone who came by and yeah, it was just another kind of move in this kind of, you know, make people rethink the street space and how easily we could kind of switch to having bikes be a more common scene on our streets.

00:26:54:02 - 00:26:55:19
Nicole McSpirit
They are, but yeah.

00:26:55:21 - 00:27:02:16
John Simmerman
Yeah, exactly. And then here's like a little sustainability is both Is this a different event?

00:27:02:18 - 00:27:44:08
Nicole McSpirit
Yes, it is. So this is right in my neighborhood. Park Hill, The woman you see behind the the table on the right there organized the event well, organized some of the event in the sustainability table. So she she gave me a spot and I said, yes, absolutely. And just to promote bikes for climate. So we have there are lots of little links kind of you are like the codes, the QR codes that people could upload the bike streets map and, you know, join Denver bicycle lobby and bicycle Colorado and register your bike bike index.

00:27:44:08 - 00:27:55:11
Nicole McSpirit
So just trying to kind of help out people in any way, kind of, you know, if any if there's any kind of links or obstacles that are facing to try to help them out with that.

00:27:55:13 - 00:28:23:18
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And I think this is this is the image from that and the and yes, you've got Bicycle Colorado, which is the statewide advocacy organization. We've featured them here on the podcast as well. And then the Denver bicycle lobby and then the Denver Streets Partnership, which is really that local bike and head of sort of organization with Jill Look and Tori also been on the podcast here before.

00:28:23:20 - 00:28:51:18
John Simmerman
And then you mentioned, you know, bike streets and the bike streets map and we've got the initiative, the Build Vamos Now initiative and we've had Abby Stopper on the on the podcast as well. And then you also mentioned the E-bike rebate, and we've also featured the E-bike rebate here on the channel, and that's the Denver Climate action and sustainability and resilience efforts that are going on.

00:28:51:20 - 00:28:58:19
John Simmerman
And that's what I mean by it seems like there's a lot of really cool stuff happening in Denver at this stage.

00:28:58:21 - 00:29:25:17
Nicole McSpirit
There really is. I mean, there's still a long way to go, especially with these the issue of traffic violence. We're still kind of plugging away. You know, it crushes us every time we hear about someone else injured or killed on our streets. You know, this is this is what we're working for. And it really will limit to how many people feel comfortable camping out on our streets if we cannot do more for safety.

00:29:25:17 - 00:29:48:17
Nicole McSpirit
So, yeah, demonstrates partnership has done some great things this year and past years. But you know, the the Denver design of sidewalk initiative bicycle Colorado you know implemented the safety swap not too long ago. So we're definitely moving in the right direction. Of course, it never seems fast enough, you know, that what you want to see.

00:29:48:21 - 00:30:02:17
John Simmerman
But hey, but you know what? You know, just like with my conversation with RV, if it's not moving fast enough, hey, take control, throw some cones, outlets do. Let's make this happen. So talk a little bit about this installation. What's going on here?

00:30:02:19 - 00:30:30:00
Nicole McSpirit
So this is at my corner, my crossing guard corner. So this is the elementary school that my kids went to. They are 21 and 25 now, so it's been a little while. But I had was out having a beverage with some friends who work there, used to work there and old parents and I found out that the the old crossing guard, Mildred, had retired and they said, well, why don't you why don't you do that?

00:30:30:03 - 00:30:58:25
Nicole McSpirit
Like, oh, maybe I should. And so this this school year, I have been in there every day. And I realized very quickly that I needed some cones to help me out because, you know, as you know, and visibility is just key for safety, especially in school zones. So I was having trouble keeping people from parking too close to the intersections, the crosswalks.

00:30:58:28 - 00:31:31:14
Nicole McSpirit
So I was spending all my time kind of steering people away. And I thought and just because they did not realize I kind of the safety hazards that I can create. So I not only started using cones to keep people out of out of visibility issues away from the intersections. But then I decided I can even do more and started creating these chicanes forcing people to slow down because, you know, I used to have a a little ten mile an hour sign there, and that wasn't working.

00:31:31:17 - 00:31:54:22
Nicole McSpirit
So I decided rather than ask people to slow down and I was going to force them to slow down. So Chicane, you know, is just kind of a little bend in the road and it just makes people slow down and take the turns and go through the intersection a little bit slower. So this shows kind of how it works here.

00:31:54:24 - 00:32:14:08
Nicole McSpirit
You'll see people going straight and then people also now are forced to take a much sharper turn at this intersection where before they were just kind of cut the corner and create a bottleneck here, too. If there was other cars on the street and then block the crosswalk. So I think I've kind of gotten it down to a bit of a science now.

00:32:14:08 - 00:32:33:22
Nicole McSpirit
You know, you said experimentations. I was talking with Abby about this last time. It's like this constant experimentation, like we've got something here. Well, what if I move it two inches to this side? Does it work even better? You know, it's just so it's this constant kind of readjusting and seeing what works best, but it's worked really well.

00:32:33:22 - 00:32:58:09
Nicole McSpirit
I've got an overwhelming positive response from all the parents and teachers, so it's been a great, great opportunity. It's a fantastically rewarding job that really takes very little of my time, but it's also just a learning experience and an opportunity for me who, you know, preaches safe streets to get out there and kind of make it happen.

00:32:58:11 - 00:33:01:24
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. And how long have you been doing that now?

00:33:01:27 - 00:33:07:04
Nicole McSpirit
I just since the fall. So this is my first year I signed on, so I'll be doing it again next year.

00:33:07:06 - 00:33:18:01
John Simmerman
So how long have you been engaged in this sort of advocacy work to striving to make streets safer for everyone?

00:33:18:04 - 00:33:42:13
Nicole McSpirit
Well, not that long. So this is, I think from January of 2020 at the the Capitol Building Safe Streets Forum. I can't remember exactly what it's called, but I love this photo because it shows just how kind of awkward I was at this point because I wasn't too at all. I didn't know if I was going to be in this picture.

00:33:42:13 - 00:34:12:26
Nicole McSpirit
I thought like they were just taking a picture next to me cause, you know, this is literally like, these are some of the people that I look up to and are great and just it was kind of an honor to be amongst them and doing what I what I could do. And then the day before this to Rob, they're in the front in the blue shirt, blue Denver bicycle lobby shirt, Rob Thomas and I had been on my news program talking about bike infrastructure.

00:34:12:26 - 00:34:32:13
Nicole McSpirit
There we go. So this was, I think, the day before that. So, yeah, was when I realized like, oh, I'm all in like, this is like just, you know, everything that comes up. I'm like, yes, I will do that. Yes, I will. And this I have to say, I drove to this as this was at the nine news station right out of Speer.

00:34:32:15 - 00:34:53:24
Nicole McSpirit
I was still kind of unsure about, you know, my my bubble was still pretty small at this point against 20, 20, early 24 in January, I believe. And I just did not feel safe getting over there by bike. And then this was later in the day. I didn't know if I was going to hit rush hour traffic. And so but I'm like, I don't I don't matter.

00:34:53:24 - 00:35:00:24
Nicole McSpirit
Like, I'm going to go and I want to be able to bike, but I can't. And that's part of the problem. That's part of why I'm here talking.

00:35:00:27 - 00:35:26:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, that's the story. So we've talked a little bit about the fact that a lot of changes have been happening. They're not happening as fast as we'd like to. I'm encouraged by the fact that nine news there in Denver has this isn't the first or only time that, you know, street safety has come up. I mean, is they're one of the the media outlets that's doing a really, really good job with that.

00:35:26:11 - 00:35:46:27
Nicole McSpirit
So absolutely. And Steve Steiger, who's in that photo with us, he interviewed us, is just amazing. And he kind of points out and shows up. And it's so nice to have that voice back. You know, we feel like we don't really have yet, but he's able to kind of amplify and and he rides his bike, he takes transit and he gets the need for safe streets.

00:35:46:27 - 00:36:07:04
Nicole McSpirit
So it's really great having him and not only him, but other people in the media. And Denver does do a really good job of saying of calling things crashes, not accidents, and really trying not to kind of victim blame. I mean, we still get it occasionally, but I think, you know, do a pretty good our media does a pretty good job of that.

00:36:07:07 - 00:36:07:28
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah.

00:36:08:00 - 00:36:27:12
John Simmerman
Now one of the things that I think is is sort of eye opening is when you sort of go down this rabbit hole of, you know, you talked about the story of, you know, being introduced to what's going on with with Dutch cycling and that first time you just sort of not even getting out on a bike and just kind of absorbing it.

00:36:27:14 - 00:36:57:12
John Simmerman
And then the slippery slope, that rabbit hole of of like, oh, if this, then this. And so suddenly street safety becomes a much broader issue, even to the point of where when you see this, you start to go, oh yeah, I mean all ages and all abilities and sidewalks and streets, you know, talk a little bit about this image and why you felt so compelled to share this as well.

00:36:57:14 - 00:37:14:26
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, well, I think really I became radicalized first as a pedestrian just because, you know, you're trying to get around. I think this was, you know, when early on I did not bike in the winter, I had the big Dutch bike, which is fine in some cases, but it's very high. And you're not you don't have the stability.

00:37:14:29 - 00:37:26:08
Nicole McSpirit
So I would walk to the grocery store, but I would encounter stuff like this. And a lot of this is from, you know, the streets getting plowed and dumped right into the crosswalk.

00:37:26:11 - 00:37:45:05
John Simmerman
And it's you know, you say this stuff looks just like that. This looks like the plow went through and sprayed chunky, icy stuff from the street onto a sidewalk, which most likely a resident had had cleared in front of their property.

00:37:45:07 - 00:38:04:24
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, And, you know, it is it is tough. Like a lot of our sidewalks aren't clear because they are the responsibility of the resident. And, you know, we do have older residents or people who are out of town, so there's a lot of gaps in it. But then we also have, you know, people who are very responsible and come and clear this away and then and yeah, a cloud comes by.

00:38:04:27 - 00:38:30:20
Nicole McSpirit
And and I remember once when I was I was eight months pregnant with my my youngest daughter living in Albany, New York. And I was trying to keep my my three year old busy and plow and shoveling the sidewalk and a plow came through and just blocked everything. And I just remember just feeling like crushed. Yeah, but yeah, like, oh, I can't do any more of this.

00:38:30:22 - 00:38:51:21
Nicole McSpirit
It's hard. Like, I, we really, you know, and that's a part another thing that I want people to realize, like we take care of the streets for the most part and that's the public right away. Well, so our sidewalks but we're you know, we're expect the homeowners and the businesses to be out there just constantly managing it. And it's really it's not it's not the best way to kind of handle it.

00:38:51:23 - 00:38:55:15
John Simmerman
No, I think it's the the the most asinine approach.

00:38:55:17 - 00:38:56:16
Nicole McSpirit
Yes.

00:38:56:18 - 00:38:59:14
John Simmerman
To to the management of what it's like.

00:38:59:15 - 00:39:00:18
Nicole McSpirit
But yeah, you're right. Yeah.

00:39:00:18 - 00:39:25:07
John Simmerman
I mean, it's I mean when you consider it, I mean it is considered the public right of way, you know, it literally is considered the road is considered the right of way. It's considered public space. You know, even even though there's no sidewalks in front of my house, technically, I shouldn't do anything or build anything or plant anything in that eight feet from the curb because it's not really ours.

00:39:25:07 - 00:40:01:02
John Simmerman
It's really considered the right of way and part of public space. And to me it's just ridiculous that the city, if there are sidewalks there and by the way, typically the city is is funding and building those sidewalks and if the sidewalk needs to be repaired, it's usually out of the city coffers that that takes place. All the more reason that there should be a public maintenance schedule to be able to to keep that snow plowed and keep it in out of disrepair, you know, keep it repaired and ready to go.

00:40:01:07 - 00:40:16:03
John Simmerman
And we're looking at right here, not a scene of snow and ice. We're looking at just a completely, you know, miserable experience. And it looks like it's a bus stop as well. Yeah, pedestrian. But from a disability perspective, yeah.

00:40:16:06 - 00:40:45:03
Nicole McSpirit
Absolutely. This is a walk order that I went on, I think sponsored by Denver demonstrates partnership. But your friend Jamie, they're in a wheelchair, just kind of showing the issues that he has to deal with. And and even on the other side, there's a bit of a sidewalk, but it's really just kind of an extended curb. And he just said, like, I could not use that either, because if I go a little bit to the, you know, to the close to the edge, I could fall into the street.

00:40:45:05 - 00:41:06:18
Nicole McSpirit
So he ended up having to ride in the street. And this is on Quebec Street in Denver, which is not very not very friendly at all, as you can imagine the picture. But and just kind of being able to see these issues through other people's eyes, through other people's experiences, just to kind of know. I mean, this is not a street that I would ever walk on.

00:41:06:18 - 00:41:24:21
Nicole McSpirit
But if you have to take if you have to take a bus, you don't have a choice. You know, like this is this is where you have to go. And and just kind of those limitations and the inaccessibility just kind of you never really see before until you see it and then you can't unsee it.

00:41:24:24 - 00:42:02:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. And and I try to emphasize this too, is that protected bikeways and protected and separated cycle infrastructure is an empowering network for people in mobility devices, in wheelchairs. You will see whenever you experience those protected facilities in the Netherlands, you will notice that they are occupied by people on mobility devices and in scooters and in wheelchairs because it is much easier for them to and negotiate their city in those facilities.

00:42:02:21 - 00:42:38:12
John Simmerman
And it's very much welcome. They're invited there. And it's it's an empowering facility for them because quite honestly, in an older historic city, the sidewalks are difficult for them to navigate. And so I tried to really kind of emphasize that because oftentimes one of the the voices that comes up in opposition of protected bikeways and things of this nature end up being from, you know, you know, confusingly from the disability community and, it's like, no, no, no, no.

00:42:38:12 - 00:42:44:12
John Simmerman
Don't you understand? This is what we mean by all ages and abilities, is that it's for you, too?

00:42:44:14 - 00:43:08:01
Nicole McSpirit
Absolutely. And, you know, we are we frequently get called able, as you know, A just because people, you know, just assume that it's only going to be young, healthy people using these bikeways. But that's not who it's for if if that was you know, if we were just building this infrastructure, the people who were already using it already feel we're kind of okay with using some very dangerous streets and that would be fine.

00:43:08:01 - 00:43:18:07
Nicole McSpirit
But we want to be able people to be able to be safe. Yeah. And all ages and abilities and be able to really make that choice to get out there without a car.

00:43:18:09 - 00:43:59:28
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. So I pulled this this photo up because this is a great example of, you know, a cycle track of shared use path type of situation that, you know, it looks like is along a rail corridor here as well. And again, this is a great opportunity. I think the Dutch really leverage quite well is you know in addition to the on street network as they look for every opportunity, every corridor along a canal, along a rail line through a park, to be able to give a lower stress opportunity to be able to to, you know, encourage active mobility again, all ages and abilities.

00:43:59:28 - 00:44:02:28
John Simmerman
And that's why I love this and I love this little city.

00:44:02:29 - 00:44:26:11
Nicole McSpirit
I know you asked them, well, this is like this is a great part of a network and San Luis Obispo where my youngest daughter goes to school. So whenever I'm there, I'm just taken to the roads and and go out and exploring. And this is the railroad safety trail that goes from pretty much downtown to crosses over with this great pedestrian and bike bridge.

00:44:26:11 - 00:44:51:08
Nicole McSpirit
And this goes out to a really great brewery down the road here. But but this connects also to a a greenway and and slow and Morrow Street that has two murders every couple of blocks. So kind of what we're trying to do with the Vamos project and just make a very low stress corridor for for bicycles and pedestrians and and again be a part of a network.

00:44:51:08 - 00:45:15:19
Nicole McSpirit
And I think I think I might have one shot there of like kind of being on riding along the diverter that that actually is city park and there and here in Denver in Denver. Yeah yeah in Denver and just kind of this was a free day and it just kind of shows how cluttered our roads can be. We saw someone in a in a wheelchair trying to navigate this and not being able to do it very successfully.

00:45:15:21 - 00:45:40:06
Nicole McSpirit
So this is what connects to that railroad safety trail. And it's more of a street greenway. And so every couple of blocks you'll see this and it's heavily used by, you know, by bicyclists. It's it's so comfortable. I've only seen a cup, a handful, maybe two or three cars on it. And the dozens of times I've ridden along it, it's so comfortable.

00:45:40:06 - 00:46:00:21
Nicole McSpirit
And this is what we are kind of pushing for in Denver as kind of more of a quick build way. And, you know, people still can park on the streets that's still completely accessible. You don't have to build miles and miles of protected bike lanes. You know, they're on these low stress, low volume streets to begin with.

00:46:00:24 - 00:46:10:25
John Simmerman
Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. And I'm going to pull up Bike Street here in Vamos so that we can get a picture of that.

00:46:10:28 - 00:46:27:24
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah. And when I came back from Amsterdam, that was the first thing that I found was RV and bike states and what a meeting. And was just like that was kind of my, my start and met people from Denver bicycle lobby there and yeah, it's just been kind of the start of the progression.

00:46:27:26 - 00:47:02:22
John Simmerman
Yeah. And really the idea is what can you do quickly lighter quicker cheaper to be able to create an environment where we can take advantage of the incredibly extensive network of quiet residential streets that most cities have if they were built prior to World War Two, if they were platted prior to World War Two. You have an incredible grid system that you can activate as quiet residential streets.

00:47:02:24 - 00:47:36:28
John Simmerman
And again, I say this until I'm blue in the face that even in the Netherlands, you know, 60 to 70% of their their network is considered some form of shared space. What gets the attention in the news and the intention is, is really the the separated cycle paths and the protected bikeways. But in reality, it's a lot of traffic, home streets, it's a lot of streets that where you are sharing some space, but the traffic volumes are down and the traffic speeds are down.

00:47:37:00 - 00:47:39:13
John Simmerman
And that's where these divers come in.

00:47:39:16 - 00:48:14:26
Nicole McSpirit
So that's mean because we're we're working with our current network, which are not in many cases, narrow streets. So we're having to commit in other ways and and they are and in Amsterdam and other places in the Netherlands, they are kind of closing more streets to to traffic as well just as that need comes. But this is a way that we kind of thought this is relatively quick, easy and kind of able to kind of make a template and just use it over and over and over again and to really build out our network very quickly.

00:48:14:26 - 00:48:42:19
Nicole McSpirit
It doesn't replace the need for protected bikeways, but it's a start. And these, again, are in lower stress streets and they're great for, you know, biking with families which are difficult to do and, you know, narrow bikeway bike lanes. So, yeah, we still need protected bikeways along along arterials where the shops are, where you would like anyone would need to go, whether you're walking, riding or driving.

00:48:42:22 - 00:48:52:09
Nicole McSpirit
But this is the way that we can really kind of allow people to quickly and safely get out there, which is always been obvious. This goal.

00:48:52:12 - 00:49:12:16
John Simmerman
Well, it has been and is super, super passionate about it. And I really do encourage everybody, if you haven't had a chance to to watch that episode, to listen to that episode, please head on over to the Active Towns podcast and the Active Towns channel and click through. And yeah, it's a great one. It's a, it's a actually a long one.

00:49:12:16 - 00:49:43:01
John Simmerman
I think it's almost 90 minutes long. But, you know, RV does a great job of talking about it and really it's, it's not to be critical of what the city of Denver is doing. It's trying to bolster and accelerate the the reality because if we have to wait for the hard stuff to get built, you know, the the capital intensive projects of building, you know, truly authentic, safe and inviting protected bikeways, it's going to be decades before it's done.

00:49:43:01 - 00:50:15:03
John Simmerman
And so this is a way to try to take concepts of traffic calming and traffic diversion and getting things in faster, lighter, quicker, cheaper and faster. And to your point, you know, relatively short distances, like being able to get over to Speer is it's not like it's that far. And if you have the right tool like the shorty here, it's also very, very doable and very comfortable ride.

00:50:15:06 - 00:50:26:13
John Simmerman
But you have to have, you know, the feeling like you can splice together that route using some high comfort, you know, streets as well as high comfort bike ways.

00:50:26:16 - 00:50:41:14
Nicole McSpirit
Absolutely. And all it takes is one intersection to really kind of throw a monkey wrench into everything. So you could have like a nice little route, but then all of a sudden you're like, I don't really know what I'm supposed to do here. And then once you have that confusion, it kind of leads to conflicts.

00:50:41:14 - 00:51:08:12
John Simmerman
And I can I can think of a few of them there in Denver, and they're almost a part of the state inventory of streets. You know, it's just like, oh, yeah, that's Highway 287 oh, yeah. That's, you know, and they they're masquerading as a as highways and streets at the same time they're strobes but technically not even the property of the city of Denver.

00:51:08:12 - 00:51:35:22
John Simmerman
They're actually owned and operated by CDOT, the Colorado Department of Transportation, which is also when you look at the the realm of Department of Transportation's across North America, they're at least one of the more progressive. But they're still they they're still car brain. You know, they're still prioritizing the movement of motor vehicles. I wanted to focus on this photo just to simply say, I'm sorry, I apologize.

00:51:35:22 - 00:51:37:11
John Simmerman
I missed a bike.

00:51:37:13 - 00:51:56:23
Nicole McSpirit
All right. There you go. Well, so when I first got my e-bike, my husband was adamantly against it. He's like, you don't need one. And at that time I was maybe 40 or 50% of my biking was was, you know, my travel was by bike. But my my lungs just couldn't do it, you know, especially in the heat.

00:51:56:23 - 00:52:18:08
Nicole McSpirit
And when our air quality was bad, I ended up with a horrible case of bronchitis. After not realizing the air quality was so bad and going out and one day coming back up from downtown, from the Capitol building, I started seeing stars. It was hot. It was, you know, it was up. It was like, we don't have too many hills, but it was uphill.

00:52:18:08 - 00:52:31:07
Nicole McSpirit
And I had to pull over and kind of get my vision back and thought, okay, I'm going home. And I'm ordering the damn e-bike and and my husband again was against it. And two months later he had the shorty.

00:52:31:10 - 00:52:33:07
John Simmerman
Nice. Nice.

00:52:33:10 - 00:52:54:04
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah. So he he learned his lesson here. But yeah. So we yeah, we haven't really gone back and we were able to sell our second car was fully paid for which you know that the registration and insurance was coming due and I had not driven my car I think, but twice in about six months. And I was like, I'm not I don't want to pay it.

00:52:54:04 - 00:53:13:02
Nicole McSpirit
Let's sell it. And and it paid for a bike for everyone, both my daughters. And it, it it saved money in many ways and allowed us to go out on bike rides as a family. And just now I'm doing almost 100% of my travel by bike.

00:53:13:04 - 00:53:13:13
John Simmerman
Yeah.

00:53:13:13 - 00:53:15:18
Nicole McSpirit
So it's it's worth it in a lot of ways. Yeah.

00:53:15:22 - 00:53:27:15
John Simmerman
I love it. Nicole, What haven't we talked about that you really want to make sure we mention for the audience? Let's see. I mean, we've covered a lot, and I think I covered all the bikes.

00:53:27:18 - 00:53:51:22
Nicole McSpirit
I'm not exactly. I guess that's what I try to focus on. And social media like my, you know, the platforms, Twitter is very different than my Facebook, which is typically more friends and family. So I'll try to take things and dole out some stuff to my friends. I mean, this is this election season. We did a lot of taking candidates out on bike rides.

00:53:51:22 - 00:54:13:24
Nicole McSpirit
And these are some Brad Rivera, Darrell Watson and Tim Hoffman, who were all city council candidates. Two of them still are going to be in the runoff here. But just kind of and these are guys who got to get it to begin with, but they just kind of went and and take a ride around Park Hill and see what the issues were.

00:54:13:24 - 00:54:36:14
Nicole McSpirit
And we just kind of pointed some stuff out. The good, the bad, the ugly. This is me taking two of my neighbors. They wanted to know how to get to gross grocery stores. So we went to three different grocery stores in the area, just kind of soda like, you know, quick little ways to get there. We how to park, how to lock up, simple little things like that that can kind of be an obstacle.

00:54:36:16 - 00:54:39:19
Nicole McSpirit
But once you do it, you realize that you can do it.

00:54:39:22 - 00:54:41:23
John Simmerman
Is that like on her bike or is that her bike?

00:54:42:00 - 00:54:43:24
Nicole McSpirit
That is my loaner bike. Yeah.

00:54:43:24 - 00:54:45:17
John Simmerman
I see. So you're putting it to work?

00:54:45:17 - 00:55:16:16
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, I know. Oh it's, it's gotten, it's yeah. We've had it less than a year and it's gotten about 1400 miles on it so far. Yeah. And this is, this was a another issue, you know, like just trying to figure out how to manage in a world that's built for cars. This is a Walgreens drive thru. And the reason I kind of put this up, it was very convenient because a lot of times I'll have packages in my bike to deliver and then I'm on my way back and with groceries and they did not have any bike racks.

00:55:16:16 - 00:55:38:08
Nicole McSpirit
So I would use this if I had to pick up a prescription and I got warned that it was dangerous for me to do it because a driver might not see me and would rear end me. And it just made me think what you're telling me. This requires telling the driver that they should watch for bicyclists. You know, it was one of those like, again, like epiphany moments, like, Yeah, yeah, that's not right.

00:55:38:10 - 00:56:00:11
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, but yeah, just trying to kind of get people to to see not only how things are possible, but how our environment really dictates how we, how we use that environment and the small changes even that could make a big difference. So just trying to promote that and and help people feel a little bit safer on the roads, there are things that we can do.

00:56:00:11 - 00:56:24:11
Nicole McSpirit
I mean, a lot of our safety is not in our hands when you're when you're sharing space with big vehicles. But there are things that you can do, like take the lane kind of and make yourself more visible. So just trying to kind of impart some of the things that I've learned in a very quick succession of how to kind of be out there and stay as safe as possible until we have that protected bike infrastructure.

00:56:24:13 - 00:56:25:19
John Simmerman
And or traffic cont.

00:56:25:24 - 00:56:27:13
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah. And traffic. Yes, exactly.

00:56:27:20 - 00:56:51:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. I try to emphasize that. Yeah. Is that if if we're going to, if that's the, the barrier that we're the threshold we're looking for is oh we're not going to ride until everything is protected and separated. It's like I'm sorry that's not going to happen And it's also not realistic and it's also not the reality of the Dutch experience, because again, more than half of their their experience is shared space.

00:56:51:16 - 00:57:14:16
John Simmerman
But the the built environment there reinforces that. The expectation is that is that the motor vehicle drivers are moving slowly and with care and with caution. And so there's layers of things that need to take place from the software perspective as well as the audit wear perspective, that's another term that I've heard recently is Auxerre in software and hardware.

00:57:14:24 - 00:57:43:13
John Simmerman
The hardware is there built environment, the software and the org. Where are those policies and procedures and laws and things that we can do to help with the cultural aspect of it, as well as the engagement activities like the the streets and the other types of programing and, and folks that are volunteering as well as doing amazing jobs, such as being a crossing guard in helping things out in your school, in your neighborhood.

00:57:43:13 - 00:57:49:21
John Simmerman
Are there have there been any bike busses like assemble, tows, bike bus there in the Portland area?

00:57:49:23 - 00:57:54:07
Nicole McSpirit
No, and I'd love to be able to do that. Of course, I am busy at the exact time.

00:57:54:09 - 00:57:56:08
John Simmerman
That the exact time.

00:57:56:10 - 00:58:25:19
Nicole McSpirit
But I think there's a few people that I think I'm going to reach out to who maybe I can convince and help in that in that regard. So I'm hopeful. I think it would be phenomenal. There are quite a few kids who ride to school and parents. We've seen an uptick for sure. I have like a little I made a little bike corral right in the front where drop off happens and it's working really well.

00:58:25:19 - 00:58:49:24
Nicole McSpirit
More and more people are using that because we've had a lot of construction in our area. So so the already tight parking has kind of gotten even tighter, which is not always a bad thing because it incentivizes other modes of travel. But yeah, I would love you know, I'm just kind of I didn't do too much this year because I was just kind of edging and just want to kind of put my toes in the water and want to like push things too much.

00:58:49:24 - 00:58:59:27
Nicole McSpirit
But I definitely, as I've gone along, kind of tried to incentivize other things and think about what what else can we do to prioritize that?

00:59:00:00 - 00:59:25:07
John Simmerman
Yeah. So and for members of the audience, if you're if you're tuning in from the Denver metro area and if you haven't been up to Boulder to see Casey Middle School, Centennial Middle School, these are two middle schools that for decades now have had huge numbers of kids that ride their bikes to school and it's really quite encouraging because, you know, every day is bike bus day for them.

00:59:25:07 - 00:59:56:00
John Simmerman
They just they've been doing it, you know, since they were in elementary school. And so in it's a combination of the fact that there are some bikeways, but mostly it's the off street network and the in some traffic calm streets, residential streets that really help feed into those two middle schools. And so just up the road from me all there in the Denver metro area, Boulder has some really nice schools that can be an inspiration, you know, to get more kids on bikes.

00:59:56:01 - 01:00:00:02
John Simmerman
Yeah. And might even into high school to a lot of the kids.

01:00:00:02 - 01:00:29:04
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah. Yeah. East High school which has a new protected bikeway very short bus crucial part Usually the bike racks are are packed but a friend Alan Cowgill a fellow or co-founder of Denver bicycle lobby just started his own bike bus and he did okay so yeah absolutely so nice for that on Twitter. I think he has a video or a photo, but so there are there are places around Denver that are starting to do that.

01:00:29:04 - 01:00:32:11
Nicole McSpirit
So I can't wait to see that happen.

01:00:32:13 - 01:01:12:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, I'm going to have to follow up with Allan about that and get him on the podcast. We've obviously profiled Sam Balta from from the Alameda School there in the Portland area, and it's just so encouraging. Thank you so much for all that you are doing, Nicole, in your neighborhood, any advice that you would have for for other, you know, community members, other moms, moms, other adults, parents, whatever, that, you know, are just concerned with, you know, making their cities, their neighborhoods a little, you know, safer and more inviting for all ages and abilities.

01:01:12:14 - 01:01:17:01
John Simmerman
Any any pearls of wisdom, you know, now that you're a good three years plus, you.

01:01:17:01 - 01:01:39:04
Nicole McSpirit
Know, I know you know, I don't know about pearls of wisdom, but I would just say get involved, like be, you know, sign up for newsletters with your local agencies. Let you know when these activities are happening, support them. You know, complain if your grocery store doesn't have bike parking, then talk to the management, See if you can get that done.

01:01:39:05 - 01:02:06:13
Nicole McSpirit
You know, there's there's things I'm constantly writing 311 reports based on safety issues that I see things like that get recorded. You know, it can't hurt And I've documented issues and, you know, little things like that. It doesn't have to be a huge amount of time to do that. But mainly it's just get out, get out there, try to to to do, you know, get around without a car, see what the issues are.

01:02:06:13 - 01:02:25:24
Nicole McSpirit
If you, you know, find issues, then contact someone and say, you know, how can how can we make this better? I've managed to get the lights signals changed in my area. It only took two and a half years writing and complaining, but it happened. So, you know, things like that, that little differences can really make a big difference.

01:02:25:24 - 01:02:50:12
Nicole McSpirit
You know, if you're that woman. In the case of that, our our light was a demand actuated light and wasn't getting triggered by people waiting on a bike. So you would just have to wait indefinitely or go right up on the sidewalk and press the button or wait for a car to trigger it. So things like that that maybe people aren't aware of that is an issue, but it can easily be changed in most cases after two and a half years.

01:02:50:15 - 01:03:21:17
John Simmerman
You know, and folks, if you're active out on Twitter, please, you know, follow Nicole out there again, her handle is going Dutch and on Twitter and you do a really good job of mixing in, you know, some of the challenging moments as well as the inspiring moments. And and I think that that's that's really important, right, is to a, be persistent, try to be positive as much as you can.

01:03:21:19 - 01:03:43:04
John Simmerman
But at the same time, you know, if you have to vent you have got to vent a little bit any any any wisdom, you know, from from the last three plus years of, you know, handling, you know, those those kind of frustrating things. Are that taking longer than it should? How how do you kind of keep your spirit up given the fact that stuff doesn't happen as quickly as it should?

01:03:43:06 - 01:04:09:03
Nicole McSpirit
Yeah, I think I think giving you giving yourself permission to take a step back sometimes, because I think all of us deal with that kind of frustration and overload and just kind of needing to take that little break and that's fine. Like take that break. And and one thing that I do, even when I'm complaining on Twitter, I try to say, well, how will this how can we make this better?

01:04:09:04 - 01:04:32:25
Nicole McSpirit
So it's not just conflict like we need this, you know, just trying to to make it more of a more of a positive than a negative. I don't want to just complain. And it's and it's it's something I've learned a lot. It's not a lot of times that their anger or frustration is directed at drivers, but they're really just using the infrastructure as they've been told they can use it.

01:04:32:28 - 01:04:41:26
Nicole McSpirit
So, you know, trying to realize like what improvements could happen to make everyone safer, not just people walking and biking, but for drivers, too.

01:04:41:29 - 01:04:57:02
John Simmerman
Yeah. Yeah. And having a good balance of of, you know, that advocacy work. So if you're out on Twitter and you're you're, you're, you're pushing for change and you're getting stuff out there balance it with some with a few images like this so it brings us Yeah exactly.

01:04:57:04 - 01:05:01:24
Nicole McSpirit
But who doesn't like to see a happy, smiling dog?

01:05:01:26 - 01:05:07:18
John Simmerman
Nicole, thank you so very much for joining me on the Active Tails podcast. This has been such a joy and pleasure for me.

01:05:07:21 - 01:05:29:20
Nicole McSpirit
Thank you so much for all that you do to and and amplifying our voices and kind of showing so a better way as I could, you know, things that can happen and, you know, just kind of living our lives and with a goal in mind and showing showing that that's a possibility and a necessity in many cases.

01:05:29:22 - 01:05:38:05
John Simmerman
Yeah, Well, you are quite welcome. And yes, together we can make this happen. Keep up the good work.

01:05:38:07 - 01:05:39:20
Nicole McSpirit
Thank you so much.

01:05:39:23 - 01:05:54:25
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in and hope you enjoyed this episode with Nicole. 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 that subscription button down below and ring the notifications bell.

01:05:54:27 - 01:06:18:29
John Simmerman
And until next time, 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 tones. Ambassadors supporting the channel on Patron Buy me a coffee YouTube super Thanks. As well as making contributions, the nonprofit and purchasing things from the active town store every little bit adds up and it's much appreciated.

01:06:19:02 - 01:06:20:09
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much.