Not just for RAGBRAI

I was in Cedar Falls for several days last week for Grand Two’s three-week early arrival. He’s doing great, thanks. All three humans (mom, dad, and baby) are doing great. The jury is still out on the Siamese cat who has been under the notion that the nifty gear (a crib, a Snu, a changing table) are for him.

Move over, cat! There’s a new kid in town.

On Wednesday, giving the new family a break, I explored downtown Cedar Falls, which has a delightful main street. While I have been downtown aplenty, it was the first time I could amble the sidewalks and not feel like I was inconveniencing anyone else’s schedule.

Past visits have consisted mostly of visiting restaurants downtown, of which there are many. On any given weeknight, downtown is humming. Downtown apartments and condos and an outdoor pavilion add to the inviting vibe.

Let me tell you, though, it was hot. Hot-hot hot. Even in the crushing heat and corn-sweat addled afternoon, there was good foot traffic in the stores, many of which are independent and home-grown.

On Thursday, I ventured downtown again, but this time to a much-changed scene.  It was still hella hot but downtown had been invaded. The big raucous party on two wheels, aka RAGBRAI, had descended on Cedar Falls, and I had been oblivious that Cedar Falls was its Thursday terminus.

Hordes of riders buzzed down Main Street; empty lots on side streets filled up with tents, and a stage was set up on Main Street, with oldies covers ringing out. After the fact, I wonder why the concert wasn’t set up in the pavilion. Does anyone know?

RAGBRAI reminds me why so many people hate bicycle traffic. Bikes are too slow for cars and too fast for pedestrians, yet where can they ride if you want to ride in daily life? Bike traffic too often goes begging for a lane of their own.

A friend and I often remark about how Storm Lake’s Lake Trail, while a boon to the community, is A) Either not wide enough to accommodate both foot and bike traffic or B) Should have a separate lane for bikes. What space is theirs? Where’s a bike supposed to safely ride?

The grumpy among us will say, “Nowhere! Once you reach the age of 14, it’s time to put away your bicycle.” Try telling that to over 17 million Dutch people who use bicycles to get to school, to work, and to the grocery store on a daily basis.

“Yeah, well, we’re not The Netherlands,” the grump may rejoinder, and that remark is meant to say, “It will never work here,” but just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it couldn’t be done. Sometimes we simply lack imagination.

Years ago, someone (I maintain that it was Chuck Offenburger, but he said it was not he) suggested that downtown building owners turn their unused second floors into apartments so that people could step outside their door and eat at a restaurant or buy a pair of shoes or go to the bakery.

That vision is helping to drive the vitality of downtown Cedar Falls with their apartments and condos ringing Main Street. In Storm Lake, it has seen some success too, so why stop there?

If you’ve driven down the business district of Cedar Falls’ Main Street, you will have noticed that it curves back and forth, and there’s only one lane each direction. This runs counter to the way we’re used to main streets functioning.

There’s something in the American spirit of expansion that wants to draw a straight line in civic planning, but that curved street slows car traffic down enough that a bicyclist could also ride downtown — on Main Street — and not feel that they were inviting catastrophe or angry swears from drivers.

Some of us care about livability in a small town, about ease of getting around, and about taking delight in where we live. Straight-line thinking doesn’t factor in delight. Delight doesn’t have a place on a spreadsheet, but I’ve yet to meet anyone who thinks Main Street Cedar Falls is dumb. In fact, any time I mention that I have family there, the response is uniform: They have a great downtown.

I don’t delight in the fact that a number of businesses in Storm Lake are located on a busy business loop at the north end of town, far beyond an easy walk and difficult to reach by bike. A town the size of Storm Lake isn’t well served by sprawl, and to be fair, Cedar Falls has way too much sprawl and bad planning outside of Main Street, too.

But they did a heckuva job with their downtown, and it shows.

Storm Lake was considering a main street revitalization a year or so ago, and the photo shows a reduction from the current four lanes to three and a designated bike path next to the sidewalk. In this conception, bikes are neither on the street nor on the sidewalk. Everyone has a place to call their own.

Everyone wins. Except that few people seem to care about the quality of life this change could bring. Sure, you don’t see a ton of bicyclists downtown, but it’s a bit of a Catch-22. It’s scary and a bit dangerous, but if it weren’t, you might see more people taking advantage of the opportunity to ride their bike to run a quick errand or two.

Instead, we seem to be content driving to big box stores on the north edge of town or to Sioux City/Sioux Falls/Des Moines/Omaha or staying home and shopping by point-and-click.

Storm Lake could have more than what we have now. We just have to dare to envision it.

Joan Zwagerman knows she is one of a handful of people who care about biking safely downtown. Call her Joan Quixote.