IA: ‘Most mind-clearing thing you can do’: Quad-Cities commuters trade cars for bikes for Bike to Work Week

Quad-Cities residents are breaking out their two-wheelers this week to commute to their place of employment for National Bike to Work Week.

The Quad Cities Bicycle Club has organized five days of breakfasts in Davenport, Bettendorf, Moline and Rock Island this week for commuting cyclists.

Kathy Ramp sets out food at a breakfast held by the Quad Cities Bicycle Club for Bike to Work Week at Government Bridge on Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport. A free breakfast is offered every day of the week to promote health, environmental impact and camaraderie within the biking community.

Also, public transportation networks Bettendorf Transit, Davenport Citibus and MetroLINK are offering free bus transit for bikers this week.

For maps and trail information for the Quad-Cities visit qcbc.org.

If you go: remaining bike to work breakfasts

• Wednesday: 6-9 a.m. breakfast at Leach Park, 100 12th St, Bettendorf, sponsored by Bettendorf Parks and Recreation Department and Downtown Bettendorf Organization.
• Thursday: 6-9 a.m. breakfast at the bike trail below the Government Bridge in Davenport
• Friday: 6-10 a.m. breakfast at Schwiebert Park, 101 17th St., Rock Island

Biking boomed nationwide after the pandemic, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics. Spending on bikes and accessories jumped more than 600% between March 2020 and March 2023 when adjusted for inflation, according to the bureau.

Jim Adamson, a teacher from Moline, was one person who took up more biking around the time of the pandemic.

His daughter left for school with one of the family's cars, and instead of buying a replacement, Adamson bought an e-bike. He said biking to work gets him outside and exercising while also removing a car from the road.

Adamson takes the recently added 12th Avenue bike lanes to and from work at Wilson Middle School in Moline, about a 2 mile ride from his home. He used 12th Avenue before the city put in the bike lanes, too, but he feels significantly safer now. A segment of the lanes have a painted buffer zones between the bike lane and traffic, which makes him feel safer still.

"I feel like I'm encouraged to go to work and to use my bicycle, as opposed to before, I felt like I was sort of hampering traffic," he said.

Adamson recommended beginning riders get a good helmet, figure out where they want to store their bike at work, use public transit's bike-transport option and invest in an e-bike if arriving at work "not a hot sweaty mess is important."

Adamson said he's encouraged by more bike paths and lanes springing up in the Quad-Cities.

"It really feels like we've turned a corner in the last, like five years, that the Quad-Cities has become much more bike friendly," Adamson said.

Members of the Quad Cities Bicycle Club pose for a photo after volunteering for the Bike to Work Week breakfast at the Government Bridge on the Mississippi River Trail on Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport. A list of people who have stopped by Monday and Tuesday's breakfast can be seen.

Cycling infrastructure improvements in Moline

Dan McNeil, a Moline alderman, said he has probably used bicycles since he was 4 years old.

“I grew up in an era where we rode our bikes everywhere,” McNeil said.

He said he uses his bicycle for recreation and utility, not seeing himself really as a cyclist.

“I consider myself a guy on a bike,” he said.

McNeil said he began biking to work probably in 2007 while working at the Figge Art Museum.

His family had a newborn and decided to only use one vehicle.

“Our car stayed home with my wife, and I biked to work,” McNeil said.

He acknowledged riding from Moline to the Figge in Davenport was a bit of a trip, but said the museum had a good locker room so he could shower once he got there.

Since then, he uses motor vehicles more — work meetings, getting kids to soccer practice — but still replaces a car with a bicycle when he can.

He works in Moline now and most of the 4-mile trip can be done on bike trails or lanes, McNeil said.

Bike themed cookies were given out at the free breakfast for bike commuters Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport. Breakfast is offered from 6 to 9 a.m. Wednesday at Leach Park in Bettendorf; Thursday at Government Bridge in Davenport; and Friday at Schwiebert Park in Rock Island.

McNeil said he sees bicycle accessibility improving in the Quad-Cities all of the time.

The pedestrian/bicycle path on the new Interstate 74 bridge is an incredible connection that makes it easier to travel between Moline and Bettendorf, he said.

Moline has just completed the first phase of a cycling route that will eventually connect the Mississippi and Rock rivers, McNeil said.

In many places, bicycle accessibility gets built into other capital projects as they come along and, over time, those different pieces “kind of click together,” said David C. Dryer, Moline’s director of engineering.

The Moline council’s goal is to provide a system accessible to everyone, whether they are on foot, biking or using a vehicle, he said. Bicycles are legal vehicles and should be accommodated.

“It’s not just all about the automobile anymore,” Dryer said.

Moline’s accessibility for bikes includes almost 22 miles of trails, lanes and sidewalks, according to data Dryer provided.

QCBC members Kathy Ramp and Dean Mathias offer bananas and cookies to bikers on Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport.

Davenport looks to expand bike trails

Davenport has about 25 miles of off-road bike trails, including Duck Creek Parkway and the Riverfront Trail.

In recent years, Davenport has tried to bring more north-south trails online, said At-Large Ald. Kyle Gripp, who said he used to bike to work before being elected to the city council.

Trail segments under construction this season are connectors from Veterans Memorial Parkway to the Duck Creek Recreational Trail, another north-south route that will. The trail will run underneath the busy Kimberly Road at Eastern Avenue, where cyclist Alex Marietta was killed by a drunk driver running a red light.

Gripp said once those segments are complete, it'll allow cyclists to go underneath Kimberly and 53rd Street, eliminating at-grade crossings on Davenport's busiest roads.

Austin McKimmey offers his handmade buttons to bikers who came by for the free Bike to Work Week breakfast on Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport.

Construction also started this summer on about a mile of trail extending the west end of the Duck Creek Parkway along Emeis Park Avenue and Locust Street, stopping at Wisconsin Avenue. Completion of that segment is expected in July or early August, weather permitting. That project costed $841,000, funded in part by $522,000 in federal grants.

In future years, the city plans to extend the west loop trail south along Wisconsin Avenue to connect neighborhoods to the Duck Creek Trail system, an about $700,000 project funded by $555,000 in grant funds. Long-term, the city wants to create a west connection from Duck Creek to the riverfront.

In the future, Gripp said he'd like to see a connection from Davenport to Eldridge and Long Grove.

"I think that is achievable in the next 10 years if there is a concerted effort by Davenport, Eldridge, and Scott County," Gripp said.

Another area Gripp said he felt Davenport could do better in is on-street bike lanes.

Bettendorf has prioritized the additions of off-road trails as new housing and businesses spring up in the northeast corner of Bettendorf. The city has 7 miles of bike trails, 13 miles of recreational trails, and 17 miles of separated trails.

In Rock Island, the city has two designated bike lane corridors on major streets — striped lanes are on Seventh Avenue and 17th Street. The Great River Trail and the Hennepin Canal Parkway are two trail systems in Rock Island.

Breakfast items such as granola bars, fruit and drinks were offered on Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport.

Celebrating Bike to Work Week

Dean Mathias, of Milan, is a longtime biker who has helped organize Bike to Work Week for at least 10 years. This is the first year the celebration has expanded to include events in all four of the Quad-Cities, he said.

The week builds community in the Quad-Cities, Mathias said.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “It’s inspirational.”

Mathias, formerly a teacher in the Rock Island-Milan School District, commuted by bike for 13 years, including 10 years without missing a day, he said.

A helmet sits on a wall on the Mississippi River Trail on Tuesday, May 13, in Davenport.

Kai Swanson, special assistant to the president at Augustana College, said he bikes to work on his Gazelle electric bike “as often as he can.” It’s healthier for himself and the planet, he said.

“Every time I get behind the wheel of a car, I think about the carbon,” Swanson said. “With a bike, there’s no carbon."

Austin McKimmey, a regular bike-commuter and mechanic at Wright Bicycles in Moline, encouraged those who are hesitant to begin bike-commuting to talk with other cyclists or representatives at bike stores in the Quad-Cities.

“It’s the most mind-clearing thing you can do,” McKimmey said of cycling to work.

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