Des Moines Woman Has Plan To Improve Bike Infrastructure

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For Carol Maher, there’s nothing better than riding her bike down Ingersoll Ave.

“Ingersoll is so joyful. Especially on the eastbound side where you’re going downhill and getting the wind in your hair,” she said.

But Maher’s love for that street goes beyond the natural assist from gravity. She gets to ride in a bike lane – one that’s designated by more than a painted line. The bike lanes on Ingersoll are up on the sidewalk, separated from vehicles driving along the street.

“I think there’s a nice synergy between riders and walkers and car drivers on Ingersoll,” she said.

The recent transformation of Ingersoll into a “complete street” – with room for all modes of transportation – has plenty of critics. Maher, however, wants more Ingersolls around town. She hopes to do that through the organization she just launched, “Ride On Des Moines.”

“We love to ride our bikes everywhere, every day. That’s our tagline,” she told me.

Many people in Des Moines think there is room for improvement in helping cyclists achieve a safe ride. In a group of 256 people, 6 percent said the existing transportation network makes it easy for them to bike, according to the city’s transportation master plan, adopted in 2018.

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Stats like that make Maher’s mission clear. She wants more biking infrastructure, more substantial biking infrastructure, and she wants the city’s decision-makers to think about cyclists’ needs earlier and more often.

Maher is 63 years old, retired, and rides her bike year-round. She moved to Des Moines five years ago from Chicago, where she said she gained her biking “street cred.” During her time there, she said she witnessed an evolution in the way that city implemented bike lanes.

“It started with just paint. And paint is not protection, as the saying goes, but it’s the first start to get people out there,” Maher said. “And then as you get more people riding in just that paint, you get more people advocating for better, which is the hardening of the bike lane. Having a curb or bollards or something on the other side of parked cars, so that it’s safer, it gets safer and then more and more people join.”

Des Moines and its suburbs are known for their extensive network of trails, but Maher’s focus is on the streets. She wants Ride On Des Moines to be a voice for cyclists who use their bikes not just for fun, but for utility.

“Every trip you make to the grocery store without having to get in the minivan, using your bike, is a win,” Maher said.

It’s one thing to have an idea, but Maher said she has an actual plan to make Des Moines better for bikers. She wants cyclists to do what she’s been doing: going to public meetings, writing emails to elected officials, getting vocal.

“I’m a government nerd, I like to understand how it’s all put together, how the sausage is made,” she said.

Maher wants more cyclists involved in the decision-making process on biking projects and policies. Through Ride On Des Moines, Maher will keep track of when meetings are happening and communicate that information to her members.

But it goes beyond showing up. Maher wants members of her organization to be armed with well-informed opinions.

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“I would really like to have field trips where we would go see where the city is planning on putting in some biking infrastructure, and sort of see what they’re thinking about and looking at it and walking through it so we can provide good feedback,” Maher said.

She said it’s important for that feedback to happen early in the planning process, well before the project gets its final City Council approval. Maher believes it can happen in Des Moines.

“It’s a small town in many respects in that you have access to your council members and the mayor pretty easily. And city staff, you can reach out to city staff pretty directly and they respond to you,” Maher said.

She thinks that the more cyclists speak up, the more they will be heard. As more cyclists are heard, more infrastructure will be built, and it will be more than paint – encouraging more people to get on their bikes and ride.

“I just really want to find more of us and sort of pull us together and try to make a difference in getting this stuff done.”

To learn more about Ride On Des Moines, you can visit the organization’s website or Instagram page.

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A Couple More Things

Carol is also encouraging local bikers to download an app called “Bike Lane Uprising.” It allows users to take pictures of obstructions in bike lanes, and then it plots those photos on a map with a timestamp. The app helps document problem spots, and creates data that can be taken to the city if a bike lane blockage becomes persistent.

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