Adirondack Sports April 2024

APRIL 2024 23
ATHLETE PROFILE cont. from 21
MADISON, WI BIKE HYPE.
PANDEMIC PUZZLE DELIVERY.
his passion while visiting his parents. He
read about a local pedestrian hit and killed
by a driver on NY Route 50 in Saratoga
Springs and remembers how the media
stories absolved the driver of any responsibility
for what happened. “They were putting
that person at fault for using their legs!”
For Ian, that was the final straw. He put
up notices around the area and reserved
a room at the Saratoga Springs Public
Library to host a meeting to find others
interested in trying to help. At first, he says,
just he and his friend Eamon were there,
and he thought they were the only two
who cared. Then others began to arrive,
and they formed the Saratoga Healthy
Transportation Network, now known as
Bikeatoga. Since then, the organization
has contributed in many ways to cycling
in Saratoga Springs, including supporting
development of bike lanes and paths,
and starting the Bikeatoga Workshop – a
volunteer-run bicycle recycling program
designed to repair used bikes and get them
back on the streets. Ian himself also started
Bikeatoga’s “Slow Roll” bike rides when
he was in town visiting his parents during
the 2020 pandemic. During the pandemic
he also ran a service in Saratoga to deliver
jigsaw puzzles on his bike to residents to
help brighten up their Covid isolation.
Immediately after starting the
Bikeatoga group in 2005, Ian worked to
write a bike master plan for the city and
lobbied to implement Complete Streets
standards to create infrastructure that
encourages non-motorized transportation.
But dealing with politics and
ARTISTIC HAND.
bureaucracy was frustrating. The master
plan produced few tangible results from
the city and the complete streets recommendations
were sent to a committee
that ended up producing a report that did
little to help in Ian’s opinion. In 2007 he
decided he’d had enough, left Saratoga
Springs, and started what he calls his “bike
tour that lasted for 15 years” that started
with a two-year stint teaching English in
Ushuaia, Argentina.
But that first experience in Saratoga
taught him some valuable lessons about
enlisting local support for community
improvement projects. “It’s important to
get the support from the business community
and for them to see the benefits
of affiliating themselves with pro-cycling
projects and people. There’s this idea that
people look at cars and think ‘that means
business.’ But cars can’t shop. People do.”
Even before he left Bikeatoga, Ian
acted on that experience by starting
Bicycle Benefits, a program he could
spread nationally that would help integrate
community action, safe cycling, and
local businesses around the country: bicyclebenefits.org.
When he returned to the
US, a friend helped him create a website,
and within a year he had over 100 businesses
participating. Today the program
includes over 2,300 businesses across the
country with a smartphone app added
to help participants find and patronize
member businesses.
For the program,
individuals and organizations
reach out to local
businesses, where owners
purchase the Bicycle
Benefits helmet stickers
for $2.50 each, then resell
them to individuals for $5.
They then offer discounts
or other special perks to
customers who show their
Bicycle Benefits helmet
sticker. For individuals, participation is
simple – buy a sticker, put it on your helmet,
then reap the rewards shopping at
member businesses. Requiring the stickers
to be on helmets also encourages helmet
use for cycling safety.
Ian says that while the program has yet
to take off in the Capital Region (Saratoga
Springs has 33 businesses signed up), it
has made major impacts in cities such as
Charlotte, N.C. (247 member businesses)
and Madison, Wisc. (182 members).
The program has been very effective,
especially in communities where a “critical
mass” of businesses have signed on,
he says, citing the example of a grocery
store in Madison that hands out $100,000
in discounts annually, which equates to
customers spending over $2 million at the
store. (Update: Bicycle Benefits is being
relaunched this spring by Bikeatoga in
Saratoga Springs.)
Ian’s latest project for Bicycle Benefits
is “Bike Bingo” to help support local
business members. During each four-tosix-week
Bike Bingo “game,” individuals
get a card and get “Bingo” by getting it
stamped each time they visit one of the
local member businesses or events listed
on the front. Member businesses are
encouraged to popularize the game by
giving out small prizes for a completed
row or blacked out card.
Ian says the game is intended to be
“a celebration of your city by bike” and
has received a lot of positive feedback
from both game players and business
members. Another recent project of his
has been becoming a published children’s
book author, with two books in the
works and several titles already for sale
on Amazon including “Where Do Missing
Socks Go?” for two-to-six-year-olds and
“Limitless: Unearth Your Superhero Self,”
a book that encourages young readers to
take action and move forward with various
ideas that will help inspire positive
growth in their personal lives and in their
own neighborhoods.
Ian says he’s looking forward to doing
more in the future, both outdoors and to
help the communities he
lives and works in whatever
way he can.
“I’d love to change the world, but
I have to celebrate my victories on a
small scale.”
Dave Kraus (dbkgrafik@gmail.com)
is a longtime area road and gravel
cyclist, photographer, and writer who
is looking forward to another season of
vainly trying to keep up with friends on
a variety of rides. Visit: krausgrafik.com.