Coffeeneuring Challenge 2025

Interior, Stillwater Coffee

Week One

1. Tuesday, October 14 (Cloudy, 59F)

Coffee at: Stillwater Coffee Company, 1275 N Center Point Road, Hiawatha [round trip 15 miles]

Trees are our friends and have many uses

Coffeeneuring is back for its 15th year, and I'm back for my second year. This is a great way to celebrate cycling and small businesses (as well as natural spaces, which feature in some coffeeneuring projects but not this one). Last year, my rides-to-fall-drinks occurred on days with high temperatures between 55 and 84 degrees, and as the weather turns colder with occasional rain, I could use some motivation wherever I can find it. The rules (Mary G 2025) call for seven rides of at least two miles round trip, to six different places, between October 11 and November 24, with no more than two per week. With so many coffee places in the core of Cedar Rapids, these rules pose no difficulty. Outside of the core, though, chains predominate--not a problem for the rules, but I'd prefer to keep it local. Given the length of some of the rides others reported on the Coffeeneurs Facebook page last year, I feel challenged to get out of town some in 2025.

Cedar Valley Nature Trail in Cedar Rapids
under cloudy skies

Today was cloudy and chilly. I rode, mostly on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, to suburban Hiawatha. To give myself an extra mile, and to avoid a complicated intersection at Center Point and Boyson, I stayed on the trail as far as Tower Terrace Road before riding back through the factories to Stillwater.

Cedar Valley Nature Trail splits off from Center Point Road

That might have been unwise; I only had to be on Tower Terrace for about 0.1 mile, but it's a two-lane high speed road with gravel shoulders. Fortunately, no cars appeared as I panic-pedaled. 

Stillwater has no bike rack, despite its proximity to the trail--maybe I'm the first person ever to cycle here!--but I did find fellow blogger Robert Manson as well as a lot of Johnny Cash references in the decor, and free refills. Free or cheap refills are everywhere in eastern Iowa, but not in "real" cities... I'm guessing the rental prices (which are comparatively low here) determine this.

North window at Stillwater Coffee

While enjoying my coffee and apple muffin, I watched the biweekly Cities for Everyone webinar. This week Gil Penalosa hosted the legendary Ellen Dunham-Jones. She talked about the need through policy to "disrupt auto dependence" in order to meet the many challenges of aging suburban areas. A lot of her examples were from high-demand areas (Atlanta, Austin, Bethesda, Denver, e.g.); I'm glad she also talked specifically about areas without change-forcing levels of demand, because that's where we are here. I imagine retrofit is a tough sell anywhere, though, as witness Addison Del Mastro's post today quoting someone from Vienna, Virginia, worried about how increasing population through denser development would disrupt basic aspects of daily life like grocery shopping.

Blairs Ferry and Center Point Roads, Cedar Rapids:
One of several complicated intersections on the CVNT

While I was inside Stillwater, we got a brief rain shower outside. It was over before the webinar was, but my ride home made my butt look wet.

2. Thursday, October 16 (Sunny, 75F)

Coffee at:  Dash Coffee Roasters,120 3rd Avenue SW [round trip 4.6 miles + 0.5 miles swimming]

bike, mural, and front window at Dash Coffee Roasters
(this mural is across the alley from the Lucille Ball one
pictured last year)

Part of the fun of coffeeneuring is following the exploits of others on social media. Several people were out before dawn this morning, and took lovely pictures of shops' lights in the darkness. Several people are doing themed coffeeneuring, and some of their themes are quite ambitious: one person is creating a haiku out of coffee stops, another is doing all Middle Eastern coffee shops (in the south suburbs of Chicago!), and another is devoting each stop to a color of the spectrum (today was "red"). 

Consider the curve wrecked, folks. I am not going to match that level of creativity. It occurred to me, though, that after seeing Bob Manson at Stillwater Tuesday, and meeting Bob Untiedt at Dash this afternoon, that I was on my way to a "Bob" theme. I don't know how long I can sustain this, but if your name is Bob and you like coffee and are near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, please message me!

Today began with showers that lasted longer than expected, but by 11:00 a.m., out came the sun and dried up all the rain. So I had a dry afternoon ride across the river to Dash via the Helen G. Nassif YMCA, and no worries about the possibility of a wet butt theme to my #coffeeneuring2025.

I met my friends Bob and Phillip at Dash to talk about the history of efforts to reactivate Redmond Park. Dash, praise be, is open til 6:00 p.m., which makes them one of two independent coffeehouses in the core that's open past 2:00. I had a double chocolate scone (not pictured) with a one of their pour-over coffee offerings; my unpretentious drip coffee order is not available past 1:00.

my coffee, and some beans for home, under the approving
eye of Elton John

On my way home, I saw a car run a red light; a car turn left in front of oncoming traffic; and an SUV parked in the bike lane. Coffeeneuring is a challenge, in more ways than one! But on this lovely afternoon, the weather was not one of those.

Elsewhere, Planetizen reports Austin, Texas, has put their back into building sidewalks and bike infrastructure, which has resulted in sharply reduced street fatalities (Ionescu 2025).

Week Two

3. Sunday, October 19 (Cloudy, 62F)

Coffee at: Lightworks Cafe, 501-B 7th Avenue SE [round trip 4 miles]

It was windy this morning, but not painfully so, and the traffic was extremely light as is usual on a Sunday morning. I took a somewhat indirect route downtown, and encountered less than five cars on the way.

I met some friends at Lightworks, a coffee shop located behind Benz Beverage Depot on the edge of downtown. They were doing a pretty good business, but we were able to find a table without difficulty, and borrow chairs from the other tables when more people arrived. I had a bag of beignets, one of their specialties, and managed not to cover myself in powdered sugar.

beignets and coffee at Lightworks

My friends discussed city politics, what with local elections coming up in a couple of weeks. Half of us arrived on bicycles, which is a good sign, and I was able to spread the coffeeneuring message. I think I'm still the only person in Cedar Rapids doing it.

artwork at Lightworks is by co-owner Nathan Graham

4. Thursday, October 23 (Sunny, 58F)

Coffee at: Kismet Coffee and Bloom, 1000 3rd St SE [round trip 4.2 miles]

I went to Craftd on Tuesday, but it was too chilly and windy to ride

It's been a chilly week, but I could no longer delay ride number 4. What was I going to do, put it off until November? In the Midwest, that is not such a hot idea, if you'll pardon the pun.

Once on my bike, it wasn't so bad. The wind that has brought us this (admittedly seasonable) weather finally had died down, and I wore gloves and a heavy jacket against what was left of it. The autumn leaves are well underway...

view of Loftus apartments from Bottleworks Park,
across 3rd Street from Kismet

...and I left late enough that the ride towards downtown wasn't too bad.

My destination was Kismet, a delightful coffee/flower shop that opened in New Bohemia in late 2021. New Bohemia already had a lot of coffee offerings, but none was a florist, and Kismet has been prospering fragrantly for four years.

More (but not much more) seating is upstairs,
along with more (many more) flowers

The young couple that operates the shop has a young child who makes occasional appearances; whether for that reason or another, it's a particular hotspot for young people with tiny companions. With the Loftus apartment building almost ready for occupancy on the other side of 10th Avenue, they seem about to have a lot of potential customers nearby.

Bike parking at 3rd Street and 10th Avenue SE

Kismet usually doesn't have food available, but when they do, it's memorable. Today's offering: maple scones.

Coffee and scone by the window

However, even the seemingly innocent pleasures of coffeeneuring are fraught with worry. Today's New York Times included a story about a new report by Coffee Watch showing that in Brazil, clearing forests for coffee farming has resulted in drastically declining rainfall (Livni 2025). Coffee Watch director Etelle Higonnet is quoted as saying "The ecologically destructive way we grow coffee is going to result in us not having coffee." I should surely pay more attention to coffee sourcing than I do!

Say it ain't so, Frank!

Week Three

5. Tuesday, October 28 (Cloudy, 51F)

Coffee at: Uptown Coffee, 760 11th St Suite A, Marion, IA [round trip 15 miles]

Uptown welcomes you!

Big thanks to Mary G. and all the folks at Coffeeneuring HQ, because absent this project I would not have ridden today, and I'm glad I did! It was deterrently chilly this morning, but the rain was going to hold off until afternoon, and what was I going to do, wait until November for nice weather? As it turned out, the ride was not bad at all: I had broken a sweat by the time I got to Uptown, though my ears were cold. I met two riders on the Lindale Trail into Marion; one had a plexiglass face mask, while the other had a wrap for his head that fit under his helmet. I should at least look into the latter.

Uptown is adjacent to Marion's wonderful Art Alley

Uptown Coffee operates out of the front of a bar in a historic downtown building. It was doing a brisk business today, though mine was the only bicycle parked outside. The multitude included, for the second time in five coffeeneuring efforts, Bob Manson of The Indie Bob Spot. (See ride #1.) For those of you keeping score, this makes three encounters with Bobs in five, though only two unique Bobs. (My son Robbie joined me at Lightworks last weekend, but he goes by Robbie and therefore does not qualify as a Bob.)

My workstation at Uptown.
Not pictured: gooey and delicious peach pie bar.

I put in my earpods for the Cities for Everyone webinar (episode #98), my "must see TV" every other Tuesday morning. (See ride #1.) Host Gil Penalosa interviewed Kristian Villadsen, an architect formerly with Jan Gehl's firm, and now co-creative director at BRIQ, also in Copenhagen. He talked about designing communities in ways that make it "easy" for people to make the more sustainable choices, and "We want to create places that invite people to partake" (italics mine). (Villadsen also said: "90 to 95 percent of zoning regulations were written between 1950 and 1970, when, to be honest, we did some of the worst city planning of all time.") My ride to Uptown today was rewarding, but could not be described as "easy, fast, convenient," which would be the ideal.

I left directly after the webinar, and was home well before the rain started. I did stop to record the reading on the trail counter. As I did, a longboarder and a cyclist went by, so I added them to my count.

Lindale Trail, just east of C Avenue NE

Elsewhere today, Streets.MN's post today discussed how people in Minneapolis-St. Paul used bicycles and transit to access a protest, reminding us as well of the sad necessity of continued protests. And word came of a proposed pedestrian plaza in Seattle.

6. Thursday, October 30 (Clearing, 54F)

Coffee: RETURN to Kismet Coffee and Bloom, 1000 3rd St SE [round trip 6.3 miles] 

The tree on my street has more leaves than it did 
same time last year (see last year's post)

Today is warmer and lovelier than was Tuesday, but after nearly freezing last night my morning ride was chilly. I added a few extra miles by riding through downtown and then along the river by the Mott Building, the southwest side's answer to the Cherry Building. No pictures of my trip, because it was too cold to stop! It was lovely, as witness the tree by my house pictured above, and I stayed warm except for my ears and neck. I really need to get one of those head goiter things.

Grass was soggy with dew:
Bottleworks Park between Full Bowl and Kismet

I returned to Kismet--coffeeneuring rules allow one repeat visit per year--for my biweekly coffee with Randy the Wizard. Unlike last week, they did not have maple scones today... no food at all in fact. Happily, Tim Salis was on the job at The Full Bowl a block away, and I scored a couple buckwheat banana muffins.

The Full Bowl, 129 10th Avenue SE

The mums are still vibrant at Kismet.

mums on the steps leading to Kismet's front door

I sat on the second floor at Kismet this week, which almost qualifies as a new place, but probably doesn't.

My coffee and muffins are on the coffee table

Besides the prodigious couch--sufficient for family reunions! or business meetings if it's a small business!--this is where their floral workshop is located, so there are plenty of green things on view.

Second floor shelves

On the way home, the sun was fully out and taking full effect! 

Friday 10/31 brought an update from Chasing Mailboxes with great pictures from the field. Meanwhile, I have one ride to go before I qualify for a patch...

Week Four

7!! Tuesday, November 4 (Cloudy, 67F)

Coffee at: Apple Creek Coffee Co., 4215 Lewis Access Rd, Center Point [round trip 38.5 miles]

Greetings from Center Point!

I chose a long ride to close out my coffeeneuring card, and to celebrate what's probably the last warm day of 2025 (although these days, who knows?). I began by voting in our local city council and school board elections...

Bethany Lutheran Church has no bike rack,
but it does have trees! and voting booths!!

...then rode to the Cedar Valley Nature Trail, and up to Center Point. It was still chilly, but I was dressed for it, and after awhile I began to feel too warm. If I unzipped my jacket and took off my gloves, I was too cold. So it goes. Averaged out it was a pleasant ride on a lovely late fall day.

Cedar Valley Nature Trail 7 miles south of Center Point

I passed Lafayette, a former town which used to have a train depot.

1914 depot site, Lafayette IA

I met my friend John at Apple Creek, Center Point's gathering place that serves coffee, breakfast and ice cream, and is open til 6 on weekdays. It's not easily accessible from the trail, which goes to the business district on the other end of town, about a mile north of where Apple Creek Coffee is. I tried to cut off the extra miles by going over on Fay Road, a packed gravel country road that was fine, but required me to enter town on the county highway. The long way is probably better.

Apple Creek is located in s strip mall near the interstate highway entrance, next door to a chiropractor, whose services I might have utilized after my long ride.

my bike parked at Apple Creek Coffee Co.

I had a brownie and coffee. There was a table full of locals, and some customers at other tables as well.

my beverage and snack

In time I rode home. This time I went north to the trail along Main Street, through the suburby area behind the strip mall, eventually reaching the charming downtown. There I caught the trail and headed south. A number of other people were taking advantage of the weather and the trail: I met 15 cyclists, a few walkers, a couple guys standing having a conversation, and one guy doing push-ups. But the south wind that was blowing in the pleasant air was in my face for the whole time. The return trip took me 25 percent longer than the ride north (1:40 instead of 1:20), and I was a wreck for the rest of the day. I salute my fellow coffeeneurs for whom a nearly-40 mile ride is barely exercise. I tried today to keep up with you, and I'm still feeling the effects.

One of four (!) rest areas along the trail

c+1. Thursday, November 6 (60F)

Coffee at: Brewhemia, 1202 3rd Street SE [round trip 5 miles]

one of several bike parking places around Brewhemia

The official coffeeneuring rules allow for "bonus rounds," so I decided to get one more in before the weather turns foul this weekend. I rode to this popular spot in New Bohemia, a brisk but not terribly ambitious ride. I brought The Odd Woman and the City, which I'm rereading for an upcoming post.

I often run into people I know at Brewhemia. (Did I mention it is popular?) Today, I saw people I know only because of their fame, actor/director Jason Alberty and, coming out of the cafe across the street, city manager Jeff Pomeranz. I also saw my friend Dorothy, who used to be president of the Oak Hill Jackson Neighborhood Association, which I think makes her a celebrity as well.

all I need for a coffee shop morning

On the way home, I was nearly hit by a truck turning left in front of me (not aggressive, just oblivious), and then I had to go around a car stopped in the bike lane (driver was on his phone maybe looking for directions). For good or ill, cycling and its inherent vulnerability puts you in touch with other people more than driving does. I enjoy the fresh air and exercise, but at some point I'm probably going to get tired of riding a bicycle in a persistently auto-centric world. In the meantime, there's coffeeneuring! I've loved connecting with people across the world who are doing this crazy challenge. Catch you next fall!!

SOURCE: Mary G., "Coffeeneuring Challenge 2025: You're Only 15 Once," Chasing Mailboxes, 20 September 2025

LAST YEAR: "Coffeeneuring Challenge 2024," Holy Mountain, 15 October 2024

COFFEENEURING IN THE BLOGOSPHERE:

Brent Lineberry (Orange Gnome) is in the Atlanta area

Harald Kliems (Ride or Pie?) is in Madison

10th anniversary post: Collins Road

 

Lindale Mall is dangerous to access for pedestrians or cyclists

(10/9/2025) What is our collective responsibility to people who have made rational (in their minds) decisions based on previous bad policies? How much money should be spent mitigating the badness, as opposed to putting money into areas with better infrastructure?

Ten years ago, I was bothered, to say the least, by news (Smith 2015, cited below) that the city was planning a major project widening Collins Road by Lindale Mall. The proposal included raising Collins in order to extend Lindale Drive underneath it and into the mall parking lot. The total cost was projected to be $15.4 million, of which the City of Cedar Rapids was providing 20 percent, with the rest funded by state and federal grants. According to a comment by the Corridor MPO's redoubtable transportation planner, Brandon Whyte, about 10 percent of the total project cost would go to making Lindale Drive a "complete street" with eight-foot sidewalks on both sides.

Lindale Drive at frontage road, 2012
(Google Maps screenshot)

Lindale Drive dead end, 2024
(Google Maps screenshot)

My strong objections to the "complete streets" aspect of the project were informed by Jeff Speck in Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2012). In Step 10, entitled "Pick Your Winners," Speck argues:

Most mayors, city managers, and municipal planners feel a responsibility to their entire city. As a result, they tend to sprinkle the walkability fairy dust indiscriminately. They are also optimists--they wouldn't be in government otherwise--so they want to believe that they can someday attain a city that is universally excellent. This is lovely, but it is counterproductive. By trying to be universally excellent, most cities end up universally mediocre. Walkability is likely only in those places where all the best of what a city has to offer is focused in one area. Concentration, not dispersion, is the elixir of urbanity. (2012: 259, emphasis mine)

(See also Doyon 2015.)

Still, the city officials quoted in the Gazette article made valid points. When Gary Peterson of the city's Public Works Department said the project would provide "pedestrians and bicyclists an inviting option in one of the city's principal commercial centers where few options now are in place for them," he was not wrong. The only non-car option at present is the #5 city bus, which stops on 1st Avenue in front of the mall on its inbound trip, though I've frequently seen people get off a few minutes earlier on the outbound trip and then sprint across 1st Avenue (average daily traffic count 18,700) to the mall or McDonald's. I do not recommend this.

The Grant Wood Trail passes about three-quarters of a mile north of Collins Road. Riding south on Lindale Drive towards the mall is not bad, but getting across Collins to the mall would be is an ordeal. People also live around here; besides trail riders, there are a number of relatively inexpensive apartments and town homes north of Collins, along Lindale Drive, Park Place, and Northland Drive. 

Lindale Manor mobile home court, 400 Lindale Drive, Marion
(Google Maps screenshot)

Could the residents' lives be made less car-dependent? Yes. Should that be a priority for city spending? I still wonder.

In 2018-19, Collins Road was widened as planned, eliminating the frontage road, and sidewalks were extended along Lindale Drive and Collins Road itself. But Collins Road was not raised, and Lindale Drive was not extended underneath.

Collins Road at Lindale Mall entrance, 2012
(Google Maps screenshot)

Collins Road at Lindale Mall entrance. 2024 (Google Maps screenshot):
The road is wider, the sidewalk is new. 
Note the sun is in the faces of westbound drivers

(It is possibly relevant here that a Hy-Vee supermarket on the south side of Collins, just west of the mall, has closed since I wrote that piece in 2015.) Your best option to access the mall on foot, bicycle, or wheelchair is a surface crossing with a traffic light about a quarter-mile to the west. Actually, I would say your best option is not to access the mall at all, but such snarkiness is not helpful in city planning.

Over the years, traffic on this stretch Collins Road has declined from about 27,500 (2013) to 25,000 (2017) to 24,000 (2021). On the service drive with the traffic light I referenced, it's declined from 5950 (2013) to 5300 (2017) to 4800 (2021). 

Looking across Collins Road at Lindale Mall entrance
(Google Maps screenshot)

Given there's going to be a lot of turning going on as well, safe crossing at this intersection is far from given, even when the drivers on Collins don't have the sun in their eyes.

Now that the (very expensive) widening of Collins Road has happened, the chance to piggy-back some active mobility access to the mall has probably passed. I still think that complete streets money for Lindale Drive was better spent elsewhere, making good walkable places great instead of making awful (even moreso after Collins was widened) walkable places less awful. But I'm less confident in that opinion than I was ten years ago.

ORIGINAL POST: "Collins Road: Oy Veh," 26 October 2015

GAZETTE ARTICLE: Rick Smith, "Major Work for Prime Destinations," Cedar Rapids Gazette, 15 October 2015, 1A, 9A

Train Horns

Reality in Hiawatha, just a dream for downtown Cedar Rapids residents 

Everybody loves the sound of a train in the distance

Everybody thinks it's true--PAUL SIMON

This summer I spent more time at the Downtown Cedar Rapids Farmers Market than ever before, mostly volunteering at the Linn County Trails Association booth and bike check. Our station is located at one corner of the park at Greene Square, off 3rd Avenue by the Cedar Valley Nature Trail and the railroad tracks. And therein lies a tale.

Linn County Trails Association bike corral
at the Downtown Farmers Market

At least once every Saturday morning, a freight train rolled through the market, just feet away from me. (Cedar Rapids has not had passenger rail service in over 60 years.) The train moves very slowly, sometimes stopping or reversing, always accompanied by much sounding of the horn. I can't quote decibel levels, but, wow! One blast would be painful, but this goes on for five and sometimes as long as ten minutes. Mothers with babes in arms cover their little ones' ears. I've seen people at the market literally writhing in agony.

I'm still hearing the train, even though I live nearly two miles from the park, because we've had our windows open at night of late during a weird autumn heat wave. Trains come through at all hours, but always blasting the horn. From my house it's a "train in the distance," but it still goes on for 5-10 minutes, and I know what that sounds like downtown. Even inside with windows closed middle of the nights noise that loud and long have to be felt.

A story update in the Cedar Rapids Gazette last weekend reported that efforts to create "railroad quiet zones" in Cedar Rapids, first announced in 2017, are still active despite numerous delays. Reporter Elijah Decious cited supply chain issues after the pandemic, as well as unnamed problems with railway owners Canadian National (north of 6th Avenue SE) and Union Pacific (south of 6th Avenue). The city is responsible for pavings, sidewalks, and street approaches including concrete medians (to prevent drivers dodging around the crossing arms); the railroads are responsible for the rest, and will proceed at their own pace. The City of Cedar Rapids will bear the entire cost, estimated at $14.4 million.

The stretch between Sixth Avenue and Cedar Lake--which includes Greene Square--is now predicted to be finished in the spring. Union Pacific's portion should be completed "between 2027 and 2029," after which work will begin on another line, owned by CRANDIC Railway Company and running through Kingston Village.

I was impressed by the length of this 2023 train as it crossed 3rd Avenue,
but not by the noise. What's changed?

This is an urgent matter, and I hope in the interim the train companies will look for alternatives to night after night of blast after blast. The neighborhoods through which the tracks run have been rebuilt after 2008, and even after all we've been through since then remain some of the most valuable property in the city. Still, people have been slow to return: population of the six census tracts in the center of town was 17,818 in 2022, barely more than in 2012 (just after the flood), and still about 15 percent down from 2000 (pre-flood). (More analysis of these data is in this 2024 post.)

It shouldn't be excruciating to live, visit, shop or work in the center of town. It is up to the city and the railroads to do what they can to make it pleasant and productive.

Railroad crossing at 10th Avenue in New Bohemia:
Note the absence of crossing arms/gates

Railroad crossing at 5th Avenue by the public library:
Arms and gates, but "equipment awaits," according to one who knows

Week Without Driving Diary (II)

This is a contentious season for mobility issues, as indeed it has been for practically everything else. Earlier this month, Kea Wilson of Streetsblog USA reported that the U.S. Department of Transportation is rescinding grants for multimodal projects, including in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Bloomington-Normal, Illinois; and in the Naugatuck Valley area of Connecticut. Two of the applicants were specifically told the program was reallocating its grants to "projects that promote vehicular travel," which is consistent with the trend under Secretary Sean Duffy to shift away from previous goals of sustainability and equity (Wilson 2025, Ionescu 2025). 

Despite this sad pass to which we've come, the City of Cedar Rapids is back to celebrate National Week Without Driving, promoted by America Walks and Disability Rights Washington. While these organizations are not against other goals like physical fitness or sustainability, their focus is firmly on equity: Thirty percent of Washington residents are nondrivers--disabled people who can't drive, people who can't afford a vehicle or gas, have suspended licenses or lack documentation to get a license, people who are too young to drive, choose not to drive or who have aged out of driving. But nondrivers are largely invisible... ("How Would You Get Around" 2025).

Monday, September 29 (sunny, 87F)

City staff handing out bagels and coffee to morning commuters

Biked to: Ground Transportation Center, St. Paul's United Methodist Church, Next Page Books

Yes, some people who are unable to drive, including When Driving Is Not an Option author Anna Zivarts, are able to get around by bicycle!

I started my morning with a "second breakfast" of a bagel and small coffee from Panera at the Ground Transportation Center, courtesy of the Cedar Rapids Department of Community Development and the Corridor Metropolitan Planning Organization. (They did events like this last year, too, but I somehow missed them. How is that possible? What is this blog for anyhow?) The GTC is the transfer point for all routes except the Marion and Northeast circulators, and those riders whose attention we were able to get were pleasantly surprised. Buses provide a critical route to work or school for those whose mobility is limited, and because of the system's coverage orientation (Walker 2008) they are never going to be self-funding.

I arrived at the station about 8:00 a.m., which meant I navigated into downtown during the 10 minutes where the morning traffic is likely to be at its most intense. Nothing untoward happened, but I was conscious of being agile and knowledgeable enough to minimize encounters with cars. The most awkward moment was when I turned left in what appeared to be a brief break in opposing traffic, only to have the car I was turning behind slow way down to turn into a parking spot just around the corner (that probably shouldn't be a parking spot that close to the intersection)--unexpected but not dangerous. In all, I rode about eight miles to three places.

Bicycles are not only lighter and slower than cars, they are much easier to steal. When I stopped late in the morning at Next Page Books, Cedar Rapids' oldest independent bookstore, I locked my bike to a large post to which another bicycle was already locked. That bike immediately began emitting meek little beeps, which may have been intended to deter theft?

Passengers boarding the #7 bus

David Zipper's newsletter this morning discussed autonomous vehicles, which when fully ripe will contribute somehow to mobility. But there is a dangerous potential for "robotaxis," Zipper argues, to become so pleasant that everyone will spend more time in cars: The resulting spike in car traffic would be catastrophic for cities with limited street space. Crushing gridlock could exasperate residents, hobble employers, and cripple bus service. Mobility hubs, like one currently planned for Waco, Texas, haven't proven effective at changing travel habits. He concludes that since more than 90 percent of transit riders arrive at the station on foot, I sometimes wonder if cities and transit agencies should simply shift the resources... toward building high-quality sidewalk networks. Cedar Rapids, to its credit, had a huge push for sidewalk construction about a decade ago, though there are still places where they're needed. 

Tuesday, September 30 (sunny, high 87F)

Boarding the #5 to downtown Cedar Rapids at the Twixt Town Road transfer point.
The Northeast Circulator is in foreground; the Marion Circulator is in front of the 
apartment building across the street.

Bused to: (1) Trims Barbershop and Uptown Coffee, (2) Helen G. Nassif YMCA and Benz Beverage Depot [replaced at least one car trip]

Life and the transit system took me to Marion today. Google estimates the 4.5 miles from my home take about 11 minutes by car; the bus trip was about three times that, including the five blocks' walk to the stop.

Bus stop on 1st Avenue at 19th Street SE

I should probably consult Jarret Walker or someone about how much longer the bus can take versus a car trip and still attract ridership, but 3:1 is if I recall correctly pretty typical of Washington, D.C. Getting to Marion starts with the #5 bus, which runs up and down 1st Avenue every 15 minutes, making it Cedar Rapids' best bus line. The transfer point has moved over the years since the advent of the circulator a few years ago from Lindale Mall to the edge of the mall parking lot to where it is now, in front of an apartment building on Twixt Town Road. (Twixt Town Road, named by a poetically inclined city employee ages ago, runs along the border between Cedar Rapids and Marion.) The circulator got me to Uptown Marion ahead of my appointment, so I got to hang out in their remodeled City Square Park on a lovely morning. 

City Square, Marion

(It even has public restrooms!)

After the stop by City Square, the Marion circulator ranges far and wide over the town. For that reason I expect it's not practical for anyone above maybe 15th Street unless they're desperate. I expect that's a dilemma for any transit system, even one that's committed to coverage: how to balance convenient access to all the places people live with how much inconvenience we expect them to endure to get where they're going. But for me today, with the "right" trip planned, and a flexible schedule, the bus was great. There were 19 riders headed downtown on my return trip, so it was right for others as well.

Jean-Paul Sartre, author of The Critique of Dialectical Reason
 (Swiped from algundiaenalgunaparte.com)

On my afternoon ride downtown on the #2, we participated in what Jean-Paul Sartre called a "group-in-fusion," when a gentleman in a wheelchair had to maneuver around a woman with a walker. I wound up holding her walker while he got situated. Then, back on route #5 for the outbound trip, it happened again when a number of the 20-plus riders moved seats to make room for another rider and his wheelchair. "Yay, team bus riders," one lady said. On a day when President Trump proposed to use cities as military training grounds, our city's residents were taking care of each other.

Gil Penalosa's Cities for Everyone webinar today featured Phil Ginsburg, general manager of parks for the city of San Francisco. San Francisco aims to provide a park within a 10-minute walk for everyone in the city, including rerouting car traffic from Golden Gate Park and along the Pacific coast to improve safe access--not directly related to transportation alternatives, but definitely sharing the same goals of equity (cf. Hartlaub 2025).

Wednesday, October 1 (sunny, high 84F)

Biked to: Vault Coworking Space

Walked to: (1) Healthiest State Lunch at Greene Square, (2) Wellington Heights neighborhood

Today's official observance of Week Without Driving was the Healthiest State Walk, which originated from three locations and ended with lunch on the lawn at Greene Square. I joined a group that originated at the Cedar Rapids History Center on 2nd Avenue, which for me entailed walking an additional mile or so north from the Wendler (formerly Geonetric) Building where I'm coworking today. My route to the meetup point was highly unpleasant, up 6th and 7th Streets and dealing with a lot of medical and Interstate 380 vehicular traffic that wasn't expecting to have to deal with me. That included but was not limited to a woman on 7th Street signaling for a right turn at 6th Avenue who went through the intersection without turning--she was turning right into a parking lot past the street, not onto the street itself--and was not going to yield to the blogger in the crosswalk. Were I not fit and agile, I would never have attempted this walk.

The Healthiest State Walk proper and the lunch (catered by Craftd) were quite convivial; my group's walk was led by MedQuarter executive director Phil Wasta. Greene Square is a great space when it's activated. Betsy Borchardt from the City brought her dog to the park, who provided some drama as she squirmed to get at a nearby squirrel. Sadly or happily, depending on your perspective, her natural drive was denied.

Walking to lunch at Greene Square

In the evening, I went back out to do some door-to-door canvassing in the Wellington Heights neighborhood about a proposed restroom in Redmond Park. This effort is not directly related to Week Without Driving, but is aiming at the same goal of inclusive communities.

The latest Active Towns podcast episode arrived today. Host John Simmerman interviewed triathlete-turned-real estate mogul Michael Lovato, a resident of Boulder, Colorado. They describe Boulder as a haven for active people, which can include professional athletes but also people who want to stay physically fit and those who want to remain active through physical decline--all reasons to make it feasible to live well without driving!

Thursday, October 2 (sunny, high 86F)

Bused to: Helen G. Nassif YMCA, Lightworks Cafe [replaced car trip even though I...]

Drove 😒 to: CSPS Hall

As Rook Wilde took the stage at CSPS Hall tonight,
it was already dark outside

I made it to Thursday of the Week Without Driving without driving, but I saw this event on my calendar and knew it would break the skein. CSPS Hall, an eclectic arts venue where I frequently volunteer, is a hair over two miles from my house. I've frequently bicycled there during the day, and it's a mere three blocks from the #2 bus line stop by the Linn County Public Health building. But I'm not a confident night cyclist in a town that doesn't expect me, and the last city bus leaves the station at 7:15 p.m. With tonight's concert expected to go past 9:00, I opted to drive my car. I'm grateful I have that option available.

CSPS's one non-driving staff member, photographer Charles Black, lives in an apartment six blocks away, so he and his camera rely on an e-bike. He's going to be moving soon, though, due to the city's zoning-related demands on his current landlord. Happily he found an abode even closer--now he'll be only four blocks from CSPS Hall!

A new month reminds me to check my bike tires!

The Community Development folk were back at the Ground Transportation Center this afternoon, with treats for afternoon commuters, particularly high school students who use the city bus to get to and from school. They were planning to serve ice cream, but weren't sure about the logistics, particularly on another unseasonably warm day. I didn't get down there, but I wonder how it went?

Elsewhere, Cleveland-based blogger Angie Schmitt wrote today about an Ohio legislator's claim that traffic deaths are over-hyped. He told Schmitt's group that 1,300 annual traffic deaths in a state with a population over 11 million amounted to a very tiny risk. Yet, as Schmitt argues:

The thing is, these odds add up over time. Most people... live for 60 or 80 years if they're lucky. Risks compound... If we were to take those tiny fractions and add them up year after year, guess what? They start getting bigger. In the U.S., using 2022 data, the odds of being killed in a car crash over a lifetime are 1 in 93. More than 1 in 100 Americans can expect to die in a car crash over the course of their lifetimes.

Traffic safety, by this mathy logic, is a concern for everyone, not merely collateral damage from our (enjoyment of? attempts to accommodate to? assertion of individuality in?) car-dependent city design. That Ohio legislator was wrong to diminish the issue of traffic safety, but for many of us, he only said the quiet part out loud. 

The same can be said for non-drivers, whether they are that way from necessity or choice: they are people with legitimate stakes in how we roll, not mere statistical anomalies in what James Howard Kunstler once called "the era of happy motoring."

Friday, October 3 (sunny, high 88F)

Biked to: Coe College, Bricks Bar and Grill

My bike parked at Coe. The pergola at right honors the late Professor Dan Lehn.

I spent my day at my office at Coe College, from where I mostly retired a year and a half ago, then met some friends for happy hour at Bricks downtown.

Entrance to Bricks

Bricks has been in town longer than I have (1989), but is still going strong under the management of the Fun Not Fancy group. It is located where the main bike trail crosses 2nd Avenue SE, and though they hosted the after party for Bike to Work Week 2014, they haven't visibly appealed to cyclists as much as other bars along the trail have.

City bike rack outside Bricks, with my bike and my friend Chris's bike

In all, I rode about four miles to three places.

This year the city added to the commemoration of Week Without Driving a commuter bike ride in the style of Bike to Work Week. That happened today, riding downtown mostly on the Cedar Valley Nature Trail from McCloud Place on the northeast side in the morning, and back in the late afternoon. The same ride in May drew a small handful of riders, but everyone we can get into the spirit of this idea represents a step forward.

Rick Reilly's column in today's Washington Post demands greater regulation of e-bikes. The same technology that enables Charles to get his camera to and from CSPS Hall, and extends the possibility of bicycle rides, can be ridden aggressively and dangerously.  He cites a number of examples from his home state of California as well as suburban Chicago. Reilly recommends requiring drivers' licenses to drive any motorized vehicle, as well as fines and community service for violators. All this requires enforcement, however, and for a variety of good and bad reasons police presence on the streets has diminished nationwide. Accommodating non-drivers, especially those who are especially vulnerable, in our transportation system won't work unless the streets, and sidewalks and bike lanes, are safe.

Saturday, October 4 (sunny, high 86F)

Rode to: Bruegger's Bagels [replaced car trip]

Drove 😒 to: Zoey's Pizza

My bike in front of Bruegger's Bagels

A day after parts of Montana got socked with a foot of snow, we are still having summerlike temperatures, threatening but so far not breaking daily record highs. We have set a seasonal record with nine straight highs in the 80s.

I dodged a drive this morning because my list of errands stopped at one: to pick up bagels for Sunday breakfast. Bruegger's, the national bagel chain, has two Cedar Rapids locations, one only about two miles from our house. Mt. Vernon Rd. SE is a notorious stroad, but Bruegger's is on the north (our) side of the stroad, so I can get there by side streets. Once there, I spotted former mayor Ron Corbett among the diners. They offer free coffee if you order ahead through the app, and I managed to get that home in my drink holder without spilling too much. A four-mile bike ride with a dark roasted reward reminds me that Coffeeneuring starts in about a week; check the hashtag on your favorite social medium for more information, or you can live vicariously through the ride-by-ride coverage on Holy Mountain.

Saturday night I drove us out to dinner. We could have tried adhering to the letter of Week Without Driving--at the very least, Jane could have driven instead of me--but we didn't. The dining options within walking distance on a hot evening were not enticing, which carries a lesson for us all. Those of us who can drive sometimes drive because we don't feel like not driving.

Greater Greater Washington today posted an article by disability advocate Kelly Mack, who writes a blog on Substack called Rolling With It and uses a power wheelchair to get around Washington, D.C. She praises the improvements in mobility (transit buses with ramps, Metrorail elevators, more accessible taxis, sidewalks in good repair) during the 2000s. "I could access: work, medical appointments, stores for errands, and the many leisure activities I enjoyed, like visiting restaurants, theaters, and museums." Lately, though, she's "noticed a steady decline in the quality of accessible transportation options," with widespread broken elevators at Metro stations, erratic bus service, unplowed sidewalk ramps, and such. She refers to a "transportation time tax" for disabled citizens whereby "Every piece of the transportation puzzle adds up to subtract time and energy from my life." As an advocate, she meets frequently with government officials on these very subjects, but finds only lip service, which she calls the "uh... hm factor." Mack, unlike me, can't drive herself when other options are too inconvenient or strenuous. It would be good to have a disability advocate, and I know they're out there, do some audits as part of next year's Week Without Driving in Cedar Rapids.

Week Without Driving is a good experience, if only for raising awareness. I found it not difficult to manage, with only a couple defections, because I'm [a] agile enough to walk places, [b] retired so I can roll with the bus's schedule, and [c] able to fall back on driving when all else fails. It would be more interesting to read about the regular experience of someone who literally can't drive.

City of Cedar Rapids Week Without Driving page

LAST YEAR: "Week Without Driving Diary," 30 September