1500 Miles & More Memories on Two Wheels
BY Caitlin Warlick-Short
A year ago my family invested in a Cargo e-bike for hauling my twins around town. Though perhaps I should say that I somehow talked my husband into making a family trip to Chicago to pick up and haul a used 110lb Urban Arrow box style e-bike back to Madison with us in our Honda minivan, shoved between two toddlers in their carseats.
I don’t really remember how the idea came to me exactly. It was in pieces and passing moments where different seeds were planted by seeing others moving around me in my life. First, when we moved to our street in 2021, I noticed my neighbors carting their kids in the same bike, even through the snowy winter months. Then, we learned that our friends also had the same bike when we met them at the pool and they had ridden two miles one way while we had driven less than one. In either encounter, I didn’t immediately jump on this as the new, trendy thing to do, but I suppose my subconscious clocked it as an option. Pre-pandemic and pre-babies I’d biked 4-6 miles one way from our apartments and then house on the east side fairly regularly, hauling yoga mats and computer bags on my road bike and without panniers.
The switch finally flipped when we decided that our kids were ready for a pre-school learning environment instead of being with a nanny. My brain immediately started whizzing with the logistics and timing of pick up and drop off and getting to campus without a car (previously I’d been biking), and then I thought, well my friends bike their kids to the same school downtown most days, why couldn’t I? What had seemed like it might just be fun, also became a logistical necessity, the best way to save time, have flexibility, and also maybe find my way back to some semblance of a workout routine for my physical and mental health.
One year, and 1500 miles in now, I’m pleased to say that this logistical choice has indeed also been incredibly fun. My kids and I look for the pig on the bike path every day, we watch for bunnies and squirrels and count dogs and talk about the landmarks we pass and the other bikes and commuters we see on the path. We sing songs and they cheer me up big hills that make me incredibly grateful for both my leg muscles and the e-assist. With the box we load up for the pool, the park, the farmers market, or school. We’ve had moments of being too cold, or soaked in the rain, and I’ll admit that probably more than 1200 of those miles were put on during the months of May - October, but we unlocked a new way of moving around that is ripe for adventure. So this week we got up early every day to set out and celebrate our first bike week with free doughnuts, brat cakes, and more. And best of all, we got to finish the ride to school with the friends we ran into along the way.
In the next year, I hope to continue figuring out my gear game and other tricks for making biking in the cold more fun. I hope to go to new places, to support my kids learning to bike safely on their own bikes, and continue to relish in the pure joy that I feel rolling along the bike path with the wind in my face and the sun sparkling through the trees. I understand that biking to commute, particularly with kids, isn’t possible for everyone, but my days are infinitely better when I’m riding with my kids enjoying their best view in the bucket instead of locked in traffic.
Many thanks to Madison Bikes, the Wisconsin Bike Fed, the City of Madison Transportation Planning, and others for all of their work to make Madison a place that is great for biking with kids.
Read more about the health benefits of biking and how bike culture can shape our communities and our future.