It’s International Winter Bike to Work Day. So Matte Brittenham-Jones, UVM staffer—“I do IT at the Bookstore,” he says—is riding his bike to work. He’s on a Nishiki frame that he’s built up for winter with a single-speed hub—and tricked out with sealed bearings, Velo Orange bottom bracket, and a super-practical wooden crate for carrying a load. “It’s a fixed gear,” he says, “I use it as a grocery bike in the summer.”
Brittenham-Jones is a long-time biker and used to winter commute when he worked in Montpelier. In the seven years that he’s been at UVM, “I've endeavored to commute in the winter, but I haven't really gotten around to it much—until this year,” he says. Now he’s found a better route from home—“I’m not great with navigation, but Google helps,” he says. “I don't have to deal with the Exit 14 overpass, but it adds 20 more minutes to get to work.”
Today, he’s taken a slight diversion to UVM’s Booth House on South Williams Street where a celebration of winter biking is underway—sponsored by UVM’s Office of Sustainability, UVM Parking & Transportation Services, Local Motion, Vermont Clean Cities Coalition, CATMA, and Champlain College Transportation. On the porch, a crowd of people, some in ski helmets and safety-yellow jackets, drink coffee and eat donuts—and discuss the merits of studded snow tires and the troubles of climate change. They are remarkably cheerful and practical people.
One of them is Luke Fredrickson ’22, a computer science major and the president of UVM Bikes!, a student-led bicycle cooperative. Booth House is the new home of the club. Inside, the front rooms hold four bike stands with bikes under repair, shelves of parts and cables, a stack of tires, and a metal truing station for straightening wheels. “We're not like a traditional bike shop, where people come in, drop their bikes off, and then pay the mechanics,” Fredrickson says, carrying his bike down the stairs. His is a gently-battered Mongoose mountain bike covered with VMBA, kombucha, and UVM Cycling Club stickers. “Our mechanics are student volunteers who will help you—teach you—what’s wrong with your bike, show you how to fix it. Students, staff, faculty— everyone’s welcome and we can sell you parts at cost.” Then he rides off to class across the ice.
Green minivan
A few minutes later, Abby Bleything is demonstrating the merits of overmitts that attach to the handlebars of her e-bike, keeping her hands warm even when temps drop down to…the places they drop down to in northern Vermont. Bleything’s the sustainable transportation program manager for the university, a key organizer of today’s Winter Bike to Work celebration—and the parent of two young children. “I needed a people-mover bike, so I got this Rad Runner,” she says, pointing to the digital console and extended seat. “My five-year-old sits on the back; I trailer my two-year-old. It’s my minivan.”
The people gathered here see biking, including winter biking, as fun and a lot cheaper than a car—but also a very serious part of bending the trends on a quickly heating planet. “Bikes are a key part of our approach,” says Jim Barr, one of the people on the porch for the celebration today, and the director of transportation and parking services for the university. He’s gotten an e-bike recently. “I turned sixty; makes getting up the hills a lot easier,” he says. “We see a lot more bikes on campus and across the city and we’re making investments in infrastructure to support that.” In 2019, greenhouse gas emissions from transportation accounted for about 29 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, according to the EPA. And in Vermont, that statistic is nearly 40 percent, the largest slice of the state’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, ahead of industry, home heating, and other sources. “More people on bikes,” says Barr, “means less people in cars.”