It’s no secret that when more people ride bicycles, individual lives are better, communities are stronger and better connected, and our state is healthier, happier and environmentally and economically stronger. I consider myself to be an advocate for walking and biking in Minnesota, so I participated in the 2017 Minnesota Bike Summit hosted by BikeMN in Saint Paul on March 16. I met with my legislators, Senator Dan Sparks and Representative Jeanne Poppe to discuss a few issues that are important to me this session, including funding for Safe Routes to School infrastructure grants in the bonding bill and funding for walking and biking infrastructure and programs in any transportation funding bill.

I wanted to publicly thank Sen. Sparks and Rep. Poppe for taking time to meet with me to discuss these issues that I feel are important for our district and I’m grateful to them for their support.

I think that making walking and bicycling safe and convenient in communities throughout Minnesota will help ensure that they are places that young people want to live, businesses want to locate and families can prosper. We need to keep working to make it a reality.

Steve Kime,

Vision 2020 Bike/Walk Committee

chairman