Some may know this but I am an avid bicyclist and all around “green” environmentally-oriented person and have been for many years. I ride all over town — to Minneapolis from West St Paul and back, to the bank or post office for small errands, etc. So I decided to volunteer for St. Paul Smart Trips. They are a non-profit who are granted funds to educate about, support and promote alternative forms of transportation in Saint Paul. Generally, with the intent of changing people’s behavior and consciousness about how they choose to commute. Also, to show and educate people about how to access and use alternative transportation – this includes biking, walking, the light rail, buses, etc.

Today I counted commuters. Once a month volunteers return to the same locations in St. Paul to count and track how many people are walking, running or riding bikes. These numbers are then entered into data bases and all sorts of results are concluded.

In general, from my 2 hours observing a small sample during rush hour, I concluded that men are commuting more than women – they generally had slightly better numbers in all fields and it was as beautiful and perfect a day as you get in Minnesota in the 70’s, slighty breezy, clear sky . . . .

The woman in the last photo is Laura who organized the count and is one of very few employees — she was checking in with all of us and bringing cookies.