One day their car stopped running, it just wouldn’t start one morning. It was probably something simple, rather easy to make repairs, not so costly as one might anticipate. What do people usually do in this case? They start digging under the hood, or have the vehicle towed to a repair shop. But not Alex Black… Alex talked it over with his wife Abigail, and together they decided to leave the car behind and embrace active transport.
Alex, a recent BYU Information Systems graduate, is "a passionate urbanist and avid cyclist" who aptly lives at Wymount Terrace. I met both Alex and Abigail at the LDS Earth Stewardship Fall Forum in September, where Abigail, a BYU student with a Fine Arts major, had an entry in the Fall Forum’s art exhibit by local Utah artists. "Our car broke down, so we decided to buy bikes,” Alex told me while we waited in the lobby and chatted about how convenient it was to travel on the 850 State Street bus route to this event held at the Orem City Library.
Biking isn’t new to Alex, he has been “biking to class, work, and back home since 2022.” And this beginning was right after serving with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Tucson, Arizona where he emphasizes, “I biked a lot on my mission… hot, but it was fun.”
Once Alex had completed his mission, he moved back to Provo to finish school at BYU, “in my 2nd year and beginning my 3rd.” He visited the former Provo Bicycle Collective one day, where Alex found and bought a Trek Commuter. “Before that, my first year, I just walked. The next year I met my now wife at Wyview Park [BYU Single Community], and started biking; we both started biking and didn’t use the car much, only for groceries.” Then the car started “having troubles at the beginning of this year, in April,” and they haven’t driven since.
“Even on our anniversary, in May, we took the bikes on the train and toured 9th South [in Salt Lake City].” Alex continues with other biking adventures, “And we went on a camping trip (not done this before) to Nunns Park [located in the Provo Canyon].” Alex quickly shows me a photo on his mobile phone of a Lectric XPedition cargo bike and a newer Trek Commuter loaded with camping gear, both bikes they have purchased recently since the car broke down.
Alex tells me that he’s appreciating the power boost his Lectric XPedition gives, and that he’s putting some serious mileage on the bike. “Hit 500 miles in five months… a comfortable ride. We go to the Temple every week and take the one bike, the Lectric.”
Living at Wymount Terrace “you can enjoy either nature or the city,” Alex adds. Rock Canyon Trailhead is just up the street, a mere couple of blocks off Temple View Drive, and the Provo Farmers Market is only 3.5 miles away. “I went to the Farmers Market one summer, I was just looking for a bike rack and found the [Bikewalk Provo] Bike Valet… used it all the time after that. Sometimes one of us will take the bus home,” if the Lectric is loaded with purchases.
Back at home, “we park it outside on bike racks, [we] have covers.” Alex and Abigail are now using the two bikes for grocery shopping, appointments, getting to work, “everything,” so finding safe and convenient parking is important to them.
What else is important to them? “Saving money, the health thing, getting exercise everyday, I feel energized, connected to the people around you, not putting pollution in the air, and not needing a parking place everywhere I’m going.” I then ask Alex what isn’t working well: “There are a lot of roads that don’t have protection, constantly worry about the nature of living on the road with traffic going three times faster than you.”
The move from partial dependence on their car to 100% active transportation seems to have gone rather smoothly for Alex and Abigail. And I’m hearing from Alex during our interview that the benefits are rolling in, “opened my eyes up to possibilities, and financial and environmental opportunities.” Might this car-to-bike metamorphosis be as easy for others?
