Why not bike to the Provo Saturday Farmers Market, with your entire family in tow? There’s plenty of free and secure parking at BikeWalk Provo’s Valet Parking, and that’s located inside the market on a cool, grassy lawn, not three blocks away in a sweltering, gravelly city lot. Cargo bikes included, and return anytime to leave a big box of ripe peaches with an attendant who’ll always welcome you back. So, for three years the Busby family has been doing just that!
I met Andrea Busby and her family one balmy Saturday afternoon as they arrived at the market to park their chic cargo bike with BikeWalk Provo, Andrea’s husband sporting a road bike. With two smiling kids in the cargo box and what appeared to be two happy parents, I invited Andrea and her family on the spot for an interview. So, along with her two children we arranged to meet again, this time at the Provo City Library, inside in a cozy corner of Children’s Services.
Andrea and her family moved to Provo in 2021, and they’ve been active transport users in the city nearly everywhere ever since. “We used to live in Chicago and I [and my husband] used public transit; when I was an undergraduate student at BYU I used UTA’s public transit in 2006; [I] moved to Washington DC and lived in the suburbs, but used public transit in the city.” It was in Washington DC that Andrea learned about reusable shopping bags and carts for getting groceries. “That made it easier when I moved to Provo and started grocery shopping.”
“It was important to us to live in a city with good bike infrastructure. Our daughter is visually impaired, and we wanted her to feel comfortable with transportation that didn’t include driving. Provo gave us an opportunity to get back to the ease of using alternative transport that we had been doing in Chicago.”
Trips to the farmers market on bike or foot are nothing new to Andrea, she had been doing this in other cities for years. “But commuting [by bike] full-time took some time, to commit to doing it daily to BYU.” Andrea, with a master’s and a PhD in Human Development and Social Policy, and a master’s in Statistics from Northwestern University, and her husband, Dr. Ethan Busby, are full-time Assistant Professors of School of Family Life and Political Science, respectively, at BYU’s main campus. They take turns dropping the kids off at school on their way to work.
“We have 3,000 miles on our cargo bike biking around Provo,” Andrea displays her inveterate enthusiasm for biking. The family’s purchase of a Ferla Royce EU edition (electric assist) has “made a huge difference for getting up the hills around campus. We can ride twelve months of the year, [I] wear a ski helmet to keep my head warm, balaclava, rain-cover covers the kids. It’s warm enough in the winter, they [the kids] take off their coats, they’re so warm in there.”
Andrea and Ethan are able to park their bikes adjacent to their offices. She tells me that “it’s very convenient to ride to campus” and that they “just added several covered parking areas; BYU is growing with bicycle parking.” It takes exactly ten minutes, “from door to door” for Andrea to bike to work, but there are some things that concern her. “One of the top things is safe crossings, it takes time to get a cargo bike across the street. We live near 500 W and 500 N, the crossing at 300 N, a bicycle can trigger the light.” Andrea likes that!
Another thing is that “on the Provo River Trail several tunnels are difficult to navigate on a cargo bike. People have to feel safe in getting around.” Still, bicycling is the family’s favorite way of commuting about town, and also for their children, Andrea seems very happy to add. “Love to see other families getting around on cargo bikes.”
