“My parents are avid cyclists, they’ve done the ‘Triple Bypass’ in Colorado. Growing up, all the kids [in my family] would bike ride, it’s always been a part of our growing up. We would follow my mom in a long line to the park, we would go everywhere on a ride [with my parents].” I arranged to meet Lauren Bezzant Valderas, a BYU undergraduate student, on campus at the Harold B Lee Library, not knowing that at that moment in the afternoon it would be snowing heavily.
Lauren has also made a huge contribution to pedestrian safety in Provo. Her advocacy for a safer street crossing south of the old Grandview School at the confluence of Grandview Lane/1460 N/Jordan Avenue, after she and her children were nearly hit in this crosswalk, led one of Provo’s forward-thinking transportation engineers Vern Keeslar to install Provo’s first plastic bollards, an inexpensive but highly effective traffic calming feature that we hope will be used widely as other cities are doing.
Lauren had brought along her two youngest children, so after snapping a photo for the story, I followed Lauren to the Family-Friendly Study Room to chat with her more about her biking experience and her accomplishments in transporting three children around here in the valley. “I grew up in Colorado, eleven in my family. We walked to the grocery store, but biked mostly for recreation.” Since moving to Provo some years ago, Lauren and her husband Ian Valderas have taken an even greater interest in active transportation, commuting to classes. “We both have matching pairs [two 1970 Nishiki road bikes] that were given to us by an older couple in 2021. Ian is using the train to Salt Lake, but he’ll do walking or biking to classes at BYU, depending on weather; he’s working [as an intern] in Salt Lake City with the legislature this winter.” Lauren adds about her own commuting, “biking, bussing, and walking in summer.”
Everyone in this family has a bike, even though the youngest isn’t quite ready to hit the road with “the trainer.” They live above Lyons Park, “top of the hill,” and Lauren often takes the kids to Lyons and Rotary Park in the Grandview neighborhood with “two kids in the stroller or one in the stroller and two on bikes.” Her Evenflo Pivot Xplore Stroller wagon can carry “three kids and a scooter,” she tells me, and explains how the scooter is fitted to the carriage. When biking to BYU, Lauren “brings the youngest two [children] to classes during the summer and fall semesters” towing a Schwinn bike trailer/stroller combo. She “would love a cargo bike, but that’s not financially feasible right now.”
Lauren also uses the buses often, especially during inclement weather, when she’s going to the Provo Rec Center or when it doesn’t feel safe to ride. “Colombia Lane is terrifying and Grandview hill in general, always a lot of traffic on Grandview Lane. I’ve had issues with debris, and bike lanes are so narrow you have to pull out into traffic. 1460 N does not feel safe; [I’m] stressed out when on 1460 N with the children.”
“Love Cougar Boulevard! The bike lanes on Cougar Boulevard make you feel safe, and you usually beat the cars going up the hill to campus.” When parking, with the walk from the lot and traffic delays in consideration, it takes longer for Ian to commute from home to classes using their car than it does by using his bike. “Eight minutes to campus [by bike], but eight minutes [by car] to park and walk” to the Joseph F Smith Building and West View Building.
