Media

Yes, the sign on the building says Bike Couriers Bike Shop. But owner Jackie Green is not there simply to sell bikes. He’d also like to change the world. Green’s mission is to increase the number of bikes on the streets. “More bikes will lead to fewer cars,” he said. “It’s better for the environment, better for people’s minds and bodies and could lead to better laws and conditions for bikers.” Green deplores the separate-but-not-even-close-to-equal bike lanes that wend through Louisville: narrow, cramped, dangerous and collectors of the debris – glass, nails, tacks – that get swept from the streets and sidewalks and play havoc with bike tires. Green, who has been car-free since 1999, opened his first bike shop three years ago. Taking a form-follows-function approach to matching a rider to the right bike, he asks what kind of rider each new customer is: Commutes to work? Takes a 40-mile ride every weekend? Or just wants to raise a heartbeat, rehab a knee or lose some weight? “Not every bike is for every rider,” Green said. “If we sell the wrong bikes to the wrong people, they’ll end up not using them. Our mission is to get more bikes onto the street, not into your garage.” Green got into the bike shop business after first getting into the bike courier business. As executive director of the Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation (CART), he tried to get the city’s various courier services to offer delivery-by-bike in the downtown area. When they refused, he started his own. And then, after asking bike shops to open downtown locations to offer his couriers and other bikers necessary service and equipment in the neighborhood – and again being refused – he started his own sales and repair shop at 107 W. Market St. in 2006. He now has two more locations: 2833 S. Fourth St. and at 2132 Frankfort Ave. Green clearly does not take refusal lightly. And he generally prevails. Earlier this year, he raged against the closing of the Second Street Bridge for several days during preparation for Thunder Over Louisville. Not only does it keep his couriers from their rounds, he argued, it’s also constitutionally illegal to deny citizens access across state lines. Although he was first told “but it’s always been this way,” the Kentucky Derby Festival listened and agreed to provide free shuttle service across the bridge for cyclists and pedestrians. One mission accomplished. Bike Couriers’ phone number is 259-9000 and its Web address is bikedepot.org.