Meet Chattanooga's top bike commuter

Nelson Barrios, left, checks out his new Specialized Source Eleven bicycle on Wednesday at Cycle Sport Concepts on Main Street. Barrios won the bike by logging the most bicycle commuting miles in the iBikeCha initiative this summer. Electric Bike Specialists owner Chandlee Caldwell, right, organized the initiative, which offered incentives to bicycle commuters.
Nelson Barrios, left, checks out his new Specialized Source Eleven bicycle on Wednesday at Cycle Sport Concepts on Main Street. Barrios won the bike by logging the most bicycle commuting miles in the iBikeCha initiative this summer. Electric Bike Specialists owner Chandlee Caldwell, right, organized the initiative, which offered incentives to bicycle commuters.

A ranking of the country's 50 most bike-friendly cities by Bicycling Magazine listed Chattanooga at number 30 this week, up four spots from its 2014 slot.

The magazine delved briefly into the city's ongoing bike lane controversy, while also praising police Chief Fred Fletcher's cycling-safety measures and highlighting a local bicycle commuting initative.

That initative, named iBikeCha, doled out quite a prize to one of its participants on Wednesday.

Nelson Barrios, a 44-year-old North Shore resident, received a Specialized Source Eleven bicycle worth more than $3,000 for logging the most trips out of 22 participants who pledged to bicycle commute this summer.

Barrios took 309 trips, totaling 1,066 miles from April-August, according to Green Trips, which provided the online mechanism for iBikeCha pledgers to chart their bike rides.

"The day I don't ride is a sad day," said Barrios, who uses the Riverwalk to pedal to his job off Amnicola Highway. "I ride pretty much every day. I go grocery shopping, I take my kids to school."

Debate swirls over the merits of road diet proposals that have or will bring bicycle lanes to iconic Chattanooga streets to, in part, accommodate those who wish to ride their bikes as a means of transportation and not just recreation.

Barrios said that, as someone who gets around in both a bike and car, he sees the merits of building bicycle infrastructure.

"I haven't noticed any change in the traffic flow on Broad Street," he said. "It seems like people like to make a big deal about things that maybe they just need more time to understand. My wife drives more than I do, because she shuttles the kids around everywhere in the city. So we see both perspectives."

The iBikeCha initiative was a collaboration of local bike shops designed to incentivize bicycle commuting. By pledging to commute via bike, participants received discounts at Electric Bike Specialists, Suck Creek Cycle and Cycle Sport Concepts, which is where Barrios was awarded his sleek new ride.

"This is the Rolls-Royce of bicycles," he said.

The bike belonged to Cycle Sport Concepts owner Erik Wagner, who agreed to post it as a prize in the initiative.

"I'm happy to do it," Wagner said. "Nelson is going to get great use out of it. I wasn't using it as much as it needed to be used."

Green Trips coordinator Jonathan Gibbons called the collaboration of the iBikeCha initiative an example of "the Chattanooga way."

His orgnization is an arm of the Regional Planning Agency that encourages local residents to try alternate means of transportation.

It's nice, he said, to have private partners to help with that mission.

"We call it the Scenic City, and it's when you get out of the car that you can really enjoy that scenery," Gibbons said. "Riding a bike is a great way to experience our community."

Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.

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