Friends of BBP: Meet Lisa Brady
This week, I’d like to introduce you to Lisa Brady. Here’s a case where the name Lisa is synonymous with Passion. Lisa believes in the bicycle and what it can do for YOU. She’s one of my favorite people, and I’m grateful she shared her story with us!
I grew up on a farm outside of Orofino, Idaho, and biking was the next best thing to riding my little green Kawasaki 80. My sister and I used to have long skid contests on our gravel driveway where I grew up. Bikes have always been a part of my life, and I’m thankful for it.
I’ve worked for Safe Routes to School at the Treasure Valley Family YMCA for almost seven years, working in schools across the valley. The goal of this program is to encourage youth to walk, bike, and roll to school whenever possible. This teaches life-long healthy habits and reduces traffic on the roads.
I am also the current board president of the Treasure Valley Cycling Alliance. I’ve been doing that for almost 10 years. I started volunteering after I traded my car for a bike at the 2010 Tour de Fat here in Boise. In 2011, I took a long tandem trip with my husband, which changed the trajectory of my life. Before that I had been working in eye surgery, and when I found out about the job at Safe Routes To School I jumped on it. Many thank to Marcus Orton who hired me!
My volunteering also includes positions with the Ada County Highway District Bicycle Advisory Committee, the City of Boise bicycle advisory committee, and the Idaho Transportation Department bicycle and pedestrian advisory committee.
What are you most passionate about?: I am most passionate about getting more people out riding bikes and walking to get to places. Many of us live close enough to walk or bike to the store, to our jobs, to schools, and other services; and I’d like to encourage more people to get out and make active trips. While they’re out doing that, staying safe, knowing the rules of the road, being predictable, those are the things I’m really passionate about And when I say close enough, I’m not just talking about a half mile or mile. I’m talking about 5 miles or so. We don’t realize how close some things are, or how short 5 miles actually is.
Your bike make and model: Yuba Spicy Curry
Tell us about your bike: My Spicy Curry is my most current bike of my fleet, and my current most favorite. An electric cargo bike can change the way you do your whole life! Grocery store trips, including a couple of cases of drinks and a whole lot of dinners and breakfast for the week, are easy to carry on this bike. It’s also easy to carry a couple, maybe up to four, small children’s bikes, maybe two bikes and two kids, 10 or 12 bike racks… the sky is the limit with this bike. My most favorite things to do on this bike is with my job. For large parts of the summer we’re out with the YMCA camps doing bike camp, and I use this bike to carry backpacks, bikes that might break down on the road, maybe even a kid or two. It’s always bringing interesting conversation at stoplights when I pull up next to a vehicle and somebody says, hey what is that bike? It brings me pure joy to be out there on the road and bring a smile to somebody else’s face, and I’m really thankful to have the job that I do.
2020 sure has been a strange year. Are there specific ways your bicycle has made your life different/better/easier during this time?: To say it very simply, my bike has brought me sanity during this time of 2020. Because schools were canceled, we were not able to be in school teaching our regular bike and pedestrian safety classes. This made me feel pretty depressed overall, but I realized that riding my bike back out to some of the schools, to go count traffic, to just go along the river on the Greenbelt or up in the hills has brought me some of the sanity and serenity that’s really needed during this time.
What's your favorite ice cream?: This is such a hard question! I worked at Baskin-Robbins in college, so it’s hard to pick a favorite but I’d say mint chocolate chip is my ultimate favorite!
