Youth crew and leaders from L-R: Wong Thao, Crew Manager Tou SaiKo Lee, Steffany Merino, Project Assistant Grace Gbolo, Keyara Clardy, Gayle Young, Timmy Thao, Youa Yang, Jeff Drayton, Isaiah Rocha, Mai Kao Vang. Not pictured: Jalen Williams, Daisha Sharpe, Mohamed Mohamud.

Our 12-member Frogtown youth crew started working on the initial phases of our next Neighborhoods program in October.  

Along with Project Assistant Grace Gbolo, Crew Manager Tou SaiKo has been working with the youth to connect with neighborhood leaders, professionals and activists in their community and leading them through exercises designed to empower the group to create a sustainable transportation program in their neighborhood.

This month they will begin learning about bike mechanics through Cycles for Change's Earn-a-Bike program, and in February they'll be hosting their first community event (details to come). Later this year, the youth will use the skills they are learning now to plan and implement a program in their neighborhood.   

The Frogtown youth crew is a collaborative program of Smart Trips and the Science Museum's Kitty Anderson Youth Science Center (KAYSC). We look forward to sharing highlights of their activities in the coming months.

Despite St. Paul getting more than a foot of snow the two days prior to the Monday, Dec. 10th commute, six fearless ZAP participants still heard their beep on the way to the office, braving the cold, ice, ruts and (in some places) poorly plowed roads.  

Even with that snowstorm, and the holiday season that followed, the St. Paul ZAP program finished up 2012 with a roar. In the month of December, 80 participants logged 343 trips. Some highlights from the year include:

• More than 2,500 ZAPs from August through December
• Just shy of 1 million calories burned cumulatively in St. Paul alone
• More than 150 new participants in St. Paul
• See the infographic below for more 2012 results 

Don't miss your chance for great prizes. We are registering bikes for ZAP year-round. If you are riding this winter and haven't been tagged, or if you need to get a second tag on your winter bike, bring it to our office to make sure you are being counted. Your first two tags are free. 

Make sure you have a chance to win monthly prizes for biking to work. Prizes for January are a $25 gift card to the Amsterdam Bar and Hall and a Patagonia Black Hole Pack.   

Learn more about the program, see the monthly prizes, check out your personal stats and see the locations of the readers at zaptwincities.org.

2012 St. Paul ZAP Twin Cities statistics

Help us spread the word. Remind your neighbors about the importance of sidewalk shoveling during Minnesota winters. Pick up our snow shoveling reminder door hangers to have on hand when you see an unsafe walkway in your neighborhood.  

Where to get door hangers:

The door hangers educate property owners and renters about the rules and resources available to them. We designed them to be left at properties not in compliance with the law that stipulates sidewalks must be cleared of snow and ice within 24 hours of a snowfall.  

Photo courtesy of Patrick McCutchan/Studio McCutch

We were among the hundreds of curious and enthusiastic attendees at the grand opening last month of the historic Union Depot, downtown St. Paul's newly refurbished transportation hub. Built in 1923, the new Depot is a multimodal regional center for light rail (in 2014), local and interstate bus service, bike commuting, and in the near future, passenger trains.  

The Depot will see 300 Metro Transit bus arrivals and departures each weekday, with routes 21, 53, 54, 65, 285, 417, 480, 484 and 489 serving the stop. Jefferson Regional Bus Lines will soon be serving the area via the Depot hub, and Amtrak will move Twin Cities service to the Depot in the future.  

Later this year, One on One Bicycle Studio will open a bike shop and service/repair center complete with showers and bike storage for commuters at the Depot.  

The Depot is also home to Christo's restaurant, with new commercial businesses on the way.