City transportation planner Jeremy Klop, 34, is practicing what he preaches after winning a new bicycle from Bicycling Magazine.
Each year, the magazine selects 20 cities in which to promote biking to work and healthy, active living; 50 bicycles are given away in each city. This year, Denver was one of the chosen cities, and Klop’s 50-word essay was a winner. “I’ve been riding to work quite a bit more since I got the bike,” Klop said.
Klop, a member of Denver’s First Christian Reformed Church, said he got into transportation planning in part because of his biblical view of environmental stewardship. “The interesting questions in my work relate to how we develop communities and their related transportation networks in ways that further the kingdom and address the broken relationship between people and our environment,” he said.
Klop and his wife, Michelle, were both active in the Environmental Stewardship Coalition during their undergraduate studies at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich. They are both intentional about living close to Klop’s workplace in order to reduce time in traffic and have the option of biking to work. “For us, it’s a matter of lifestyle preference, it’s our avocation, and it’s an expression of our faith, “ said Klop.
