Hi, my name is Paige Jones, and I am 26 years old. I don’t have vivid memories of my first bicycle, but at a very early age my dad instilled the passion for cycling in me. So I started very young. He has always been a cyclist and I grew up doing a bunch of riding. We would just take off and go riding around town to the park and everywhere. And so when I grew up, it was just more of a fun hobby, and then he still continues to have an impact in my cycling. We go mountain bike riding and stuff together, and I have a brand new mountain bike that I love to take out on the trails.
I am a Bike Share Fleet Technician for BikeWalkKC so I maintain all of the B-Cycles in downtown Kansas City and balance the system. I make sure people can get bikes and take care of all of that business. Before I worked for BikeWalkKC I worked out in Olathe, Kansas, and I was driving so much in a day it was unbelievable and I never felt great. I was always a little down and out then, but I thought maybe it was “just because.” But I got on a bicycle, started working for BikeWalk and I am happy just an unbelievable amount of time. It’s really uplifting and it has an amazing community of people to engage with.
I’d say some of the biggest challenges were getting the confidence. I’ve ridden my entire life, but it is a whole other deal to ride out in the streets. So just making myself visible was a big deal and feeling confident enough to take a lane and let the traffic pass the appropriate way.